6 recommendations for successful neighborhoods

Because despite the increasing disappearance of everything permanently “stationary”, the “local” remains important, but — and this is where it is important to start when developing new, successful districts — in the future less as a space than as a starting point for new networks of relationships. In short: Cities are actually always successful when they develop different towns and densely populated districts that promote a wide variety of exchanges with each other.

However, the interplay of urbanity and community is currently in an imbalance — and in fact, Berlin's rent cap is nothing more than an expression of these disrupted relationships within an urban society and urban economy. The connections between housing and businesses, between providers* and users, are no longer working, because a new proportionality is currently being fought out here. The dynamics of these changed relationships in and with the city and with its districts are almost dizzying and will ultimately change our cities ever faster. New networks of relationships arise, old uses break away. As a result, the question of the city of the future is primarily much less about spatial structures than about the right networks of relationships between residents and users of places, uses among themselves, cultural contexts and the effects of action on the environment.

For contemporary and sustainable neighborhood development, we need a paradigm shift as well as an expanded approach and methodological approach. Strategic principles of placemaking reality and the idea of thinking of districts as “urban ecosystems” can only be implemented through the cooperation of all relevant actors. This requires politics and administration as well as the real estate industry as enablers to set the course for sustainable districts.

In 6 recommendations for successful districts, we summarize what will be important in the future, with the following elementary questions for humans being an essential component: Why do we still have to work where we work, live as we live and why do we live where we live?

1 The common basis of the relationship between stakeholders

The outcome of a planning and development project in the process is always also a reflection of the relationship between stakeholders. The classic methods of participation processes are good approaches, but fall short. The aim here is to understand more fundamentally how the city is created in the process of actors and how they can be activated to move urban building blocks forward. Which investors does a city community want? Which partners can shape and create the life of a neighborhood? Existing networks of actors must be questioned, activated and reconnected. In particular, analyses, visions, dialogues and authorizations are required in order to act. Since all relationships are controlled by values, this means that there is a need for a discussion of values among all these actors in a district, i.e.: City and district development need a project philosophy that can be reached by consensus!

2 Thinking in terms of successful networks of actors and environmental relationships

Quarters become ecosystems when the individual relationships become “networks”, i.e.: Within a spatial relationship, there are back relationships and stable, qualitative networks. This is the only way to develop synergies and symbioses, and one thing is certain: Urban ecosystems function in complex, non-hierarchical dynamics. What we need to learn is to understand the network, to balance it and to design it. An unmanageable number of actors and institutions are interacting, invigorating and enjoying shared city qualities. A common identity as a neighborhood or neighborhood can be created and become the culture of a place — the combination of its elements makes it unique. It is therefore important to nourish this network of environmental relationships by building spaces for its development. If you delve deeper into the subject of the city, you often find that superficial appearances are deceptive.

The inner, urban nature of the European city is essentially chaotic and should at best remain so, because this is the only way — as long as the social, economic and ecological balance is right — does it promote surprise, creativity and innovation. These rather confusing and haphazard structures form needs-based networks of relationships for the success of the city.

3 Focus on key strategic areas and creating new nodes

The city always works at the right density — that is often, but not always, a high one. However, if the demand for individual uses decreases, it may also be necessary to reduce retail areas and cleverly interweave them with other uses in order to protect the weakening forces. Approaches such as densifying and creating multidimensional nodes as well as concentrating and occupying important strategic key spaces are key factors for turning districts into “urban ecosystems.” As urban products, so to speak, which attract people but allow openness and the ability to develop. Important spaces and corner situations in urban spaces must be properly occupied and where there is a lack of density, an attractive appeal must be created. Newly created and long, established mobility nodes within the city must also be taken into account in this discussion. We should turn it from a non-place back into a place and expand it as meeting places and experience spaces. The cleaner and quieter mobility becomes, the more quality of stay can be combined with it. The old driver of urbanity still exists here: frequency. New hybrid centers should provide impetus — carefully curated and networked from the start.

4 Revival of ground floors: connecting the public and private

Does an entrepreneur care about his city and pull out of itThe gap left by the shrinking of brick-and-mortar retail cannot probably be completely closed with public functions. This is another unavoidable aspect: We need a new understanding of the function of ground floors as an essential space for designing an urban ecosystem, because many essential basic functions of life come together in them: living, working, education, mobility and leisure. Ground floors are the direct connection between public and successful districts: A mixture of ability to develop and openness for people of all generations and the private sector. It is important to attract new players — including educational institutions — to help shape the city again. In the end, they themselves benefit from it. Education no longer takes place behind walls; instead, schools and universities become social spaces and meeting places in the neighborhood. From educational misery to thought leadership for the city! This may also open up new business models for the renovation of our schools. Public and social functions will also become increasingly important for office locations in the future, as otherwise, as we have largely learned, you can also stay at home to work. And in the course of this, gastronomy will certainly continue to be a desirable stabilizer.
However, without clever embedding in the districts, many business models can no longer function. As part of the transformation of future work environments and the “neighborhoods are the new offices” approach, it is hoped that new models can also be created.

5 The Power of Green

When classic urban spaces have to be reduced in order to function, it is important to identify where new usage needs and leisure patterns arise. “Out into the countryside” means that our parks, green spaces and recreation spaces should be increasingly designed as drivers of urban life. If we want to buy online faster, green spaces can become more important for shaping social life. Enriched with leisure uses and opportunities for cultural exchange, offices in the countryside can offer significant added value in terms of city quality as our working environments change. Park and city are often closely separated entities and this is where the urban should become more permeable and the park should take up more use — there are many outstanding examples such as Bryant Park and the High Line in New York, but also the Park am Gleisdreieck or Tempelhofer Feld in Berlin. As a result of the damage to our environment, the image of the city should change accordingly.

6 Urban services as relationship management

Every type of relationship needs designers* and moderators, magnets and points of contact. How we can manage our districts in order to optimize their quality still offers a lot of potential, which is why we move away from mental “deficit management” towards promoting and supporting the intelligence of the city. Urbanity is migrating to the Internet in many functions, but businesses, for example, need new ways of managing places and also communicative digital participation formats that are made available to a wider public. With their public companies, cities can do a lot of things here for weak but also important social, cultural and creative processes and break new ground. Local communities and symbioses are important for all sides in order to promote joint process models and to create and maintain livable institutions. They form the basis of our social understanding and balance.

Conclusion:
It is obvious that our districts need to be checked for their ability to relate. If we now think of and design them as “urban ecosystems,” what can we gain?

On the one hand, the transformation from a consumer and functional city to an environmentally friendly and economically efficient city of short distances, culturally and socially in its structures and as a balancing basis for the prosperity of its actors. On the other hand, an opportunity for the emptying ground floors in the city. The ground floor will be the “connector” between public and private — in other words: the relationship modulator. Work, live, culture, education and leisure as a community function and as an urban element.