Berlin Cooperative
POST-GRADUATE SPECULATIVE PROJECT
Several buildings in Neukölln, Berlin, have suffered a fire, and are severely damaged or destroyed altogether. The City is facilitating a restoration project. Budget and other concerns require that residents are not displaced during or after construction.
GUIDING PRINCIPLES:
I. How can ethics, representation, humanness and equitability become central to the way we work?
II. How can we leverage systems, political and otherwise, to the benefit of the built world + its occupants?
III. We place a focus on the alternate. Alternate ways of working, thinking, and relating.
Mapping existing living cooperatives in the CityComparing living cooperatives to population density
Site Study
First, attention is focused on understanding site conditions. Neukolln is a highly-dense neighborhood with a large demand for housing, and openings for available apartments often draw crowds that circle the block of the unit in question. Of course, this drives cost, and in 2020 the city of Berlin froze rent prices for 5 years.
On the other hand
Berlin is also famous for its history of cooperative housing models, and a study of models of cooperation, commoning, and collective living begins.
DESIGNING THE (ECONOMIC) STRUCTURE:
PROPOSING THE COOPERATIVE MODEL