Berlin Mediaspree Development
Core idea
Media/office on Spree riverfront
Why it matters
Contested model of privatized waterfront redevelopment
Description
Mediaspree is a collection of riverside development projects along the Spree in Berlin's Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg area, promoted from the 2000s by private consortia within planning frameworks set by the Berlin Senate. The schemes concentrated media companies, offices, hotels and event venues, including corporate headquarters and an arena, on former industrial, port and border-strip land along both banks of the river.
Significance
Mediaspree became the emblematic contested case of privatised waterfront redevelopment in Berlin, provoking the 2008 'Spreeufer für alle' citizens' referendum demanding public river access and reduced building scale. It occupies an important place in debates on gentrification, urban social movements and the limits of investor-led planning in post-reunification Berlin.
What shaped it
- Neoliberalism (1970s–1990s)
- Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)
- Le Droit a la ville (Lefebvre) (1968)
- The Internet & World Wide Web (1983 TCP/IP / 1991 Web)
- Learning from Las Vegas (1972)