MCO
Architecture / Space
Sleeping on top of the highway
Schlangenbader Straße: Built utopia or architecture of failure?
Format
MAKE CITY OPEN
Place
Treffpunkt: Schlangenbader Str. 25, 14197 Berlin
Language
EN
Date
26 June - 26 June
Notice
Tour, notifiable
With: Poligonal – Agentur für Stadtvermittlung
The „snake“ was regarded as a futuristic housing utopia, which simultaneously became a tremendous planning failure already during the time of its construction. Built between 1973 and 1980, the colossal estate – with a total length of 1.5 kilometers – built on top of a highway was made possible due the island situation of West-Berlin. Housing scarcity, the exceptional political status, and a unique funding landscape (Berlinhilfe), enabled innovative pilot projects, which where however also quite controversial. Back then, the 1200 housing units of the residential estate were the most expensive social housing supply in the city. In the 1980s, mayor of Berlin Richard von Weizsäcker once declared: “If the devil wants to do any harm to the city again, then he initiates the construction of another ‘snake’.”
On this walking tour we find out about the urban and architectural genesis of this futuristic utopia, that was listed as a historical heritage site in 2017. We will explore the everyday life of the estate’s inhabitants on top of a highway and will ask the question: pilot project or fiasco?