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Repurposed ruin
Constant change as the fixed condition
Located at a former train depot, today ZK/U (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics) is progressively becoming a creative catalyst in Berlin. The goal of this project, co-authored with writer Pawel Jankiewicz, is to explore the processes by which derelict sites are repurposed as new cultural landmarks though minimal, DIY architectural interventions, retaining ruined materiality as an aesthetic value. To bridge the gap between scholarship and the arts, a photo-comic was elaborated, and thus, methodology relied on fieldnotes, photos and interviews to grasp the motivations and commitments enabling life within ZK/U and the surrounding Moabit City Garden. Framed by architecture, urban studies, human geography and critical heritage, this research builds on ZK/U’s collaborative and open-minded spirit.
An area dominated by industrial visions.
There is no such a thing as a finalised space.
Ruins’ seductive power to coexist with new uses.
Intercultural, intergenerational. Inter-class.
Photo-comic as a method to communicate a flux of different speeds and intensities.
On-site verification: 5 interviews conducted, 1,800 photos taken, and 8 months of in- and cohabitation.
The German welcome becomes a global passage.
Poor-but-sexy.
One tag is dirt, a hundred is Berlin.
Parasites? Not at all. Rather symbiotic relations.
Looking for recycled materials to produce DIY furniture.
The site thrives on its audience. It’s all about cooperation.
Expansion of the urban. Expansion of heritage. A room for making change.
The repetition of non-repetition makes a charged paradox.
And sunsets over the port are breath-taking.
