Participants from various Mexican universities
1 - 22 July 2013

The Berlin Summer Workshop with Iñaki Echeverria introduces students from different leading Mexican Universities to the Berlin context. The Design Studio will focus on a contested site in the heart of West Berlin to examine issues of public/private ownership and urban development.

The site adjacent to the Zoo station was once subject to an ambitious but failed development of a great wheel, which lead to the current use as a bus depot. The area is on the rise again: the Waldorf-Astoria hotel opened in the new tower by Christoph Mäckler, Arne Quinze proposes a remodelling of a 1950ies classic building, Ludwig Leo's “Umlaufkanal” of the 1970ies is not only Peter Cook's icon of the city and several museums of photography are settled in the area.

Two influential institutions in the neighbourhood, The University of the Arts and the Technical University, are both in need of a spatial extension of their campuses. A joint campus for both universities has been under discussion but conflicts with an an extensive mixed-use-scheme proposed by architect Kleihues Junior and a developer which lead to intense disputes on political and public level.

The Design Studio will take on this site under debate and discuss the ambivalent development strategies in their analysis and planning proposals, arguing that universities of today do not need to be mono-functional districts, but neither should public ground be sold off to the development market.

The participating students will navigate between these different perspectives and will gain knowledge on a historical, architectural and urban planning level.

Studio coordinators: Iñaki Echeverria, Josué Lee