10.00 am - 4.00 pm
More than 600.000 residents in East Berlin dwell in 'prefabricated slab-construction buildings' (Plattenbauten). While massive social housing seemingly looks quite the same in Eastern and Western Europe, Eastern European’s housing complexes are decidedly different from their western counterparts. While the West “re-discovered” dense, inner-city housing stock since the 1970s, the East valued living in 'prefabricated slab-construction buildings' as a shared social gain. Socialism Eastern-Europe-style tried to finally resolve the “housing question” by serial-industrial housing construction: “A flat for everyone”.
Real estate in public property resulted in extremely low rents and little, if any segregation based on income. Nevertheless - demand for housing kept growing. The old building stock was generally neglected but not torn down to establish “modern” buildings. Instead - these were erected on a massive scale out in the open countryside (if still inside city limits). As sociological studies in the FGD proved, new residents were very happy when they moved in, but became critical over time. The Plattenbau did serve all housing related functions but lacked genuinely urban spaces.
Immediately after the wall came down, prophets from the West stigmatized the areas as future slums. This did not happen - yet .The big housing projects at the eastern periphery suffer from all the problems related to unemployed but present still an accepted and relatively affordable housing option.
On our field trip we will visit various types of Plattenbauten and talk with a range of actors.