What future do the dreams and visions of the past have today?
The Brutalist period from 1950 onwards produced buildings that promised a forward-looking form of urban living. As Germany, like many other countries in Europe, is facing a crisis in the housing market, these ideas need to be analyzed and checked for their continuity. According to the German Tenants‘ Association, there is a shortage of more than 900,000 affordable social housing units in Germany. People in a financially precarious situation suffer most from this. This makes the current vacancy rate and ineffective use of housing all the more incomprehensible.
The Ihme Center in Hanover was planned as a "city within a city" and was built in the 1960s on the largest continuous concrete foundation in Europe. The brutalist building complex promised effective living space, surrounded by all the advantages and necessities of urban life.
Today, only 1,500 of the originally planned 2,400 people still live here. The decline in retail trade at the turn of the millennium led to the base floor becoming vacant. Only a fraction of the 60.000 m²? commercial space is used by a few small businesses. Various investors have already failed to revitalize the brutalist building in the past. The construction work required for maintenance was repeatedly halted due to a lack of payment.
The foundations are now exposed in many places and the reinforcement of some of the load-bearing pillars is exposed to the weather. Architect Gerd Runge fears that the stability of some areas will no longer be guaranteed in around five years‘ time. The current majority owner and major investor Lars Windhorst no longer pays the monthly house payment of 470,000 euros. As a result, a mountain of debt of 13 million euros has accumulated. In addition, Windhorst‘s shares are encumbered with a land charge of 290 million euros. In future, the monthly costs are to be borne by the homeowners, which means a financial catastrophe for almost everyone.

For my project "Castle in the Clouds", I investigated the extent to which this social utopia of the past still functions. Despite its hopeless future, this monstrosity of cold concrete is kept alive by the people who live there for a variety of reasons.