Do It Yourself -
Internationale Bauausstellung

Berlin DIY-IBA City

A new paradigm of urban development is evolving in Berlin. The planned city is being complemented by a city of initiatives, a city where urban innovation is driven by a dynamic biosphere of artists, activists and entrepreneurs. Berliners are creating their city. More local participants are helping to shape this new paradigm now than ever before. They are testing new models for sustainable, socially integrated projects. The DIY-IBA is an open invitation to interested individuals and initiatives to refine and apply these models.

Berlin's DIY protagonists are no longer confined to small niches and temporary projects, they have begun working on an urban scale. Their strategies, evolved in difficult economic conditions, can be applied to Berlin's current challenges like the decaying monofunctional urban structures from the 60s and 70s, or Berlin's industrial and investment ruins.

During the IBA 84, Berlin pioneered 'Careful Urban Renewal', and established social and ecological standards for participatory urban development. It helped resolve a housing crisis by co-operating with the protest and preservation movement that had occupied condemned buildings in Kreuzberg. Conditions in Berlin have changed since then. Public resources have become scarce, but at the same time technology is expanding the ability of communities to act. The DIY-IBA will explore these new conditions, and will publicize and develop new models and methods to cultivate grass roots urban development.

As the financial crisis continues, more and more cities are learning from Berlin's self-organized urban development strategies. The DIY-IBA is the next step.

DO involve people: as many as possible, to explore the changing cultural and political landscape.

IT is your city: Berlin's Inhabitants, activists, artists and architects have made it the place for innovative DIY architecture and urban development.

YOURSELF to make it happen: local initiatives need support, both private and public.

INTERNATIONAL networks of initiatives and individuals focused on Berlin

BAU (Building) the DIY-IBA together.

AUSTELLUNG (this exhibition) will be built to further inspire Berliners and other cities to experiment with DIY urban development.

You are invited to help launch the DIY-IBA in Berlin. To take part, register your interest on this web site.

The first DIY-IBA meeting was held during the EXPERIMENTDAYS 12 on 17.09.2012.

Editorial Note: This page is a first step towards assembling protagonists from Berlin's diverse urban DIY landscape. The site aims to bring the many fragments of this landscape into focus, and is a work in progress. The selection is by no means complete.