Originally, this studio was planned to discuss the effects of global investment in retail and commercial real estate on gentrification and segregation processes in Berlin, aiming at proposing alternative models and spatial interventions towards a common good. At the current state of a global crisis of health, economy and more importantly the constitution of our society in terms of freedom, interaction and publicity, this focus has shifted.

We will still work on retail and commercial spaces and their effect on Berlin’s public life. While we are writing these lines, nobody can imagine how even in a month from now the crisis will have developed, yet we seem to have to prepare for the worst: a massive shut-down due to bankruptcies of all kind of small, mid-size and even large-scale businesses based on customer interaction, likely replaced by online shopping. It seems that not only the livelihoods of entrepreneurs and staff are endangered, but also the city as we knew it is about to vanish.   

We will work in three phases:

1. Yesterday: The ordinary urban everyday lost (MEMORY MAPPING);

2. State of Exception: The urban everyday of enduring crisis (DOCUMENTING CRISIS);

3. Scenarios of Uncertainty: The misogynist, the dirty realist, and the idealist (PROJECTING FUTURES: BERLIN 2040)

(PiV: Dr. Holger Lischke, FG Planungs- und Bauökonomie/ Immobilienwirtschaft, TU Berlin)

Please check your TU-emails and register via ISIS until April 16^th,  further information and the first preparatory assignment will be handed out on April 20^th.