At the intercom, I am greeted with silence. Feeling somewhat at a loss, I let my gaze roam across the Berlin skyline. The city, engulfed in its usual dreary April look, isn’t offering much solace. Fast forward a few minutes and I am sitting in a judges' preliminary meeting to discuss an architecture competition for an institutional office building in Wiesbaden. At this point, no one knows for sure which institutions will eventually move in. But we do know a great deal about the architectural standards that must be met by the building itself: It must be climate-neutral, made from recyclable materials, extremely flexible in conception and use, and serve a social purpose; it should provide optimal solutions both in terms of communication and health, feature a generous build, make do without underground parking - and the list goes on. The jury pores over the call for tenders in minute detail, fine-tuning an extensive catalogue of assessment criteria, including urban, spatial, social, ecological, functional and economic aspects.
All competition entries in Germany must meet these or similar criteria. This is not news. But what would happen if we expanded these standards to urban production as a whole?
If the real estate industry were subject to strict quality control, we could oversee the entire sector more reliably. I share this thought with my colleagues at the ZIA Innovation Think Tank the next day. It sparks curiosity among the group and a discussion ensues:
Urban Planning Criteria
While it is true that German cities are experiencing a building boom, urban planning as a field is currently unable to meet the needs of a growing and rapidly changing society. The pandemic has revealed how utterly unprepared German public institutions were in terms of digitalization and related training and staffing requirements. Land and real estate prices are rising because the responsible authorities are failing to designate enough land for construction and not approving enough building applications. At the same time, speculators continue to speculate without restrictions, and bureaucratically thwarted quality control continues to delay construction procedures.
Meanwhile, hardly anyone is thinking about the future: What should our cities look like in 50 years? In 100? Urban planning is a long-term process that might seem tedious to outsiders, but is essential for a functional society at large. Lazy policy measures, like the recently overturned rent cap in Berlin, are not the right remedies for this widespread malady.
Bottom line: Public planning institutions are in dire need of reform. They are locked in a state of negativity, unable to fulfill the tasks they must handle.
Architectural Quality
Germany is home to one of the most elaborate and expensive competition systems in the world. Nonetheless, juries usually end up settling on mediocre compromises. Submissions with extreme concepts are routinely weeded out. In the rare case that a daring first prize is awarded, subsequent negotiations sometimes end up propelling the third or fourth runner up to first place nonetheless. What this mind-boggingly elaborate system leads to, essentially, is avoiding the worst – thus failing to make room for the best.
Bottom line: The German competition system is driven by fear. It is incapable of promoting innovative or identity-shaping building designs. As such, it fails to live up to its designated function in society.
Social Quality
Within the real estate industry, there is a general perception that its responsibility lies solely in producing “hardware.” Ideally, this “hardware” is built as simply as possible, then rented and sold as expensively as possible. When it comes to socially compatible land use, mixed neighborhoods, infrastructure for good mobility and media, and public spaces, the industry routinely throws up its hands and points a finger at the local municipalities, claiming to be in charge of buildings, and buildings alone.
Bottom line: When it comes to affordable housing, social justice, lovable neighborhoods and livable cities for all, the private sector cynically defers all responsibility to public institutions. One must only survey current public comments on the recently overturned rent cap in Berlin to grasp the spirit of malicious glee currently circulating within the sector – which feels that affordable housing is a burden to shed rather than a goal to strive for.
Ecological Quality
Over the last few years, not much has changed on construction sites throughout the country – with one exception: Germany’s energy-saving ordinance has undoubtedly created more energy-efficient buildings. But it has also driven up technical equipment needs and prices. And it has produced questionable results for the environment as well: Plastic insulation is extremely toxic.
On the local level, not one German city has made an impact on climate-neutrality worth writing home about.
Bottom line: Faced with the threat of a looming climate catastrophe, the construction industry is reluctant to follow new eco-friendly laws.
It is precisely those actors causing more than 40 % of greenhouse gases that are now refusing to accept responsibility, instead balking at laws meant to regulate CO2 emissions. This constitutes a failure at all levels.
Functional Quality
It is the duty of all cities to provide a good life for their inhabitants. Every single one of them. The real estate industry must contribute to this task in substantive ways. But wherever I look, I see dysfunctional structures. Because they were designed to prioritize the demands of individual car traffic, cities have turned into hostile grounds for children, seniors, and many of their other residents. Millions of employees are forced to sit in traffic, where they waste time and endanger others.
Bottom line: Cities have been subjected to a deadly dictate of mobility where everyone is on the move all the time, but hardly anyone is actually coming together. This is a fatal disaster with no quick fixes in sight.
Economic Quality
We are currently experiencing a rapid inflation of costs for properties and all types of real estate. This has resulted in a dearth of affordable housing units for rent, simply because private enterprises refuse to build them. Instead, investors prefer to focus on lucrative, “high-quality” condominiums.
Bottom line: The real estate industry wants to keep building costs at a minimum while maximizing sales. Affordable rents have no place in this equation, which is, at its core, deeply flawed.
At this point in a competition, any jury would have booted a contestant for lack of circumspection.
And there is another issue that is severely lacking: Procedural quality.
Herein lies the true scandal: Decision-making structures and operational procedures are frequently organized so haphazardly that it almost seems like a miracle every time a building is actually completed on time. Furious site managers in poorly prepared meetings, frustrated staff at government agencies, local politicians that avoid difficult decisions and outdated administrative borders that de facto exclude large, organically grown parts of the present-day city, are no rarity in Germany today. All of this leads us to experience contemporary urban life as stressful and overwhelming.
Bottom line: The real estate industry would flunk out of any architecture competition worth its salt in the first round.
Stunningly, the industry has remained entirely indifferent to the mounting pressure closing in around it. Alas, it is hard to conceive of a problem when business is running smoothly as ever. What comes after unbridled growth? Utter and all-encompassing collapse.
In the end, these lamentations – and their solutions - far exceed the spatial and discursive confines of a competition jury. Instead, they are resolved on city streets, on social media, and in voting booths. Meanwhile, the real estate industry continues to resemble a well-fed Turkey, fattened with only the best type of grain, milling around blissfully and ignorantly – until the eve of Thanksgiving.
