With the old Tegel Airport in Berlin, Germany being closed down to build a new and way more modern one, the Schumacher Quartier project is a 580-acre idea for one of the biggest and most sustainable neighborhoods being conceptualized with huge open green spaces, efficient and affordable housing, and bike lanes of course.
This project has been in the works since 2017 with the hopes that it can better address the problems of housing shortages, car pollution, and many other issues that come with the modern world and the need for sustainability.
The Schumacher Quartier project hopes to provide more than 5,000 homes for over 10,000 people. It will also have the corresponding number of amenities needed, such as daycare centers, schools, shopping facilities, and tons of greenery. Meanwhile, another 4,000 homes are also being planned for the other neighboring areas.
Moreover, a charter agreed on the following seven guidelines when it comes to the development of the project. These include urban living spaces, housing for everyone, urban green space and public areas, open educational landscape, climate-friendly and water-sensitive urban development, district with environmentally-friendly mobility guaranteed, and communication, participation, and transparency.
Berlin isn’t the only city around the world that has looked into such opportunities like these, which is turning these huge and neglected spaces into innovative, modern, and sustainable neighborhoods. In fact, places such as Kuwait, Taichung, Utah, and The Bronx are doing the same, and for sure many more will follow.
According to press secretary for the Tegel Projekt, Constanze Döll, “The Schumacher Quartier is planned in such a way that the streets and squares belong to the people again, rather than to cars.”
She continued, “We want to let people rediscover the public space… for socializing, playgrounds, places to relax and talk. Important locations in the neighborhood, like the kindergarten, school, bakery, supermarket, can be reached easily by foot.”
The project will also include a commercial zone, which will be placed beside the residential areas, by utilizing some the airport’s old infrastructure called the Urban Tech Republic. This will be an ideal area for such tech sector entities to put up offices, as well as a huge city park that will stretch over 50% of the 5-square-kilometer space.
Another major feature will be how all the homes will include environmental influences. While all the houses will be made from mass-timber construction that’s sourced locally, this will allow it to reduce the carbon footprint brought upon by construction by at least 80%. Moreover, rooftop gardens will also be installed to absorb any rainwater. Fast Company Magazine reports that there will even be something named “sponge city” which will work to specifically soak up the water from major rainstorms, using the water in the Quarter’s water supplies as well.
In addition, the park will even be used as a location for an introduction program for 14 endangered species, all of which will be capable of living in urban areas, like the nightingale grasshoppers and broad-winged bats.
The hope is that the first campus will be finished by the year 2027 since the current clean-up work is still trying to clear up all the debris. This includes an old World War II airfield area that contains hazardous waste. So far, at least 5,000 defunct munitions like artillery shells have already been cleared.
See more about the project in the video below.
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