Festival Outposts
Allmende-Kontor
The community garden Allmende-Kontor on Tempelhofer Feld was founded over the course of pioneer projects on the former airfield through an initiative of 13 community garden activists, researchers and friends of urban gardening and urban agriculture. T
he first 10 raised garden plots were created on an area of 5,000 square meters by some 20 participants on April 16, 2011. Since then, the garden and its community with more than 250 raised garden plots and over 600 co-gardeners have flourished – completely self-organized. The association Gemeinschaftsgarten Allmende-Kontor e.V. was founded on June 5, 2014.
The garden on the Neukölln side of Tempelhofer Feld has put down roots and in recent years has become a one-of-a-kind attraction in the city in the sense of education, networking and recreation. Allmende-Kontor has set itself the task of revitalizing the term “Allmende” (shared property, solidary action) and anchoring it within the topics of urban development, food sovereignty and interculturality.
Aquarium
In Aquarium, located on the southwest end of Kotti, new spaces for encounters, exchanges and networking have been created, initiated by the team of the neighboring Südblock.
There, myriad space requests come together, for example, for neighborhood and networking meetings, for spaces to conduct conferences, art and culture projects or barrier-free spaces for advisement. In light of this, it was obvious that an application needed to be made for the empty space two doors down from Südblock. Aquarien Meyer had moved out of the storefront on the ground floor. An organizational structure was established.
Following comprehensive renovation and construction work, one third of the barrier-free area is now used for offices and advisement, including the associations ASL (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für selbstbestimmtes Leben schwerstbehinderter Menschen) e.V. and BAV (Berliner Assistenzverein) e.V..
Two thirds of the area is available for flexible use. Neighbors, various initiatives and groups meet here, there are panel discussions, readings, seminars and workshops and a wide variety of exhibition concepts find the space they are looking for here.
Platzhaus
Platzhaus is located both on the outskirts and right in the middle of Helmholtzplatz, a former public bathroom facility that has developed into a neighborly place within the neighborhood where people with low socio-economic potential can also experience social participation. This is a house whose contours were outlined in drawings from the last decade and whose architecture remains flexible in the sense of togetherness and discussion. Since association Helmholzplatz e.V. first saw the light of day in 2002, WE have operated Platzhaus, located at Helmholtzplatz 0. Today, it reveals the traces of unusual ownership structures and very different existences marked by strongly contrasting living environments.
WE are and were human beings from these worlds who have voluntarily accompanied and carried this fragile project through the last wild times of the "development east to west" to the economic state of late capitalism. It is an opportunity for everyone who wants to be a part of things and has time to take a stance in support of peace, solidarity and utopia.
