Archive: IBA Berlin 2020

In many areas, the outer city has the great advantage that the city is not yet finished in these areas, still providing space for testing new approaches, strategies and solutions for a sustainable city that is ready to embark on the future. This involves creating living space that is affordable over the long term, while at the same time addressing climate change and the turnaround in energy policy as well as challenges in architectural culture. It also involves organising, in an intelligent manner, structural development, the development of free spaces and material cycles and optimising the use of the limited space in the city for all of society. Finally, it involves giving space to a diverse society, a variety of different needs and the desire of an ever growing part of the urban population to take an active role in shaping urban development. The IBA Berlin 2020 starts from a position of analysing the future of housing. In the 21st century, this is inextricably linked to education, lifelong learning, jobs, mobility, communications and experiences. The starting assumption of the IBA Berlin 2020 is that urbanity is strongly linked to plurality, the diversity of structures, functions, usages, building typologies and actors.

The "City of diversity" topic is primarily an urban development approach. "Housing drives development" shifts the focus onto future housing as well as housing and living models. "City builds city" concentrates on the actors in the housing sector, particularly new models of organisation and financing.