The association mediates between buildings owners and entrepreneurs in order to decrease the number of vacant buildings, and select projects which could bring an added value to the neighborhood. Through the Jan Eef project a local market has been created, and buildings are never empty, as many pop up shops and offices are put in place thanks to association’s coordination activity.

https://citiesintransition.eu/place/geef-om-jan-eef

Interview, Pakhuis De Zwijger

Contact : wsvjaneef@gmail.com

Around 10 years ago the Municipality decided to regenerate the area adopting an organic approach: the zoning was changed to allow for mixed uses, and the development of shared offices and housing solutions was favoured. Citizens were involved in the process, architects and designers were called to design the offices and, as the Municipality didn’t have enough resources (because of the 2008 crisis) land was given through a ten-years lease to entrepreneurs proposing an innovative and sustainable urbansim project. This led to the creation of floating houses connected by wooden walkaways who keep pedestrians away from the polluted soil, which is being cleaned by special plants, in an area centered around green energy.

The Municipality also sold of housing lots at low prices nearby, allowing citizens to design their own sustainable houses.

The nieghbourhood has become a growing circular economy district, with its own Manifesto.

Since 2015 a knowledge and experience creation process has been activated by The Neighborhood Academy, a self-organized open platform for urban and rural knowledge sharing, cultural practice and activism. The Academy is engaged on topics such as Local and global exchange between urban and rural communities, Commons, Right to the city, Socio-ecological transformation from the bottom-up, Self-organized learning and much more. Working with numeorus partners the Academy is currently focusing on projects such as The Arbour – A self-build experimental architecture in Prinzessinnengärten, which will serve as an open space for learning and exchange, MAZI – building local, community wireless networks, ZUsammenKUNFT – a pilot project on living and working with refugees, Moritzplatz Futures – a long-term neighbourhood oriented, social and ecological development of the site at Moritzplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg.

Contact : nachbarschaftsakademie@prinzessinnengarten.net

The project includes small commerces, a co-working space, shared offices, cultural,  artists, and residents’ associations, apiculture activities and urban farms, cafés, bars and restaurants, sports areas, and a hostel among others. The whole system follows a governance model that is collaborative and participatory, thanks to the “Darwiniens” association. It is a sustainable structure as it hosts workshops for the recycling of various materials; it sets up spaces with the help of recycled furniture; it follows an advanced recycling system for the waste produced; and finally, it makes use of renewable energy and collects rainwater. The Darwin project is therefore an example of a sustainable renovation that remains inclusive and fosters community building in the city.

website: http://darwin.camp/

Contact : contact@darwin.camp