Integration of the Tenants in urban Redevelopment

Interview with Marion Rohland and Dieter Klein

"Worlds collide between the housing sector and associations.”
Marion Rohland Director of MitBürger e. V.

"Urban redevelopment is barely possible without the social sector."
Dieter Klein Chairman of Projekt 3 e.V.

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How did the cooperation between your associations, the municipal housing construction cooperative and the municipal housing construction company come about?

Marion Rohland: In the “Miners’ Squares” project, citizens redesign free municipal zones. Without the owners of these free zones, the WGS and the SWG, this would not be possible. There has been cooperation with the city administration in Sangerhausen for years now. We were able to tap into this easily. Our association has the advantage of being agile and competent in matters pertaining to citizens’ participation; the advantage for the owners is the closeness to the tenants and the structures within the district. Worlds collide between the housing sector and associations, although they are united by similar goals.

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Dieter Klein: Projekt 3 e.V. decided to get involved in urban redevelopment; during an IBA event on the topic of housing, we offered to look after the local community and social matters. After this, WGS approached us to ask whether we want to design and run the meeting point in the Generation House on Alban-Hess-Straße. Then we were also involved in the “Miners’ Squares” and in the tenants’ centre MIETZ on Othaler Weg.

How does the cooperation actually work?

Marion Rohland: “Miners’ Squares” are places for people to meet. A control group planned the project work. Urban and landscape planners, the housing sector, artists, facilitators and the social manager work on an equal footing. In concrete terms, a kind of “maintenance agreement” was concluded between the companies, city and MitBürger e.V. upon completion of the “Miners’ Squares”. The public competition to find a name for MIETZ was an extremely fun form of cooperation. And at the moment, we are planning with tenants and companies the Citizens’ Carnival to mark the IBA Presentation 2010.

Dieter Klein: Social work must take place in the districts; the classic form with institutions that wait for people does not make the grade. In the summer of the IBA Year, there is a congress on the interaction between the housing and social sectors that we are helping organise. Urban redevelopment is barely possible without the social sector. Tenants must be anchored in their districts in the long-term.

How did you reach the tenants in the districts ravaged by vacancy and demolitions?

Dieter Klein: There was a Tenants’ Workshop during the construction of the Generation House with district meeting point; they benefited from the IBA process. Before construction started, we invited participants to a “benchmark meeting”. During construction, we sat with tenants poured over layouts and discussed in work groups what should happen in the meeting point and how the visitors themselves could get involved. We do not see the people as clients; we support them as participants. And then word of mouth propaganda works. The people come, probably also because it is so comfortable in our meeting point.

Marion Rohland: With patience, with the help of SWG and WGS – we had a citizens’ apartment at every point – and with a lot of imagination. But the most important factor was that we went right into the districts. And: the citizens had the first and last word. Sundial, miner’s chest, ship, the dirt track – that is a special kind of bicycle circuit – are all citizens’ ideas. The citizens were curious and stayed around because they were involved.

Can you draw on existing factors in this?

Dieter Klein: Projekt 3 e.V. has an established “Senior Citizens’ Society” network. We draw on it to recruit speakers for the meeting point on topics such as using mobile phones, living wills and health. Young people cook together with the older residents in MIETZ; discussions in the meeting point had shown that the school kids did not get any warm meals.

What do you recommend to associations and companies that want to play copycat?

Marion Rohland: You are half-way there if you get the citizens seriously involved in the planning and accompany them. You need courage, strength and imagination.

Dieter Klein: We do not want to do things for people; we want to enable them to take control themselves – despite their age, special needs or other obstacles.

Info: Sangerhausen

Population
(Municipal Area of 2010)
1989: 43.823
2009: 30.399
2025: 22.368 (Future Prospect)

Municipal Area: 207,64 qkm

IBA-Stadt-Monitor
www.sangerhausen.de
IBA-Website of Sangerhausen