Disruptions. Spreeraum Ost, Berlin 1990 - 2020

In the Berlin debate, the question emerging from the intense competition on land (Bodenfrage) has strongly resurfaced. Analyses of the processes triggered by the commodification of the urban territory – such as densification and gentrification – have so far focused primarily on the issue of housing. The aim of this research is to expand Berlin’s disciplinary debate by deepening the focus on public spaces. This investigation deals with the reconfiguration of autonomous projects, understood as fundamental for the construction of an inclusive city, as they can enable the expression of the plurality of citizens. What makes it possible to investigate the reconfiguration of actions and policies that have the land at their center? The answers are sought in the recent spatial transformation of Spreeraum Ost. This is a central area of Berlin currently under development where the implementation of profit-driven construction projects by international real estate companies, supported and partially co-financed by the urban administration, is highly visible. At the same time, this is also the context where, more than any other in Berlin, the abundance of urban voids fostered the spread of experimental autonomous projects and temporary practices of appropriation until the first decade of the 2000s. Three cases are identified whose origins are deeply-rooted across different sites of Spreeraum Ost, which still enact a ‘diverse’ use of urban space – self organized or managed spaces, whose goal is not profit generation. These experiences, in order to survive in the new scenario and despite the increasing competition over land, face a process of deradicalization and reconfiguration, cynically and pragmatically investing on some of their own features. By expanding and ambiguously distorting the concepts of ownership (Holzmarkt), common good (RAW Gelände) and temporariness (Teepeeland), these projects are professionalising, engaging in long and complex negotiations and cooperating with government institutions and market actors as investors and land owners. The research shows how in Berlin autonomous spaces and their reception by spatial politics have evolved in the last 30 years, from being seen as threatening and dangerous into useful elements for a desirable city – also legitimizing failed choices of city policy – and how ‘autonomy’ is taking a new stand again as a constituent part of the neoliberal city. The passionate struggle to maintain ‘own’ and familiar spaces assume a new relevance in a contemporary “society of singularities”, accommodating the desires and needs of multipublics. Critically analyzing these at-risk and currently evolving situations, the thesis contributes to the debate on the intertwining of economy, politics and inhabiting in the contemporary city and the emancipatory role of the urban project.