The Berlin workshop was a key touchstone for a project focused on Alternative Cultural Places. The city’s reputation as an underground cultural destination flourished through several distinctive waves in thetwentieth century. Its recent explosion of cultural tourism has championed and memorialized the city’s alternative history, while placing it under increasing threat through strains of gentrification, commercialization, and rising costs of living.

The relationship between cultural and real estate development featured heavily in program discussions. Symbols of this change were all too visible: Urban Spree sits almost directly under theshadow of a new Amazon skyscraper, towering hundreds of stories over its immediatesurroundings. In Friedrichschain, the once iconic locus of Berlin’s seedy, subcultural underbelly,dilapidated, historied buildings sit side by side with hulking corporate developments. UrbanSpree’s neighbouring music venues include small indie bars and clubs, as well as a stadium arenaowned and operated by Uber – yes, that Uber. Through tours of Urban Spree and the surrounding neighbourhoods, we explored the context ofthis accelerating juxtaposition on Berlin’s ACPs, alongside the influence of commercialization, patrimonialization, and post-pandemic pressures.