MCO

Architecture / Space

Sleeping on top of the highway

Schlangenbader Straße: Built utopia or architecture of failure?
17:00
19:00

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?