Runway to Resource.

This urban design project at Tempelhof Airport focuses on revitalizing the underused Columbiadamm side, with Bunkerstraße as the focal point. The approach reimagines both the underutilized spaces and the refugee community as essential resources for transformation.

Through detailed research and collaboration with refugees and AWO (Berlin’s refugee administration), it became clear that the refugees’ skills could play a key role in activating Bunkerstraße. Phase one introduces minimal interventions, relocating refugees from hangars to Kopfbau Ost and freeing the parking lot for placemaking. In phase two, vertical, modular housing is created on the airfield, with refugees constructing these structures from salvaged, urban-mined materials. The hangars are transformed into circular production hubs, fostering socioeconomic growth.

Architecture and design serve as tools for negotiating and envisioning political decision-making in this sensitive and protected site, while addressing Berlin’s complex urban fabric. In response to rising far-right anti-immigrant sentiment, the architectural language emphasizes urban informality and material reuse, driving sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development. The vision culminates in transforming Bunkerstraße into Bunkermarkt, an active marketplace where placemaking, social inclusion, and sustainability converge.

AAVS (Architecture Association Visiting School) Regenerating abandoned metropolitan megastructures workshop - 2024

Group members: Rayan Alfadel, Majd Al Kisswani, Carlo Dellarciprete