Corridor in transition; Vertical redensification for urban resilience; Strategies for housing and climate adaption along the southern axis of Tempelhofer Feld, Berlin

Abstract

Berlin is facing the challenge of providing adequate housing and dealing with the consequences of climate change. The population will probably keep growing until 2040 (Berlin.de, 2022) and we’ll also see more frequent and intense heat waves and heavy rainfall (Federal Environment Agency, 2021). These developments put pressure on existing urban areas and call for spatial strategies that reconcile density with livability and environmental resilience. The southern border of Tempelhofer Feld is a complex urban condition defined by infrastructural barriers, under-utilized brownfields and fragmented neighborhoods. In this context, the project researches how vertical densification coupled with the tunneling of the A100 motorway can help to transform this corridor into a consistent and flexible urban form. The approach is to add more housing and public space, while improving the local climatic conditions through green corridors, rainwater management and open-ground design. The expected result is an urban development concept with short- and long-term scenarios for sustainable densification and climatic adaptation. Thus, some selected parameters need to be considered. After discussions the following five parameters were narrowed down: social quality of public spaces, multimodal mobility and accessibility, climate resilience, contribution to biodiversity, balanced densification. These are then implemented using qualitative and quantitative measurement methods in order to evaluate international reference projects, former local proposals for Tempelhof and then the own design in several test rounds and draw conclusions for the final proposal. The design process is also decisively influenced by location analyses and site visits at different times of the year. The design decisions are made with the help of specialist literature, practical findings from the area analysis and the limiting parameters, so that the sustainability requirements of this specific neighborhood development are met as close as possible.