Maximizing the potential of vacant spaces within shrinking cities, a German approach

Highlights

• Many cities in GDR were shrinking cities this had a consequence: on spaces; creating vacant spaces.

• A pragmatic tool for vacant spaces called “Zwischennutzungen,” (ZN) emerged as a solution to manage spaces and duration of vacancy.

• To explore the different aspects of this strategy (ZN) we use several case studies in Berlin and Leipzig.

• ZN vacant spaces and interim uses reveal some tensions about shrinkage considerations and possibilities to manage shrinkage.

• Vacant spaces ZN can be a motor for a city but we have to interrogate value and the impact of property-law on access to land.

Abstract

During the GDR, some cities in East Germany were already impacted by demographic decline. After reunification, however, the situation was particularly problematic because of the administrative dismantling of the GDR, the rising number of ownership-transfers of property, and a “de-economization” (Hannemann, 2003). Many cities in the former GDR were shrinking cities in terms of demography, economy and social difficulties and this had a particular consequence on spaces.

Firstly we will critically evaluate the literature regarding a pragmatic tool for vacant spaces called “Zwischennutzungen”. This term which can be translated as “temporary or interim uses” emerged from the approaches of different federal programs to shrinkage, such as Stadtumbau Ost or IBA 2010. We can consider it as a heritage from the first debates on shrinkage in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, which claims access to land for residents according to a new and irreversible phenomenon. Today, it could be a solution for politicians and city planners looking to maximize both the uses and the duration of the vacancy of spaces. This strategy can be very conflictual and raises some fundamental questions about shrinkage: the link between formalization and informality, the definition of a city with its open spaces, and the question of temporality in these cities with or without regrowth perspectives. The transition from wasteland to open spaces, in effect creating something out of what was previously considered to be worthless and useless, can be very significant.

To explore the different aspects of this strategy we will use two cases studies, one in Berlin and the other in Leipzig, cities which are nowadays re-growing. Based on fifty interviews with city planners, users, associations, and city bureaucrats we will see that vacant spaces and interim uses reveal tensions about former and present shrinkage considerations amongst researchers and urban policy makers, and about possibilities for managing shrinkage.

Introduction

In 2004, the German Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BMVBS), and the German Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (BBR) published a report about the potential of interim and temporary uses (in German: Zwischennutzungen - ZN) for managing numerous vacant spaces within shrinking cities. This report defines it as “new means of designing and utilizing blighted urban sites that do not require a change of owner or additional planning permits. This preserves long-term options for building out the site while permitting temporary uses that improve the quality of urban amenities.” This solution seems to be an answer to the ongoing debate about urban shrinkage in Germany, which was introduced at the end of the 1970s (Göb, 1977) and with the article written by Häussermann and Siebel as early as 1985. In this article from the weekly newspaper, Die Zeit, these two sociologists from West Germany proposed to consider shrinkage as an irreversible phenomenon and as an opportunity, but dependent upon the implementation of new urban politics, in particular concerning vacant spaces. Taking into account the situation in the United States and the United Kingdom, they point out this reality in some German cities as something irreversible. They recommend considering the informal economy, namely among other things “a spatial planning, which creates initiatives in the truest sense of the word Place, where the unused buildings and spaces are at the disposal of local residents” (Häussermann & Siebel, 1985, p. 37).

According to this point of view, vacant spaces – defined as unused urban sites - are the result of a complex process of shrinkage, and the support of new strategies based in particular on residents. Temporary and interim uses are a way for these people to have access to the ground and to maximize the use of vacant spaces. However, could they be considered as part of “planning strategies for the restructuring of shrinking cities to overcome the so far dominant one-sided growth orientation”? (Wiechmann & Pallagst, 2012, p. 262) In this article, we seek to highlight the possibilities for ZN to be a planning tool for shrinking cities, with examples in Germany, because in certain parts of eastern Germany ZN are included in urban policies. We will also demonstrate that very different ways exist for maximizing the use of vacant spaces using ZN. Finally, we will show that the use of this particular tool is closely linked to the different analyses and discourses of urban shrinkage, its causes and its eventual reversibility or not.

This article provides a critical overview of the development and implementation of interim and temporary uses as local urban strategies for German shrinking cities, as pursued by two renowned examples of former shrinking cities: Berlin and Leipzig. Berlin, strongly impacted by Germany's reunification, is one of the cities which recognizes interim and temporary uses as a motor of the city and promotes them as belonging to its identity. The experience at the former Tempelhofer Airport area is partly based on this planning tool, and is one result of this policy (as we will see later). On the other hand, Leipzig is a shrinking city which created a new urban model to manage shrinkage in the 2000s: the “Perforated City” which uses ZN as a way to maximize the uses of mass-produced vacant spaces. Since 2008, the city has been re-growing at a very fast pace. The main purpose of the exploration of these two different cities is to highlight the connection between the definition of interim and temporary uses and former and present shrinkage considerations from researchers and urban politics. If nowadays, vacant spaces are increasingly considered as assets rather than handicaps, maximizing these spaces refers to very different aspects depending on the perception of shrinkage as an irreversible phenomenon or not.

Following this introduction, we will explore considerations of vacant spaces within German shrinking cities, and temporary uses as a possible solution for managing urban shrinkage in different discourses. Indeed at the turn of the millennium, shrinkage and vacant spaces went from being treated with denial to being reconsidered as potential resources, something positive that the community could profit from. The perception of shrinkage changed, becoming positive by using the vacant spaces as resources. Then, we will analyze conflicts about the definition of temporary and interim uses while considering shrinkage as a (ir)reversible phenomenon. In the third section, we will focus on present changes about the consideration of urban shrinkage in Germany, which is finally being interpreted as a peripheralization process. This last interpretation of this urban process is not without consequences regarding the definition of temporary and interim uses of vacant spaces. The paper concludes with research suggestions about the need for further debate on policy, planning strategies and research, which integrates shrinkage and growth not as opposites but as counterparts, which is essential for land use and urban planning.

This paper is based on analyses of literature and discourses, as well as interviews with actors and stakeholders such as city staff, city planners, architects, associations and interim users implicated in the two case studies in Leipzig and Berlin, with a special reference to Tempelhof Airport.¹