Repair! Reclaiming Berlin’s Workers’ Housing through Collaborative Transformation

The phase of economic and humanitarian emergencies after the Great War functioned as a laboratory for architects to develop quick, rational responses. But socialist visions became stuck in privatization, and values of a bygone society were maintained by preservation laws. Today, residents linger in the communal history while demanding a reappropriation within their modern lives. Through the practice of repair, residents acquire tools and skills that turn the act of building into an instrument for collaborative and self-determined liberation. Buildings become continuous artifacts passed on by our ancestors and shaped by the generations to come. “Repair”; In transience, serenity. The Dammwegsiedlung in Berlin-Neukölln from 1919 authentically represents the enormous mass of Berlin workers’ housing. On-site investigations through various lenses allowed a comprehensive understanding of inherent issues and their entanglement within the neighborhood. The resulting repair concept addresses these issues throughout a transcalar and transitory strategy, enabling the residents to realize the architectural interventions. In the near future, these interventions carefully open the obsolete typology to diverse forms of living and modern family constitutions while simultaneously improving the energetic performance. The site’s long-term evolution aims to instigate a persistent community, tackle the high criminality and recuperate ecological damages.