- Title
- The commodification of urban culture, or: the (re)emergence of Berlin as creative city
- Creator
- Lehmann, Steffen
- Relation
- Back to the City: Strategies for Informal Urban Interventions: Collaboration Between Artists and Architects p. 48-63
- Relation
- http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00002329⟨=en
- Publisher
- Hatje Cantz Verlag
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2009
- Description
- What is it exactly that makes a city an inspiring and creative place? In today's globalized world, a clear-cut identity, good public space and sustainable place-making are qualities which increasingly represent the desirability for living in a city. Over the last decade, Berlin has transformed itself from an industrial age casualty to the hub of youth art, has re-emerged as a magnet for young people and has redesigned itself as a metropolis and symbol of contemporary Europe. There is no doubt that Berlin is a cosmopolitan, forward-looking city, conscious of its status and confident about its stature. Currently, Berlin attracts the 'creative class' , who gravitate to its memorable public space network, ideal for walking and cycling; its large number of robust, flexible buildings; and the wide range of types and sizes of character places waiting to be occupied with fresh ideas about living and working in the inner city. Those places are well suited to new approaches to informal urban design and artistic searches for undiscovered potential that hides in their derelict, post-industrial fabric. Such 'places not done yet' attracts artists interested in creating provocative, site-specific and temporary interventions in urban public space. Opposed to Richard Serra's famous dictum: 'To remove the work is to destroy the work' (Serra, 1990), these temporary installations can stimulate and regenerate a place and lead to new perceptions and readings of 'city', or, as Charles Landry has put it: 'One continuing issue is the narrowness of planners' horizons and the fact that they find it very hard to focus on desires rather than needs.' (Landry, 1995) Since you cannot buy culture or build it overnight, it is not the corporate headquarters and shopping centres of the Potsdamer Platz or Friedrichstrasse, but such transformative places and spaces not done yet that hold a promise for freedom of personal expression and individual interpretation. The euphoria of post-reunification times has long since disappeared. After the fall of the Wall in 1989, and the settling of the ensuing turmoil, the years 1990 to 2000 have come to be seen as the 'golden years' of Berlin's re-emergence. However, the advantages Berlin possesses today will persist only if the city manages to maintain its distinctiveness and its affordability. Following the earlier fate of Paris and Barcelona, Berlin's affordability may soon be ending and the city may stop being a desirable 'Creative City'. With the completion of the German government's move to its new capital and the influx of a large number of bureaucrats, a phase of consolidation and mainstream consumerism has begun. Artists are being forced further out of the centre by high rents and new developments. By 2012, Berlin's status may well have shifted to another city, probably to Istanbul or a city in Eastern Europe.
- Subject
- culturally sustainable place-making; informal urban design; affordability; 'creative city' debate; post-industrial cities; urban decay and renewal; emergent urban lifestyles; cosmopolitanism
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/918127
- Identifier
- uon:8522
- Identifier
- ISBN:9783775723299
- Language
- eng
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