When Tegel Airport in Berlin closed in 2020, it opened up 580 acres of real estate. Now, the ground is being cleared for the so-called Schumacher Quartier – a sustainable neighbourhood with green spaces, bike lanes and affordable, efficient housing, according to an article from the Good News Network.
The project was first mooted in 2017 to address car pollution and housing shortages. It will provide 5,000 homes for more than 10,000 people, as well as amenities such as schools, daycare centres and shopping facilities. There will be a commercial zone using some of the old airport’s infrastructure and a huge city park stretching across 50 per cent of the five-square-kilometre space that will serve as the location for an introduction program for 14 endangered species capable of living in urban environments, such as broad-winged bats.
“The Schumacher Quartier is planned in such a way that the streets and squares belong to the people again, rather than to cars,” said Constanze Döll, press secretary for the Tegel Projekt, in the article.
The quarter’s urban developments will be climate-friendly and water-sensitive, writes the article. All the houses will be built from locally sourced mass timber and will have rooftop gardens to absorb rainwater. According to the article, the first campus is slated to be finished in 2027.
