European City Development in Berlin: Towards an Urban Renaissance of the Historic City Centre?

Abstract

This study focuses on the "European city" model and its impact on urban policies, emphasising city centre housing as a central issue. The urban renaissance as it is discussed in literature will also be reconsidered, as this study seizes on these two subject matters and explores their relation looking at Berlin’s historic city centre as the study area. The development of Berlin’s historic city centre as a housing location since 1990 is analysed showing how in four phases the change of this area from a marginal populated urban frontier to one of Berlin’s most favoured and expensive housing locations has developed using the "European City" as a development model.