Haus der Statistik

• Within the framework of the model project, a place for administration, culture, social affairs, education and housing is being created in a central location, which forms an alternative to the predominantly monostructured areas in the surrounding area.
• The "Haus der Statistik" site, located in the immediate vicinity of Berlin's Alexanderplatz, has been vacant since 2008. The existing building complex covers approx. 50,000 m² in the most central location. On the initiative of a group of architects, cultural figures, artists and politicians, plans to sell the property were halted in 2015. At the end of 2017, the entire site was acquired by the state of Berlin.
• The subsequent establishment of a cooperation partnership (Koop5) consisting of the Senate Department for Urban Development and Housing, the District Office Mitte of Berlin, BIM-Berliner Immobilienmanagement, WBM - Wohnungsbaugesellschaft Mitte and ZUsammenKUNFT Berlin eG, the legal representative of the original initiative, enabled a joint development of the site with the involvement of the urban public.
• The integrated urban planning workshop procedure conducted from 2018 to the beginning of 2019, as well as the subsequent planning steps, have taken place to date with the greatest possible public participation. The planning costs were shared equally by the four public partners.
• The active participation of the city public is promoted by the cooperation partners by offering a daily accessible participation room on site in the form of the workshop. Regular evening planning events have been and will continue to be offered in digital form due to the pandemic restrictions.
• Low-threshold offerings such as the monthly KO market (swap and reuse market) involve the neighborhood and offer an alternative to the retail focus of Alexanderplatz.
• The activation by pioneer users already during the planning phase is to be continued through the construction phase into the utilization phase and offers a perspective for socio-cultural / educational uses in the most central city location, which without the project would fall victim to displacement.
• The planned new town hall building on the site will include a discussion forum on urban development in addition to modern, sustainable premises. The conceptual approach of early, broad and sustainable participation on the site (and beyond) will thus be institutionalized.
• Installed in 2021, the Re-Use Center in the Haus der Materialisierung will offer the urban community comprehensive experiential opportunities such as workshops, markets, collaborative repair, sharing opportunities, and a showroom for high-quality upcycling design:
  • Sharing: Lending store for household consumer goods, lending platform (Gela e.V.), tool rental, community rooms;
  • Further use: goods markets (KUNSTrePUBLIK e.V.), second-hand goods brokerage and showroom (Berliner Stadtmission e.V.);
  • Repairing: open workshops (Kunst-Stoffe e.V., Kostümkollektiv e.V.), Repair Cafe (Kunst-Stoffe e.V.);
  • Upcycling: Nählabor (Berliner Stadtmission e.V., ReUse Holzwerkstatt (Baufachfrau Berlin e.V.), Zero-Waste Baumarkt (Kunst-Stoffe e.V.).

The project pursues the goal of informing in particular also the adjacent residential quarters in Berlin-Mitte about sharing, re-use, repairing and upcycling and to win them over for the interesting offers. For the user-supported expansion of socio-cultural uses, especially in the first floor zones, the aim is to broadly enable the use of re- or upcycled materials in the sense of supporting a sustainable circular economy.