Step into the campus : transforming problems of scale in mass housing projects

Abstract

Berlin-Marzahn, the largest peripheral city of Berlin, is the focus of th is thesis. Initiated in the 1970's it is an urban landscape of monolithic apartment blocks of precast concrete construction. This landscape lacks any ground definition and defies meaningful inhabitation by human beings. The present urban conditions facilitate unhealthy social cognitions. With the fall of the East Germany state new needs in educational, commercial, and social facilities have developed that must be addressed. In order to creatively infill the left-over spaces lying between the mass housing blocks, and improve the quality of life of the inhabitants, it is the task of urban planners and architects to retroactively devise urban strategies and develop architectural projects that address not only the physical conditions, but also the physchological conditions of this place beset with such difficult circumstances. This thesis sets out to address both the physical and psychological problems through the design of a campus.The physical structure of a campus and the mental and psychological aspects of education on establish community coherence and identity in the presently in coherent and dysfunctional urban environment. The premise of this thesis is that by laying out a campus within the existing undefined city the functions and the sense of community found in a small town will be created within the urbanity of the masses of people who are already in Marzahn.