Welcome to arts twenty one and this week we look into urban living. Have the worlds population lives in cities and the tendency is rising urban areas are densely packed reason enough to ask how people live and how we want to live our twenty one traveled around the world to find answers. We talk to Award Winning chilean architect and a handle on our dana if we do nothing they will go even in slums we spoke with the collective assemble they build where no one else wants to and create stylish yet socially responsible housing. Were really interested in how you give people the tools to change the environments that are indifferent. And we look to berlin the german capital has turned into an elder rado for speculators and a testing ground for urban development and in books of anything in the prognoses a car. Berlins population will increase by the size of a small city over the next twenty years. But before we hear about that lets take a stroll through the International Interiors show in cologne the emphasis here is on cozy cocooning is up and coming again so what does that tell us about the world were living in. Here we have the kind of place you could hibernate in all winter long this years International Interiors show has no shortage of cosy retreats from your grandmas favorite folk rests to retro style couch tassels it seems anything goes. How about modern design classics covered in posh panic its the feel rather than the look that counts. And if you really want to get lazy try out this voice activated recliner. Through to my legs. Its about feeling at home running a welcome refuge from the daily routine in the harsh world of them hard and thats a big theme here omitting time to enjoy their jobs. About two decades ago a certain furniture giant encouraged customers to free themselves of all that kitchen that was tacky cushions and covers less was more. Going to. Fast forward to the present and bush was back in the uglier the world outside the more cozy and comfy you want it inside the home becomes your safe haven to dream. There are floral patterns galore here adorning everything from curtains to wallpaper. Fortunately alternative visions are also included Young Designers are responding to changing Living Conditions and catering to those with smaller budgets flexibility is the key here. This unidentified disc shaped object is a table and appropriately enough its called major tongue its not connecting mechanism was made with a three d. Printer. A prime example of new multifunctional furniture flex it isnt bad a desk and a wardrobe in one day it can also be dismantled folded together and sent in the mail at the time i was on flights that i was studying. I was living in a Student Accommodation and those rooms are very small and for me it was very hard to for one of those because the furniture you buy are so specific what a small space that you can take them with you once you graduated so i wanted to come up with a solution for that. And some of those Space Saving Solutions are already literally out on the streets the quite spec area of berlin recently became home to this cute looking abode. Its the brainchild of architect the man bowl a mensa his aim is to provide apartments for the less well off and Society StudentsHomeless People and refugee his tiny home costs one hundred euros to rent a month until now it was only available on a trial basis. It has everything you need but what exactly do we need a crucial question for the creator. Of all of this housing space is a kind of consumer item sphere and we have to avoid overdoing things mean of one we can always want more a bigger place to live with a bigger patio bigger bathroom a school and bigger bedroom and instead we should be trying to cut down. And think about the potential benefits from not having a huge basement or a huge wardrobe recently hes in the hole goes up and. At a time when many city dwellers find themselves priced out of the market for a. Hartmans maybe a new mentality would make sense Todd Bratcher believes we can live with far less hes in cologne to present this truly visionary home washing areas or outdoors while inside theres one big room for cooking conversing and reading. Instead of designer furnishings all the utensils here are second hand and come with their own history and no friends. Theres also a special rest area for reflection meditation and sleep and the textiles were selected to provide an organic feel. All dreamt up by bracha the designers aim was to create an installation that ignores the architecture and starts from the beginning. Its about going home and maybe evaluating how you live and i think its about looking at what do you surround yourself with your life and to have to question it but just to make sure its really meaningful and i think as an american as the culture that i live in in new york its its its you have to fight to find meaning again and its theres so much thats temporary and theres so much that. Thats in the choices you know and i think we know this house is intended to help you evaluate your choices and to really figure then about how you. Get. From old school to only from snow to sober home designers are searching for compact but Unconventional Solutions a pretty radical state and for furniture and interiors family. The british collective assembled brings together architects and residents architecture and art innovative ideas and selfhelp to create socially responsible how. Khan. Assemble is the john for the British Architectural scene but they certainly do not have the most glamorous of premises here in the east end of london. Their very first project in two thousand and ten was the conversion of an abandoned gas station into a temporary cinema reclaimed materials for a low budget take on the golden age picture palace. Their second temporary event space was squeezed in under a highway bridge with a facade designed to reference the older surrounding architecture the result was a canal side fairy tale house looking rather out of place. A symbol is a collective of eighteen College Graduates most of them from Cambridge University sugar house studios thats where we were told we could find them. The name looks right but in this derelict looking shed a modest sign on a door confirms weve come to the right place i. Have to tell you inside. This is the space which is why we have to do projects and i mean its kind of largely being used for storage says a bit messy. Evidently not too messy to be extremely creative at the back is the groups center of operations. This is where they drop their interview to buy ideas with the social impact some of the members worked as assistance for major architects after graduating and founded a sobering experience. The work of us imo is a reaction to the idea of somebody who is to touched from everyday experience. As someone who sits behind a desk and makes decisions but doesnt read the paper. Tetras for way really interested in how you give people the to. To china the environments that they live in that day and every day. In liverpool the crew turned their attention to a street near rundown neighborhood neglected by authorities who considered by a crime no go zone but some of the residents formed an action group and were joined in their efforts by assemble the collectives make over promptly won them the twenty fifteen turner prize britains leading contemporary art accolade. Nice. Productive to still keep the community. And the residents involved. Assemble reinvented an entire street block all supporting walls were removed and new fireplaces were made from compressed building site debris they call the material granby rock named after the street. The design is original by assemble the bathroom tiles are made here in what used to be a corner shop the granby morcha trains and employs local people to make a range of products from bookends to benches. Its yet another success with the urban regenerators from assemble. In each project were trying to find a way. Of kind of. Interest all kind of the spectacular moments very little money and its about kind of just being very strategic about where the money is positioned to kind of moments whether its. All whether its. You know making sure that that key moment is the one which is really one for. The yard house looks like a gigantic sculpture but is in fact a building providing affordable work space before this part of east london also becomes too expensive for designers and craftsman. Located next to assemble zone headquarters he features concrete tiles manufactured on site clearing a timber frame shed has been likely to an army Style Construction assemble are about passion rather than calm. I mean the moments of joy are the one. People Start Talking about something that youve been thinking of as a design as a construction project. That has the right poem or is the right product tours are in business and they Start Talking about it as my building my house you know that moment where they take ownership of the project thats the really extraordinary thing. Also in london is the black horse workshop an Old Industrial warehouse turned into a workspace for residents. The location is given is now gentrified traditionally working class area a new lease on life. A symbol is a philosophy creating spaces out of nothing for people who society had no space to. Find. Have cities become loot in berlin spectators simply snap up whole neighborhoods but whats happening here is taking place in major metropolis is world wide is there a way to keep cities livable. Berlin is the place to be compared to london or new york its still dirt cheap the city is undergoing massive changes and has become an el dorado for speculators as this documentary shows. I have a client from london he bought in this building two flats and he asked me a funny scene when i showed in the first side times of flats he asked me why is there for less expensive if they are not you asked if i mean whats happening in berlin now has long been a reality in other cities rents are rising low income earners are being forced out in many places the previously good social mix is gone these issues are the theme of an exhibition at berlins german Architecture Center or they said nothing falling off this primarily affects older people immigrants or people who cant find a way to. Go someplace else i mean with the big and in the long term cities that are inhabited by only one class of people just dont work well you know before their dull monotonous and almost sure to incite a glaring social conflict. To have fulfilled that. Conflict of the kind seen in some suburbs of paris occupied primarily by immigrants theyve been trouble spots for years and mullen bake a district in greater brussels has earned a reputation as a breeding ground for islamist terrorism berlin still has the chance to do things better how can the city accelerate integration is the city belong to anyway it ought to be everyones but the markets are insatiable. So politicians need to introduce measures like rent control or place conditions on the sale of public property. Is on the one hand its the citys duty to make as much money from such sales as possible for the benefit of the rest of the city but at the same time its better to try to foster diversity and be open to concepts that may not maximize profits but that in the long run make things better for the whole city and everyone in it. And. If the best of it. Creating a better city thats the job of architects and city planners. So how can they create affordable living space thats more than a mere roof over peoples heads. Housing that suits different income levels lifestyles and culture of. The day out said collected suggestions. Many submissions focused intensely on the social aspects of how people live together and in the same time privately. Those who share have more thats the inspirational message from top. You know one of the worlds most expensive cities private space there is minimal but theres plenty of public space. Sharing works well with a building too of course like at this housing community. Cluster apartments enable new kinds of living arrangements because the way people want to live changing. The big changes are bound to happen since only a fraction of people live in the classical family unit like they used to in cities and half the apartments are now occupied by singles and other people live in patchwork families or in big shared flats there are all kinds of living arrangements using the good and the one form. For many years politicians were happy to leave accommodation to the free market and neglected to build Public Housing now residents are paying the price Affordable Housing is becoming increasingly difficult to find especially in big cities lynn included. Theyre still on use living Space Available but its not always where people wanted to think about it thats why the politicians are saying that we need to build between three hundred fifty to four hundred thousand new apartments in germany with lots of them in berlin if the prognoses are correct berlins population will increase by the size of a small city over the next twenty years. The growth of cities seems unstoppable making sure they remain places for everyone will take Political Engagement ideas and perhaps protest. Thanks. Hes been called a Creative Genius and the robin hood of architects and trundle and ive been through his work he is open to discourse about the role of a. Architects and their impact on Society Building a better world. For. The harbor of a key k. At the northernmost end of chile the city has a population of two hundred thousand the Old City Center has a european flair were headed for kingdom on roy the state subsidized resident owned Housing Project that made its architect i one hundred out of a in a famous. About one hundred families live here whether used to be a slum. Secluded courtyards in the middle of the city came time on roy as a pioneering icon for Public Housing all over the world each house has two stories with thirty square metres on each floor theres space between the houses for the owners to make additions at their own expense and in their own time. Clock it is campuses one resident who has expanded her apartment not everything is finished yet though Building Materials are expensive any kiki which is separated from the rest of chile by the atacama desert. Planet is was active in a Citizens Committee and has known the Housing Project from its beginnings in two thousand and three the slum was torn down. A used to consist of shabby shelters some of them without windows. Residents were moved out while the quarter was redeveloped but they took part in the planning from the start. The chilean state provided a seven thousand dollars subsidy for each apartment the project was a challenge for alexander out of ina and for its residents. The architect about the project was beautiful but we had a different opinion until he explained that we could later add extensions on to the buildings that changed things i think. First we thought the whole thing was quite ugly. No. So who is this man who has had an astonishing career building simple Public Housing rather than glittering high rises we meet the pritzker prize winner in his office in santiago. What motivates alexander out of him and his team studio elemental. This is what we do us on we start from forces that are outside architecture social structure political constraints economic restrictions and try to channel that in the proper form and this is the power of hopefully the power of rock to each. Other in as most beautiful buildings are on the grounds of the Pontifical Catholic University of chilling where he studied and now has a professorship. Some of his designs on campus are massive but never ungainly and sun are elegantly light. On the foothills of santiagos mountain sun crystal ball out of annas expansive childrens playground park take us by surprise the original it was only streets and wilderness. Public space is a really bad stand so whatever you do make sure that the place where people means i mean were now richer than before but we can enjoy quality of life because that no public space cities are measured for what you can do in them for free we measured it and if they were right two point two square meters but he never turned International Standards its a seven. Economically chile is the strongest country in south america but it has great social inequality there are still seven hundred slums in the country like low bar and a chair at the edge of the city here too other than a building with a small budget he says there is no alternative anywhere. In the world every second. Two people will need a new Housing Project so in this the end of this conversation a couple of thousands of people would have either get into a project or if we do nothing they will go and live in slums. His designs and loeb on a chair to our clear robust and reduced to the Bare Necessities alexandra lives here she preferred out of a nice original spartan designed to remodelling the interior at great expense here we can clearly see his basic designs. The house is still exactly the same as it was when i got it i havent changed anything. That goes for the color the floor everything is the same as it was when i moved in. The constitution on a five hour drive south of santiago posed an entirely new challenge in two thousand and ten and massive earthquake and its anatomy devastated the city of forty thousand. Out of a night and his team developed a master plan to rebuild constitute with new housing tracts earthquake proof and situated one hundred meters above sea level. As an icky case half of each house was built with subsidies with owners adding on at their own expense almost all the houses are complete. Other than his principal leads to diversity in contrast to the monotony of much Public Housing elsewhere. Also found as and her husband used to live in the center of town they say they miss the vibrant life there but having their own disaster proof affordable home is more important. Sort of thought we. Were very grateful for the chance to add on an extension to our liking. Or own effort. That we could build exactly how we wanted to. Constitute has been rebuilt and now there is even a new Culture Center in the city. The building is clear functionality is typical of. Its built out of pine wood which is a Natural Resource in the region. The point talents are also made of wood these are striking lookouts over the king the newly built promenade on the pacific shore. Master plan is to draw tourists back to the city giving the earthquake struck city an economic future. This kind of engagement shows the power architecture can have and what architects like. And his team. They and their ideas are urgently needed and not just. Today out of the three billion people that live in cities one. Thousand and thirty. Five. Million people week. People coming to cities if we dont give an answer to this is not that people will stop coming to cities they will come anyhow. And that was all for this special this week on urban living find more online at www dot com slash culture. Will be back next week with more groundbreaking stories. By mike. Brooks where they start to divide the country to where they start to divide the language your blood flow for good the collapse of the soviet union left its constituent nations on the right politically economically. Rise and fall of moscows empire part two of our series. In fifteen minutes to double. 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