Palace Parking
Contribution to: After Demolition? New Ideas for Berlin's Castle Area
initiated by urban catalyst, exhibition in the Palace of the Republic, Berlin
www.urbancatalyst.net
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Palace Parking
The demolition of the Palace of the Republic or the reconstruction of the Castle will be a pitiful act of a petit-bourgeois mentality, a shameful neo-conservative revanchism, a political fiasco and provincial city-marketing. The very discussion of architectural and programmatic representation is revolting: a Castle, a Fun Palace, a State Library? The question of how the German Republic and its capital will represent themselves in its centre should simply be left unanswered.
The already existing parking area should be extended and reorganised across the entire square. A new set of rules will be defined: ‘Parking metres’ will offers specific tickets for specific spots, uses, durations and social needs. Tickets can include a licence for trading or gastronomy, or a temporary building permit for up to two and a half storeys.
Alongside highly priced tickets for busses and short-term parking, parking bays can be leased cheaply and be transformed into motorbike garages or souvenir stands. Several bays can be combined in order to allow for the construction of campsites, utility gardens or a ghost-train. The creation of housing or spaces of production is equally permitted. Unused parking bays are considered temporary public space until a new lease begins.
in: Fun Palace 200X, Der Berliner Schlossplatz. Abriss, Neubau oder grüne Wiese? Published by P. Misselwitz H.-U. Obrist, P. Oswalt, Berlin 2005
