Realtalk: Is Berlin green enough?

Pictures of molten car tires in Australia are currently circulating the internet. The record breaking heatwave that has the continent in its firm grasp leaves hundred thousands of fish floating dead in the Darling River, and the cities are facing severe power cuts. 

Meanwhile a polar vortex caused by a sudden stratospheric warming is currently pushing temperatures to historic lows across Canada and the USA, with degrees falling down to -30° C in Chicago - lower than in many parts of Antarctica. And with the jet stream losing its strength because of the warmed arctic waters that will not fuel it enough anymore, this phenomenon is likely to stick around a little longer. Earth is taken by extreme weather, powered by the man made climate change.

With more than half of the global human population living in urban areas and our famous thirst for energy, it is past time to rethink our way of living. Concepts to minimize our energy consumption in the city there are plenty, but it seems that most projects brought to life to tackle the ongoing climate change are like a drop in the ocean. What most of these projects lack is a scale that will actually impact our affect on the climate.

One large scale project that tries to do just that is Songdo City. Songdo City is undoubtedly the world’s most monumental endeavour to tackle climate change. The pioneer project 56 km southwest of South Korea’s capital Seoul is built to house up to 300,000 residents and make use of 30% less energy and resources than any other city of comparable proportions. It is the attempt to redefine what urban living means: 40% of its entire area are reserved for green space, every apartment is equipped with smart metering devices connected to the its smart grid, and Songdo City can boast of a 26 km bicycle lane network.

And yet, more than a decade after it’s genesis the $40 billion development of Songdo City only houses 70,000 residents in total as of March 2018 - less than a quarter of it’s full capacity. Its developers try to maintain a positive outlook on the current situation, and regarding the inevitable affects climate change will have on our world either way already, the project taking off would be welcome news. However, the facts reveal an undeniable truth: If metropoles aim to attract residents in the age of urbanization while still being armed for the fight against climate change, we need to reinvent our existing living space, rather than fabricating castles in the air.

A prominent example of this approach is Tesla’s solar roof tile project. In October 2016 Elon Musk unveiled the revolutionary prototype of what looks just like plain roof tiles, but really is an army of energy producing solar panels that are three times more durable than standard roof tiles.

Another inspiring example for new ecological building concepts is the sparkling facade panels that architect Daniel Libeskind designed for his Sapphire Building in Berlin. The tiles are self-cleansing, but what really makes them an outstanding is their air purifying attribute: The glittering panels coated with a special titanium dioxide break down CO2 to release oxygen into the air.

Even wood as building material to tackle climate change is experiencing a global renaissance. But to make an immediate impact on a truly long-term scale, we will not only have to rethink our way of building, but the way we structure our cities in themselves.

One of the core challenges of urban planning is the demand for food supply. Cities consist of millions of hungry mouths to be fed every single day, and so the need for importing goods is seemingly indispensable. However, transporting food from rural areas - and even more so from abroad - leaves an enormous mark on the environment. Not only are the CO2 emissions of transport vehicles such as freight trains, trucks, oil tanks and cargo airplanes immense. Also the vast farming landscapes needed to meet the demand of food supply to feed entire cities is unsustainable to that accord, that these are the very same areas that used to store tons and tons of carbon dioxide within the wildlife that populated them only a few decades ago.

There is a very simple approach to diminish the overall impact that our food demand has on the environment: urban gardening on roofs, facades, empty plots and basements. Bringing agriculture back into the city has a number of undeniable advantages: Green roofs and facades do not only look fascinating, but they deliver an immeasurable potential for vast farming space, while serving as a highly effective isolation for their buildings. Empty plots can bring together neighbourhoods with permaculture projects that produce food highly efficiently, while the handiwork of interested residents encourages the areas’ team spirit. And finally using the cities’ basements for large scale food production with hydroculture can take the whole endeavour to an industrial level.

Another problem to tackle is the inefficient use of residential space. The Berlin real estate market is unfortunately a great example of this: While Berlin measures a population density of 4,052 inhabitants per square kilometer, New York City for example has 10,815 inhabitants per square kilometer. The keyword here is “densification,” which also solves another major challenge Berlin faces: the ongoing population growth of 60,000 new residents per year. By densifying the existing residential space of a city like Berlin, rather than spreading out more and more into the space beyond the city’s borders, you prevent the need for longer transits (and thus diminish the waste of energy resources) while meeting the demand of a growing population for quality housing within reasonable reach of the other city districts. To not make this feel like more people are simply “stuffed” into less space however, a carefully planned concept on an urban scale is essential though.

Finally, to make way for much more energy and space efficient solutions of individual transportation such as bicycles or the new trend of shared e-scooters, moving the city’s car parking spaces to subterranean garages with a predetermined number of shared vehicles will leave a great environmental mark on cityscapes as well.

All in all, Berlin is still far from its pinnacle when it comes to building an environmentally friendly future for the city. However, as demand for living space is high, and thus Berlin offers immense investment prospects, the only thing missing is a coherent concept that will make use of all these individual projects already being realised throughout the city. For more information on pioneer building projects and the overall housing market of Berlin subscribe to our newsletter.