initiative urbane kulturen / Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung Kastanienboulevard Public Design Consultancy Kastanienboulevard

Since November 2017, the ›Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung‹ project by Studio for Experimental Design at University of Fine Arts Hamburg has been developing new design approaches for Kastanienboulevard in Berlin-Hellersdorf in collaboration with initiative urbane kulturen, local residents and businesses.

Kastanienboulevard is not a public boulevard. It’s not even a real street. It is owned by the housing corporation Deutsche Wohnen. Kastanienboulevard rarely appears on city maps and it doesn’t exist in the Berlin address directory. It is actually the rear side of the housing blocks on the Auerbacher Ring, Scheeberger Straße and Stollberger Straße streets and the flats are not accessible from Kastanienboulevard.

Kastanienboulevard is a social agreement. The Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung is ex-amining the potential of this pedestrian zone as a street orientated towards neighborhood interaction (or a lack of it!) and not consumerism.

From July 6, shops and locations participating in the project will be furnished with house numbers. These new, informal house numbers seek to strengthen existing networks, encourage possible relationships and provoke dialogue about the importance of the Boulevard. Why does the redundant supermarket have the house number zero? Why does house number 11 follow number 38?

During on-site research on the shops and their usage, the significance of window displays was examined: on a street characterized less by commercial interests than by social ones. In a dialogue-based process, the Studio studied the relationship that the shops, initiatives and office spaces have towards the Boulevard. Its Design Consultancy is aimed at local actors, with the intention of now implementing the collaboratively de-veloped concepts for window displays.

The exhibition at station urbaner kulturen will present research, draft designs and insights from the Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung Kastanienboulevard 2017/2018 for the first time. A booklet introducing the shops, their protagonists and the interventions will accompany the exhibition.

Background:
The program ›Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung‹ at the Studio for Experimental Design at University of Fine Arts Hamburg, led by Prof. Jesko Fezer, is a working hypothesis for design. It presumes that designers can also make meaningful contributions to everyday issues, that a part of design studies is confronting real problems, that design should concern itself with urgent questions of contemporary life, and that this involvement is best undertaken together with those affected.

Öffentliche Gestaltungsberatung Kastanienboulevard Berlin Hellersdorf 2017/2018 is a project by: Alexander Mehren, Anna Manli, Gvantsa Jiadze, Julia Tangermann, Ka Young Kim, Kim Fleischhauer, Liza Beutler, Marie-Theres Böhmker, Maren Hinze, Philip Peters, Tatjana Schwab, Tim Wehnert, Tina Henkel