01.12.2014 | ART CITY LAB - NEW SPACES FOR ART

in cooperation with Senatsverwaltung für Stadtentwicklung und Umwelt (Berlin), Berufsverband Bildender Künstler Berlin and Atelierbüro/Kulturwerk (bbk Berlin)

Art City Lab - ISBN 978-3-86859-303-7 can be ordered for 32 € from jovis

Artistic production and the spaces available for this within the urban fabric have always played a valuable role in urbanization processes. Art City Lab takes Berlin as an example of such developments. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, artists had great opportunities to occupy and appropriate empty lots and houses, whereas nowadays they are increasingly pushed out of the city.
Art City Lab examines and documents alternative architectural and organizational approaches to the creation of affordable studio space, by analyzing a variety of prefabricated building systems and how they can be combined, adapted, and condensed into new studio prototypes.

Study Status: 14.12.2012 | Art City Lab | With the 6,000-7,000 visual artists now living and working in Berlin, the city has developed into a world metropolis of art, whose appeal is felt throughout the city, not least in the real estate and tourism sectors. The still ongoing influx of national and international artists is shaping Berlin's image. One of the main reasons for this development is the fact that in the post-reunification period there were many opportunities for affordable inner-city production, exhibition and living space for the artists, most of whom were economically precarious.

In the meantime, however, such possibilities have been dramatically lacking due to the increasing pressure to exploit the old building stock in inner-city areas, while the economic situation of artists has not improved. Rather, the increases in value in the real estate industry, which are partly due to these actors, are leading to their own displacement. The pilot study Kunststadt is intended to show ways in which this negative development can be broken, not only for art, but also for urban development and for the perspective of Berlin as a whole.