Berlin's New Plattenbauen

Filling in Berlin's blanks with new buildings.

While reading Farnam Street's newsletter, I came across this interesting long read, The Housing Theory of Everything.  

The TL;DR version is that overpriced housing leads to all sorts of problems — inequality, lower economic productivity, climate change, and lower birth rates. You get overpriced housing when demand exceeds supply. 

Like any theory for everything, some of its arguments are flimsy. But there are some takeaways that make sense, like building higher-density communities to increase housing supply in a smaller area.

Berlin is struggling with a housing shortage. Everyone has a story about how hard it was to find an apartment. Prices are also rising. And there's a fear that locals will be priced out of their own communities and the character that draws so many people to the city will be gentrified beyond recognition. 

Berlin has been fighting it in different ways. When we moved to Berlin last year, there was a rent cap in place. It was thrown out of the constitutional court. In the recent election, a referendum passed that allows the city to appropriate property from the large companies that domain Berlin's real estate market.

Measures like that, which run against free market orthodoxy attract a lot of love, hate, and headlines. But, there's something else grinding on, away from the headlines. 

Berlin is pocked with all sorts of bits of unused land. There are swaths of land running along the city's commuter railways. Strips of what was once the kill zone on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall. Empty lots that were levelled in the war, and left empty for decades.

These are all spaces where new modern, residential high-rises are rising, or Neubauen. Berlin is gradually adding high-density residential housing to meet the growing demand, filling in the blanks on the city map. There's just one hiccup.

Berlin's architecture was dominated by big, stone apartment blocks built in the late 1800s (and rebuilt in the 40s and 50s) seem like they were built to last centuries. The housing built after the war feel eternal, but feel like they have some durable staying power.

Some of the new builds are nice to look at. But, having looked a few of them while we were apartment hunting, many feel like they might fall apart soon after you've moved in. They're built quickly and cheaply to maximise profit for the developers. The density pushed by that long-read doesn't necessarily mean quality.

In some ways, they're no different than the Plattenbauen, those old prefabricated East Bloc residential buildings that make seems to make so many eyes sore. The purpose was the same: create supply to meet the demand for housing. The difference is that some one is walking away with a fat profit.

A Tale of Two Elections

 

"Look at those lovely trees. Let's put a sign up in front of them!"

Germany and Canada have elections this September and I came across some interesting stats. In Germany, 41 percent of voters are undecied. In Canada, it's 13 percent. 

What's up with that? Are Germans more indecisive voters? Do Canadians just have their minds made up vote by habit? Or is there something else?

Let's start with how they vote.

Germany's federal electoral system is a mixed-member proportional representation system. This means that you vote for your local candidate, and you vote for a party. They don't have to be the same. In 2017, Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union won 185 of the 299 local seats, but only 15 of the 410 proportional party seats. But the far-right Alternative for Germany, the Greens, the Social Democrats, the Left (former DDR communists), and the liberal Free Democrats all got somwhere between got 95 and 60 votes respectively. 

Canada has a first-past-the-post electoral system, so it's one vote for your local candidate who is a member of a political party. The party with that wins in the most local candidate races wins. First-past-the-post is straight-forward, but most of it's Wikipedia page is about its disadvantages.

Often, first-pat-the-post systems allow political parties to form a government with less than 50 percent of the popular vote. This is something the mixed member proportional representation solved. By adding that second party vote, Germany's Bundestag adds a popular vote to the mix that nixes some of Canada's first-past-the-post issues. 

Every vote counts in Canada. But every votes counts more equally in Germany. 

Before he got elected prime minister, Justin Trudeau ran in 2015 on a platform of electoral reform. He was going to hold a referendum on whether to move on from the current system to another. 

But, J.T  wasn't interested in proportional representation. Even though a commision he formed recommended it, he inaccurately claimed it would allow crazy fringe parties into parliament. Germany and other countries set a 5 percent threshold of the party vote that parties most reach to earn seats in the Bundestag for that very reason. So, the Pirate Party, the Vegan Party, the Bavarian independence party, and the Nudist Party must convince 5 percent of the people they're not too crazy to be taken seriously.

Trudeau wanted a ranked ballot system, which his commission didn't recommend and that some experts pointed out would favour his own arrogantly nicknamed "natural governing party." When he wasn't going to get what he wanted, Trudeau gave up on electoral reform in Canada.

Now, how does that long digression come back to undecided voters?

My theory is that German voters are strategic voters. They might have their minds made up for their local candidate, but they're keeping their options open for their party vote. So, someone might vote for the mainstream right-wing CDU, but cast their party vote for the Greens or the AfD because they're worried about climate chnage or want a bit of crazy in the Bundestag.

This makes the elections unpredictable. So, chancellors are loathe to call an opportunistic snap election and stick to the four-year election schedule.

If you're living under the tyanny of the first-past-the-post system, then you only have one vote and you have to go all-in for the mainstream parties or for the crazy parties. There's no splitting your vote on the party level.

That's probably why most Canadians usually have their minds made up. Which means if a prime minister is arrogant enough, he might call an election during a pandemic that no one wants in the hopes of going from a minority government to a majority government.

First-past-the-post system might not keep all the crazies out of Parliament.

Why Dessau isn't a Disneyland

Why doesn't Dessau push its Bauhaus heritage a little more?

For a few glorious years in the 1920s, it was here that some of the most influential work was done at the famed Bauhaus school. Its workshops pushed out texile, interior, and industrial design brilliance. Artists like Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and László Moholy-Nagy were lured into teaching positions. Even the city joined the Bauhaus-ing craze and commissioned a work office and a housing estate.

Yet, they only finished a museum to Bauhaus' influentia output last year. The Masters' Houses are five homes inspired by Bauhaus' design concepts. They look lovely on the outside -- gleaming white concrete blocks in a stand of pine ona quiet residential street -- but, they're underfurnished on the inside. They designed furniture, after all!

The exception to this underappreciation is the original Bauhaus building. Long since re-purposed for tourists, it houses contemporary art exhibition spaces, a Bauhaus store, and a canteen in the basement. You can even spend the night in one of the old student dorm rooms.

Why isn't more of the city optimized for taking toursitic advantage of its Bauhaus awesome-ness?

First, it might only be design and architecrure nerds interested in making the pilgrimage to Dessau. That's not a big demographic, so the town might be as optimized for Bauhaus tourism as it can get.

That reality check aside, let's remember Bauhaus was a design school at the local university, and Dessau is still a university town. In fact, it feels like a calm, rich university town that's comfortably cashing in on some of its Bauhaus fame.

But, that's not the only side of Dessau.

The city is modernizing its old, dreary East Bloc pre-fabricated apartment buildings, or Plattenbau's, but the DDR's clumsy fingerprints are all over this town, from the ramshackle sidewalks to questionable city planning that puts a playground beside a highway.

This is a blue-collared town, and it feels like it. Just a few blocks down from the Bauhaus building is a magnesium smelter. The folks you meet here aren't just university professors and design nerds. They're workers and 9-to5-ers. Guys in coveralls drinking a beer at their local kiosks or taking their kids to a playground beside the highway before supper. Or both. My kind of people.

A good Discovery Walk reveals a lot more of Dessau. The beautiful nature parks. The winding bike paths along the Elbe river. The old, princely palaces. The friendly folks. The tasty local beers. Bauhaus isn't the only star in town.

And some Bauhaus architectural landmarks aren't treated like fancy architectural landmarks. They're still used for their original purpose. The work office is still a work office. I was chased out by a security guard when I poked my head inside. The Kornhaus is still a lovely restaurant on the banks of the Elbe, perfect for a lunch and a cold Weizenbier. 

Wasn't that the spirit of Bauhaus? Architecture and design made for the people. Accessible for everyone.

It's refreshing that Dessau hasn't Disney-nified its Bauhaus heritage or put tourism before its own residents. It's a better place to visit when Dessau itself is able to shine. 

One of Dessau's many beautiful nature parks.