Berlin, July 1, 2010 – The Infrastructure Sustainability Workshop for the new Europacity urban district by Berlin’s main railway station has now been completed. The project’s goal was to come up with ideas for sustainable infrastructure. The results of the workshop will be presented today at the 5th Europacity/Heidestrasse Conference.From the formulation of the urban-development concept, the Senate, district council and site owners Deutsche Bahn (German Railways) and Vivico had agreed that the building of the new 99-acre (40-hectare) district would be guided by the topic of sustainability. “By positioning Europacity as a pioneer and leading example in the area of sustainability, the participants have underpinned their shared responsibility to the environment, the city and its future residents”, says Senate building director Regula Lüscher. “At the end of the day, the issue is nothing less than making the new district a pioneering, attractive and lively place with its own identity. The formation of six addresses full of character as part of the master plan marked the first step in this direction. Water as Europacity’s trademark, a cultural centre as a venue for meetings and the creation of a sustainability agency to support residents in learning new sustainable behavioural patterns are just a small snapshot of how excellence in city planning and in sustainable district development can emerge.”Based on the master-plan method, the subsequent sustainability workshop concentrated on infrastructure, headed by the topics of waste, building materials, energy, free space, social issues, traffic and water. Over a period of six months, some 25 experts from politics, business and research drew up a catalogue detailing some markedly different proposals.Henrik Thomsen, head of Vivico Berlin, said that the sustainability workshop had not only outlined what should be built in terms of infrastructure, but also the approach to be taken. “Sustainability for Vivico is far more than a single energy-saving building”, said Thomsen. “The concept we are pursuing is one of holistic and sustainable urbanity. This ranges from the resource-saving removal of dismantled building materials by boat, the use of recycled paving stones, all the way through to a central neighbourhood agency for the future district.” Thomsen also homes in on the right mix of working, culture and living in promoting sustainability.For district councillor Ephraim Gothe, who is responsible for urban planning and who is on the steering committee of the sustainability workshop with Regula Lüscher and Henrik Thomsen, the social measures are one of the new district’s central success factors. “Europacity will be a success if it can become a new home for very different people. We need the right social mix, which can be achieved through living space suited to the needs of families and new living models for young and old, as well as the early addition of nurseries and child-friendly roadside environments.” Zones with traffic calming and the arrival of mobility stations for bicycles and cars are planned to round off the location’s appeal.Heidestrasse in the Europacity district is being transformed into a green boulevard. While the boulevard will be flanked by office and business buildings, residential buildings will be constructed away from the main road, primarily in the area around the Berlin-Spandau shipping canal. An urban design competition was held for the development zone in early 2008 and its results included in a master plan, which was adopted by the Berlin Senate on 5. May 2009.Large parks and green spaces, a promenade by the canal and a centrally located harbour basin will also guarantee a high standard of living. With the Kunst-Campus (Arts Campus) housing the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart (Museum of Contemporary Art), the Rieckhalle housing the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, the galleries in the Halle am Wasser (Hall by the Water), space for public exhibitions and many artists’ studios, the first project component has already been implemented.Construction of the TOUR TOTAL office building with its “green” concept will begin in the next few weeks on Europaplatz opposite Berlin’s main railway station. The tower, which will be around 226 feet (69 metres) high, will serve TOTAL Deutschland as its new German headquarters and is due to be ready for occupancy in the second half of 2012. To complement its tower, TOTAL will build a new petrol station in the Europacity district. As part of the Clean Energy Partnership (CEP), the German government’s showpiece project for the use of hydrogen in vehicles, the petrol station will sell both conventional fuels and hydrogen.

Exemplary proposals resulting from the sustainability workshop:

• Mixed-use district (working, shopping, living, culture, etc.)
• Social mix (support for family living, assisted living, new living models)
• Creation of sustainable community facilities (nursery, temporary use, city agency, cultural centre)
• Underground collection bins
• Reuse of building materials in structural and civil engineering, e.g. recycled concrete and paving stones
• Establishment of a central building materials store
• Removal of dismantled building materials by boat
• Mobility management including car-sharing, rent-a-bike
• Shared space
• Reuse of grey water
• Local rainwater drainage
• Multi-coded streets (for multiple use as traffic space and communication, meeting and movement areas)
• Trademark of water (e.g. open paved gutters / troughs / drainage areas)
• A development people can experience – creation of identity (e.g. children’s playground on the Arts Campus, sustainability trail)
• Passive house concepts
• Heat generation using heat pump and wastewater from Heidestrasse
• Photovoltaics and solar thermal energy