KIEV

MOSCOW

MEHRINGPLATZ – SÜDLICHE FRIEDRICHSTADT

Suffering from its marginalized position during the years of the German division, the neighborhood was recognized and labelled as a deprived area in 2005 due to its low standards of economic development, its poor social integration and quality of life. These characteristics made the territory of Südliche Friedrichstadt a periphery in the centre of Berlin, as the area is located in the proximity of some of the city’s main attractive spots, such as the lively Mitte and the creative Friedrichschain-Kreutzberg. In a twenty-year time-span, a set of policies of local urban renewal has been gradually implemented to re-centralize the neighborhood, starting from the very re-centralization of the role of its residents in directly participating in small decision-making processes. This served to acknowledge, create and institutionalize their identity as a geo-social collectivity. Commercial, leasure and creative initiatives have begun to flourish in the area, projecting it as an emblem of juxtapositions and contradictory tendencies characterizing modern urban contexts, whereby transitions to new lifestyles are mediated by old identites and latent risks of gentrification, displacement and social conflicts.

Ex-Base NATO- Bagnoli

The former Colonia Costanzo Ciano, today renamed Parco San Laise, is large complex of buildings in the neighbourhood of Bagnoli owned by a foundation depending on Campania Region. Originally a colony for disadvantaged children, the area was used for almost 50 years as militar headquarters of NATO. When the lease ended, the area has been neglected for years, before starting to transition again towards the original vocation of a place for social and cultural use.