About us
Institute
We are an international and integrative team with a variety of backgrounds and a common passion for creative sustainability. id22 brings together architects, planners, sociologists, artists, community developers and gardeners, educators and others. With members, partners and volunteers from many countries, we study and support pioneering local Berlin initiatives, recognizing there are crises emerging in the world around us. Our Institute emphasizes communication and networking, cooperation and conviviality.
The Institute
id22 is a non-profit, civil-society-based organisation with about 20 members working with creative sustainability, connecting theory and practice in Berlin, emphasizing self-organisation. The main topic of the Institute is CoHousing as a foundation for cultures of sustainable urban development.History
The Institute was founded in Berlin’s UfaFabrik, a model ecological and cultural urban village, on February 14, 2003. Inspiration came from a large event in 2000, called id22: The Festival for Culture, Ecology and Community. A bottom-up, multidisciplinary approach to sustainability has been the main approach from the very start. In 2008 the Institute moved to a new Building Community in Prenzlauer Berg and then in 2012 began the move to the Spreefed CoHousing project in Berlin-Mitte where it is now based.Expertise
Our Institute emphasizes communication and networking, cooperation and conviviality, with a focus on self-organisation and local initiatives. In our interdisciplinary team we combine different approaches to sustainability, working with architecture, urban planning, geography, arts and social sciences.Team
Board
Dr Michael LaFond
Community Developer, Project Manager and Urban Activist. Founder and Director of id22: Institute for Creative Sustainability. Current work studies and publicizes relationships among self-organized housing, common good urban development processes and sustainability. Projects include the Berlin Community Land Trust (Stadtbodenstiftung), Kollektiveslernen, books CoHousing Cultures and CoHousing Inclusive, the annual housing fair EXPERIMENTDAYS, the online platform CoHousing-Berlin, creative sustainability tours, etc. Personally active for decades with CoHousing. Since 2011 involved in the development of the Spreefeld Housing Cooperative. At home in the Spreefeld’s Spree WG 1 shared-living group.
Initial degree and work experience in architecture. Interdisciplinary Dissertation in Urban Design and Planning in Seattle and Berlin. Since 2000 teaching contracts with a range of universities including: FU and TU Berlin, Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, CIEE Future Cities, BTK and UW CHID Berlin. A variety of university, research and teaching projects deal with participatory, civil society-initiated, common good re-developments of urban land and buildings, informal planning, innovative uses of environmental technologies and democratizations of urban planning processes.
Partners include Land Berlin, the European Commission and a large number of foundations.
A focus is on urban, international Community-Led Housing: self-organized, community-oriented, inclusive and regenerative forms of housing. Another special interest is the exploration and development of convivial technologies. In this sense id22 has been developed with its diversity of communications’ strategies: Objectives include being informative and enjoyable, provocative and constructive, communicative, creative and most importantly human.
Initial degree and work experience in architecture. Interdisciplinary Dissertation in Urban Design and Planning in Seattle and Berlin. Since 2000 teaching contracts with a range of universities including: FU and TU Berlin, Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, CIEE Future Cities, BTK and UW CHID Berlin. A variety of university, research and teaching projects deal with participatory, civil society-initiated, common good re-developments of urban land and buildings, informal planning, innovative uses of environmental technologies and democratizations of urban planning processes.
Partners include Land Berlin, the European Commission and a large number of foundations.
A focus is on urban, international Community-Led Housing: self-organized, community-oriented, inclusive and regenerative forms of housing. Another special interest is the exploration and development of convivial technologies. In this sense id22 has been developed with its diversity of communications’ strategies: Objectives include being informative and enjoyable, provocative and constructive, communicative, creative and most importantly human.
Board
Alex Behm
Alexander Behm, born 1987 in Schwedt/Oder, is a freelance journalist, scientist and project manager in the fields of culture and sustainable urban development. He studied history, political science and sociology in Dresden and Modern South Asian Studies at the HU Berlin. Since 2018 he has been working as a freelancer for id22, the Institute for Creative Sustainability, in Berlin and is involved in various projects of sustainable and public welfare-oriented urban development, including the id22 projects EXPERIMENTDAYS and CoHousing Berlin.
In February 2020 he was elected to the board of the association.
In February 2020 he was elected to the board of the association.
Board
Giulia Carones
After studying Philosophy and Politics at the University of Stirling, UK, I completed my Master of Science in Cultural Anthropology: Sustainable Citizenship at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, with a thesis on city perception through the lenses of political activism. During my studies, I have acquired and refined a drive for transformational research with an impact on cities and how city dwellers perceive them, and am now pursuing a Research Training Master Programme at Berlin's Humboldt University. At present, I am based in Berlin, collaborating with id22 since my arrival in the city in Autumn 2018. Being elected to the board in February 2020 has strengthened my enthusiasm for the work we do at id22, and the motivation to contribute to its development.
Our home
Since 2014 we have been working in our self-organized Project Space, where we are engaged with our local community, which includes the Spreeacker Initiative and Spreefeld Cooperative.
Project space
The id22 Project Space is inclusive as it integrates CoWorking with project development as well as the creating and exhibiting of art. Office work complements discussions, performances and workshops. Of course the space is an example of Do-It-Together architecture, emphasizing process and participation.
Spreefeld
The Spreefeld Building and Housing Cooperative is one of Berlin’s best examples of self-organized CoHousing, providing apartments for about 130 people and working spaces for about 100. The ground level and extensive landscape bordering the Spree offer diverse places and services for the general public, including community gardens and cultural spaces, daycare and wood workshop. The buildings represent an ecological, passive standard, the site is car-free, and the opportunities for participation are many.
Spreeacker
Spreeacker was initiated by the Spreefeld Cooperative in 2011 before the construction began, to actively engage a variety of cultural, educational and gardening initiatives - incl. id22 and Spreegarten -
in the development of the site. The non-profit Spreeacker association was founded in 2014 to be able to continue to support local community gardening as well as to bring together the cooperative and neighborhood in the development of the planned Spree shore path.
Our engagement
Alongside our projects and activities, we continue developing our partnerships and collaborations locally and internationally. Our long-standing collaboration with local partners at Co-housing | Berlin entails raising awareness and spreading knowledge and resources for people interested in alternative, community-led housing arrangements. Together, we provide a free-access platform featuring model projects, multi-media resources and inspiring people from the universe of co-housing. Internationally, we are partnering up with like-minded organisations and initiatives such as Urbamonde, Co-Lab Resarch TU Delft and Housing Lab Milano to strengthen a shared understanding and commitment of what alternative housing solutions can bring to our cities.
Runder Tisch zur Neuausrichtung der Berliner Liegenschaftspolitik
Der Runde Tisch ist als mehrstufiger Diskussionsprozess zu verschiedenen Themen der Liegenschaftspolitik angelegt. Die Initiative Stadt Neudenken und Abgeordnete von SPD, CDU, Grüne, Linke und Piraten haben gemeinsam einen Runden Tisch zur Liegenschaftspolitik ins Leben gerufen und einen Forderungskatalog aufgestellt. Der Runde Tisch tagt monatlich mit verschiedenen Zielgruppen und Akteuren aus Zivilgesellschaft, Politik und Wissenschaft.
Das Positionspapier und Termine sind zu finden unter: http://stadt-neudenken.tumblr.com/Termine
Das Positionspapier und Termine sind zu finden unter: http://stadt-neudenken.tumblr.com/Termine
Erinnerungsräume Berliner Mauer und Clubkultur
Zum Sommerfest am 4. Juli 2015 der Spreefeld Genossenschaft und dem Deutschen Architektur Zentrum ist eine Art “Wandzeitung” mit Informationen zum Umgang mit der Geschichte am zukünftigen Spreeuferweg zusammen getragen worden. Die kleine Ausstellung zeigt historische Luftaufnahmen sowie Abbildungen der dort erhaltenen und unter Denkmalschutz stehenden Elemente der Berliner Mauer. Es geht um die Integration der Geschichte in den zukünftigen Spreeuferweg, der vom Märkischen Museum bis zur Schillingbrücke verlaufen wird. Die Informationen sollen demnächst in ähnlicher Form in eine Art „Geschichtsfenster“ im Bereich von Spreefeld / Spreeacker / Teepeeland dauerhaft und wetterunabhängig zu sehen sein.
Beteiligung am öffentlichen Workshopverfahren zur Spreeuferentwicklung
Im Rahmen der frühzeitigen Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung wirkten wir aktiv am Workshop zum Thema "Zukunftsvisionen für die Spree / Der Spreeuferweg braucht Deine Ideen" mit. Die Ergebnisse sind hier zu finden und wurden so auch im Workshopverfahren des Bezirksamtes Mitte vorgestellt.
http://berliner-erinnerungsraeume.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/02/Workshop-Spreeuferweg-Ergebnisse-Dokumentation-E.Elfert-09.02.2015.pdf
http://berliner-erinnerungsraeume.de/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2015/02/Workshop-Spreeuferweg-Ergebnisse-Dokumentation-E.Elfert-09.02.2015.pdf
Grünes Netzwerktreffen
Mit unserem Nachbar, dem Mörchenpark, am gegenüberliegenden Ufer der Spree tauschen wir uns aus, kooperieren und organisieren Netzwerktreffen zu Themen wie urbanes Gärtnern und kreative Umweltbildung sowie Kulturveranstaltungen und aktive Bürgerinitiativen in der Nachbarschaft.
Wer baut die Stadt? Podiumsdiskussion 27. März 2015, Turin
Berlin, Mailand, Turin – Wer baut die Stadt? setzt auf Perspektivwechsel. Vertreter unterschiedlicher Konzepte und Planungen aus verschiedenen Metropolen setzen sich mit ihren Erfahrungen und Visionen urbaner und architektonischer Transformation auseinander. Wie lassen sich, basierend auf und befördert durch, aktive Partizipation, die fundamentalen Prinzipien und Werte des gemeinschaftlichen Zusammenlebens in Architektur und städtischer Weiterentwicklung umsetzen? Auf welche Weise können ökologische Nachhaltigkeit und architektonische Barrierefreiheit in die moderne Urbanisierung einfließen und zu Interkulturalität und sozialer Integration im städtischen Panorama beitragen?
Diskussion Bezahlbare Mieten, Bürgerbeteiligung, soziale Durchmischung … Ziele für das Wohnen in Berlin-Brandenburg?
Das Thema Wohnen berührt wichtige soziale Zusammenhänge und Fragen: Wie kann erreicht werden, dass bei steigender Nachfrage die Mieten bezahlbar bleiben? Wie kann verhindert werden, dass die alteingesessenen Bewohner verdrängt werden? Wie kann die Berliner Mischung in den Stadtquartieren erhalten werden? Und wie können Bürger besser bei Neubau und Sanierung von Wohnungen beteiligt werden? Die "Allianz für das Wohnen" möchte alle Beteiligten gewinnen, allgemeine Grundsätze für eine konstruktive und zukunftsweisende Ausgestaltung des Themas Wohnen zu erarbeiten. Diskutieren Sie mit, welche Ziele für das Wohnen in Berlin-Brandenburg gelten sollen!