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Interim Use at a Former Death Strip? Art, Politics, and Urbanism at Skulpturenpark Berlin_Zentrum

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Karen E. Till at Maynooth University
Karen E. Till
  • Maynooth University
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Abstract

Twenty years after unification, Berlin continues to promote the (re) building of the city through marketing practices, including tours, white models, viewing platforms, and buildings wrapped with plastic façades to depict future urban scenes for residents and visitors to imagine. Although these strategies of making the city under construction, renovation, deconstruction, and reconstruction into a spectacle were most clearly evident during the first 15 years of Berlin’s post-unification construction boom, urban landscapes continue to be used as temporal frames to situate the city in a future to come. In 2006 and 2007, for example, viewing platforms invited visitors to look at the scene of the “environmental deconstruction” of the Palast der Republik as planners, to view a site from an elevated platform and imagine how the future Humboldt Center might replace this former GDR parliamentary building. Elsewhere in the city, artists Folke Köbberling and Martin Kaltwasser excavated three plots in a series of adjacent empty lots in central Berlin in 2007 and erected viewing platforms that led down into those sites. Their artistic excavation-installation, Turn It One More Time (2006–2008), unearthed building foundations, coal furnaces, cellars, even toilets—remnants of earlier urban inhabitants. In describing their work, the artists noted that viewing platforms erected on the western side of the Berlin Wall after 1961 “allowed citizens to see beyond the division.
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KAREN
E.
TILL
36. One such project is represented in the West German film
Das Schreckliche
Miidrhen (The Nasty
Girl,1990), directed by Michael Verhoeven; also under
the title of
Das Madchen unddie Stadt oder: Wie es wirklich war.
I
Ill
:
37. Tames
E.
Youne,
"
The Counter
-
Monument: Memory aeainst Itself in
1
"
,
"
Germany Today,
"
CriticalInquiry
18, no. 2 (Winter 1992): 267
-
96.
38. Chantal Mouffe,
"
Some Reflections on an Agonistic Approach to the Public,
"
in
Making Things Public: Atmospheres of Democracy,
ed. Bruno Latour and
Peter Weibel (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 2005), 804
-
07.
I
11;~
39. "Mijglichkeitsraum 'i-~ngela Melitopoulos
-
Wunderland #05,"
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~kulpturen~ark,
skulpturenPa;k Projects,
32. For more on the artist see
"
An
g
ela Melitopoulous,
"
LiminalZones: The Nicosia Seminar,
http://liminal-
zonis.kein.oreinode/27 (accessed March 5. 2010):
"
Aneela Melitoooulous.
"
0
,'
0
European Institute for Progressive Cultural Politics,
http://www.eipcp.net/bio/
melitopoulos (accessed March 5,2010).
... Indeed, Berlin professionals associated with 'temporary urbanisms' have begun to question if these pioneering 'gap fillers' will remain only that; what happens when the state of economic uncertainty changes to a more desirable state of economic development or 'normalcy' (Misselwitz et al., 2007)? There is also a tension between the grassroots history of temporary use in Berlin, and the way it has been co-opted by a neoliberal state (Colomb, 2012) and this tension puts pressure on what is often perceived to be an innovative model of what Till (2011) calls 'interim space' in Berlin, a concept we discuss below. ...
... However, profit-margins based on cash flows for a limited time rely on very narrow understandings of the economy and value, as we discuss below. Indeed, the on-the-ground and experiential reality of places labelled as 'blighted', empty or vacant are often considered resources or are used in a variety of ways by residents and those that frequent these neighbourhoods and spaces (Fullilove, 2005;Mould, 2014;Till, 2011). ...
... Our point here is that for various reasons, the language of temporary/permanence used by urban professionals and critical scholars has resulted in far too few studies documenting the range of projects in detail from various perspectives, which means a significant loss to communities, urban users, visitors, artists, and scholars who are attempting to (re)make their cities more inclusive, healthy and accessible. To avoid the temporary/permanent dichotomy, we adopt Till's (2011) concept of interim space to analyse how urban initiatives evolve and exist in the fluid spacetimes of the city. In the conclusion, we introduce the concept of the improvisional city. ...
The Improvisional City: Valuing urbanity beyond the chimera of permanence
Article
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So-called temporary uses of urban space, including ‘pop ups’ or meanwhile spaces, have recently attracted much attention by urban professionals as providing short-term ‘solutions’ to the ‘problem’ of vacancy. Yet the ways in which these urban innovations are conceived, studied and evaluated continue to reify a capitalist framework of development and conceptual understanding of the city that valorises exchange value and permanence. The result is that little empirical research exists about smaller projects that offer the city and its residents many non-monetary benefits. In this article, we argue that evaluating urban space according to the dichotomy of permanent or temporary land use is problematic: it misses the fluidity and multiple rhythms of how places are made and spaces experienced that are inherent to the regular life of any city. Rather than temporary use, we use the concept of ‘interim space’ to consider projects that may be responsive to local needs and available resources. Such initiatives often include ‘non-visible’ advantages which stem from use values, healthy place-making and creating shared spaces, offer alternative economies, and provide residents and guests with new ways of imagining their neighbourhood and city. To make our arguments, we analyse Granby Park, a ‘pop up’ park in north Dublin, initiated by the artistic collective Upstart that was open to the public in the summer of 2013, using qualitative research conducted before, during and after the official time the park was open. To begin a conversation about new frameworks of analysis that might capture the intricacies of interim urban spaces such as Granby Park, we conclude by offering a new concept, the ‘improvisional city’, to encourage more empirical research that takes seriously the many tangible and intangible benefits of these initiatives.
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... This model emerged largely out of a series of experiments in Berlin during the 1990s and 2000s. Following the reunification of the city, the anticipated levels of redevelopment failed to materialise, leaving a large amount of vacant space that was employed for 'temporary' or 'interim' uses (Colomb, 2012;Till, 2011). These initiatives took a range of forms. ...
... For example, various groups took on semi-derelict buildings or sites and repurposed, rather than redeveloped, them for alternative uses -including using vacant riverside locations to construct urban 'beach bars' and the use of former industrial spaces as nightclubs housing the city's techno scene. Artists used specific vacant sites to produce events that often reflected on the city's troubled history (Till, 2011), while more overtly politicised uses such as the Schwarzer Kanal Queer living space (Colomb, 2012) also grew out of Berlin's tradition of radical social movements. Over time, larger temporary use interventions served as a stimulus to challenge commercial and institutional hurdles and realign planning regulations (Oswalt et al., 2013). ...
Temporary solutions? Vacant space policy and strategies for re-use in Dublin
Article
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  • Feb 2016
In the context of the ongoing economic crisis and the associated slow-down in the commercial property sector, urban policies that seek to encourage ‘temporary uses’ have grown in popularity internationally. Such strategies have been streamlined with pre-existing ‘creative city’ agendas. The post-crisis scenario in Dublin has seen an increased engagement at the official level with these strategies, which have also been positively represented within media discourses. Vacancy, in this framework, is transformed from a form of ‘blight’ to an ‘opportunity’ for ‘innovative’ and ‘creative’ re-use of urban space. Thus various ‘temporary uses’ of vacant spaces in Dublin have also been mobilised in attempts to brand and market the city. In this paper, we offer a critical examination of Dublin’s emerging approach to vacancy and reuse. We focus our analysis on the wider policy discourses that temporary uses are being constructed within, and the set of assumptions about how temporary uses can contribute to broader urban development strategies. Our core argument is that the potential impacts of these strategies need to be more critically considered within the context of the city’s wider political economy, particularly in the context of the transformation of post-crisis cities.
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... With regard to the question in the literature about what happens when an intentionally temporary use becomes permanent (Lang Ho 2010; Pagano 2013), more research is needed, including for deliberately ephemeral cases that undergo unanticipated permanent change. While the dichotomy between temporary and permanent has been acknowledged in the literature by a number of researchers (Andres and Yang 2020; Bishop and Williams 2012;Till 2011), most of the temporary urbanism literature focuses on temporary efforts that stay temporary. A theoretical implication from the Swing Park case is that it would be helpful to incorporate a more nuanced conceptualization of the interactions between time and urban space in terms of deepening our understanding of the very nature of "temporary". ...
Milwaukee’s Swing Park: Guerrilla Urbanism at the Intersection of Public Space, Community, and Urban Planning
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2024
Guerrilla urbanism involves citizen-led bottom-up unsanctioned temporary efforts. This kind of temporary urbanism may offer unique opportunities not possible through traditional planning approaches. This paper is a case study of the Swing Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It began as an effort to temporarily enliven an area at one end of a pedestrian walkway – the Marsupial Bridge – suspended under a viaduct across the Milwaukee River. What started as an illegal temporary installation of swings made of used tires was embraced physically and emotionally as part of the everyday life of the pedestrian bridge by the local community who wanted the swings to stay. The guerrilla urbanism group found itself in conflict with the City’s Department of Public Works over concerns about safety and legal liability, aside from budgetary constraints on permanently upgrading and maintaining the swings. This paper conceptualizes the case study within a three-part framework of public space, community, and urban planning. It examines how the Swing Park has been seen to have both succeeded and failed, while problematizing it within the context of the interdisciplinary literature on temporary urbanism.
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... K.E. Till's (2011) concept of the Interim space fuses the duality of space and time with the activities happening there to capture the dynamic and open-ended sense of in-betweenness, interventions, and unexpected possibilities (Till, 2011, p. 103). ...
A Quantitative Analysis Towards Interim-Reuse of Urban Voids: An Ecological Treatment Guideline with Regenerative Approaches
Article
Full-text available
  • Dec 2023
According to the United Nations declarations in 2019, cities, as humanity’s primary living habitat, will accommodate 68% of the world’s population by 2050. The more people settle in urban centres, the more severe the impacts are on ecosystems and the climate. Due to rapid urbanisation, the number of unused and under-managed urban spaces or “Urban voids” is rising. However, regenerative approaches can turn urban voids into assets to combat climate change and environmental issues. The regenerative design promotes ecological systems to regrow by allowing every urban component, like houses, workplaces, and neighbourhoods, to flourish ecologically. This research starts with reviewing related terms for urban voids beside a fundamental approach towards utilising them, “Interim re-use.” With these in hand, the research’s methodology mapped 577 urban voids in its “Balat and Fener” case study, two juxtaposing historical districts in Istanbul, Turkey. The study goes on to classify the mapped urban voids into six distinctive types. The classification of urban voids is done using a decision tree model with five features that are assigned binary values. The features are as follows: “Ownership,” “Debris,” “Economic activity,” “Seal,” and “Leisure facilities.” The next phase evaluates each parcel based on ecological criteria; each void is rated through a Likert scale in terms of “Vegetation,” “Permeability,” “Ruggedness,” and “Enclosure,” and thence, receives an ecological identity. After each parcel is classified and assigned its ecological identity, a two-phased treatment approach composed of twelve solutions is applied. Suppose the subject lacks the fundamental prerequisites, such as a permeable surface. In that case, proper land preparation solutions will be applied, and based on their ecological identity, they then receive the second phase’s applications. In conclusion, following the guidelines proposed in this paper, the decision-makers can treat urban voids to become more ecologically thriving and enhance their ecological performance.
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... K.E. Till's (2011) concept of the Interim space fuses the duality of space and time with the activities happening there to capture the dynamic and open-ended sense of in-betweenness, interventions, and unexpected possibilities (Till, 2011, p. 103). ...
A Quantitative Analysis Towards Interim-Reuse of Urban Voids: An Ecological Treatment Guideline with Regenerative Approaches
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
According to the United Nations declarations in 2019, cities, as humanity's primary living habitat, will accommodate 68% of the world's population by 2050. The more people settle in urban centres, the more severe the impacts are on ecosystems and the climate. Due to rapid urbanisation, the number of unused and under-managed urban spaces or "Urban voids" is rising. However, regenerative approaches can turn urban voids into assets to combat climate change and environmental issues. The regenerative design promotes ecological systems to regrow by allowing every urban component, like houses, workplaces, and neighbourhoods, to flourish ecologically. This research starts with reviewing related terms for urban voids beside a fundamental approach towards utilising them, "Interim re-use. " With these in hand, the research's methodology mapped 577 urban voids in its "Balat and Fener" case study, two juxtaposing historical districts in Istanbul, Turkey. The study goes on to classify the mapped urban voids into six distinctive types. The classification of urban voids is done using a decision tree model with five features that are assigned binary values. The features are as follows: "Ownership, " "Debris, " "Economic activity, " "Seal, " and "Leisure facilities. " The next phase evaluates each parcel based on ecological criteria; each void is rated through a Likert scale in terms of "Vegetation, " "Permeability, " "Ruggedness, " and "Enclosure, " and thence, receives an ecological identity. After each parcel is classified and assigned its ecological identity, a two-phased treatment approach composed of twelve solutions is applied. Suppose the subject lacks the fundamental prerequisites, such as a permeable surface. In that case, proper land preparation solutions will be applied, and based on their ecological identity, they then receive the second phase's applications. In conclusion, following the guidelines proposed in this paper, the decision-makers can treat urban voids to become more ecologically thriving and enhance their ecological performance.
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... Bresnihan and Byrne (2015) have suggested that temporary activities allow people to express dissatisfaction with the present state of the city while Burke and Shear (2014) argue that temporary use activities can be effective in permitting different groups to turn their discontent into something productive that can demonstrate alternate sets of values. Much of the literature on temporary use activities (Colomb, 2012;Till, 2011), such as the Granby Park or Dublin Biennial projects discussed in this volume, suggests that these can play an important role in changing perceptions of urban space and create the conditions for new urban imaginaries to emerge. Yet many of the critics of this approach claim that temporary uses are little more than a new tool in an entrepreneurial/neoliberal vision of the city (Rosol, 2012). ...
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... These spaces have been the subject of temporary experiments [53], deeply connected to the surrounding environment, in which practices have come into contact and dialogue with it, constructing responses to specific needs of the local context. The experiments within these places also define their temporality [54], in terms of different uses, dynamics and openness, creating a tension of unpredictable interventions and possibilities. ...
The Power of Radical Place-Making Practices: Lessons Learned from ufaFabrik in Berlin
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Full-text available
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This article investigates ufaFabrik’s practice within Berlin’s urban context, which emerged from an occupation of an abandoned site and evolved into a long-term experiment in radical place-making. Through this case study analysis, it explores the role of radical place-making in shaping urban policy, focusing on the dimensions of decision, place and policy. Drawing on an expanded conceptualisation of place-making that embraces a radical perspective, the study is based on a Ph.D. programme and on extensive field research. ufaFabrik has given place-making a political meaning, challenging conventional urban planning in relation to ‘undecided’ spaces. This paradigm of place-making represents grassroots activism and insurgent action and it can catalyse both local and urban transformations. Through a critical analysis of the limits and possibilities of radical place-making practice, the article argues that the ufaFabrik offers valuable insights into the potential of participatory and community-led approaches to reshape urban spaces and promote more inclusive and sustainable forms of urban governance. The study highlights how the re-politicisation of urban issues emerges from conflict and challenges established power dynamics. It highlights the interconnection between ‘place’ and ‘making’, weaving experiential and generative elements into the urban discourse, highlighting its transformative potential and reconfiguration of decision-making dynamics.
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... One way to understand this problem is that urban ruins research is limited in accounting for wider urbanization processes. From a cultural, political, and experiential perspective, ruins have been viewed as "voids" (Huyssen, 1997) that not only fall outside urban development trajectories but also symbolic and political imaginaries and culturally sanctioned uses (Till, 2011). In this sense, the discursive role of urban ruins is tied to their material condition as sites partly outside of formal regulation (Doron, 2000). ...
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Finsterwalder, J., Chen, C., Hall, C.M., Prayag, G., & Tombs, A. (2023). Transformative places and the citizenship experience: a dynamic perspective of disasters, transitional servicescapes, and place attachment. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services (forthcoming). A city can be regarded as a servicescape, serving its citizens by providing the opportunity to co-create and experience services, such as in the retail or hospitality sectors. In case of a disaster and the collapse or (partial) destruction of a city’s servicescape, the connection of citizens to place, i.e., their place attachment might be impeded, transformed or lost as might be their usual citizenship experiences. The present paper fuses the domains of Transformative Service Research (TSR), environmental psychology, disaster science, and citizenship experiences. Via an exploratory qualitative investigation it finds that transitional, i.e., temporary servicescapes which are put into place until more permanent servicescapes can be rebuilt, can be transformative places in regard to creating novel citizenship experiences to “re-attach” residents to their city.
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