20 February 2014
The biggest self build community project in Europe has just started in Berlin and, when complete, it will provide 430 apartments, a hotel and more than 2,500 square metres of office and commercial space.
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The 70 million euro project has been co-ordinated by a 1000-strong non-profit community building group (Mockernkietz e.V), which purchased the former freight depot site for eight million euros in 2011.
The grass-roots initiative will contain playgrounds for children, open public plazas and common roof terraces. Buildings are designed to reach passive energy standards and will utilise renewable resources such as photovoltaic, warm waste water energy, biogas and wooden pellet heating systems for the minimal heating required.
The Mockernkietz e.V. planned the new site according to “Design-for-All” principles propagated by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWI). These take the “diversity and the quality of life of all people into account” including accessibility for disabled and older people still living independently. Consequently, the communally-owned project, situated on the edge of the Gleisdreieck Park, aims to be cross-generational, ecologically sustainable, accessible, intercultural and socially integrative.
Mockernkiez will effectively create an entirely new quarter between Kreuzberg and Schoneberg. Over 7,000 square metres of child and family-friendly green space will be created within the site, and plans include communal buildings and facilities intended to promote social cohesion. Local communities have been kept involved with the planning process with a series of informational events.
