Building association Initiative Möckernkiez e.G. has acquired a parcel of land from property agents Vivico in the south-east of the Gleisdreieck site in Berlin. The initiative is planning a socially balanced residential district built with sustainability in mind on the 30,000 sq m site. A total of 385 homes for some 1,000 people will be built here in the coming years. The purchase price was around 8 million euros. Vivico is taking a sustainable approach in other Berlin districts too.

The Möckernkiez initiative had long been committed to purchasing the site at the corner of Möckernstrasse and Yorckstrasse. The decision to buy was swayed by the basic concept pursued by Vivico of building sustainable and fully functioning urban quarters. The plan for Möckernkiez is to create a living area that promotes various ways of life, from family homes to unimpeded living. The building association’s goals include the creation of affordable and socially integrated living space. The intended mix will thus include assembly and seminar rooms, social trading areas, a children’s and youth centre and a canteen for locals. The plans are to construct the quarter entirely using the “passive house” method and to use renewable energies. A park adjoining Möckernkiez, around 27 hectares in area, will become a public space offering relaxation and leisure.

Vivico is currently developing the new Europacity quarter near Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof (central station). The new Berlin harbour development will also offer various living forms. The groups targeted for the development include institutional investors and traditional housing developers as well as project developers, housing associations and building consortia. The intended social mix in Europacity includes family homes in close proximity to new forms of living (warden-assisted for the aged or handicapped), among other ideas. The Kunst Campus, consisting of Hamburger Bahnhof Museum of Contemporary Art, the Rieckhalle housing the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, the galleries in the Halle am Wasser, public exhibition areas and many artists’ studios, is already a cultural element that characterises to a large degree the social mix of Europacity. Besides the “passive house” construction method, the realisation phase has brought aspects such as rainwater recycling, the use of heat pumps, photovoltaics and solar-thermal energy and the reuse of building materials to the fore.