Heres the deal. With the senses. Recognize. And explain inexpressible. The cultural magazine. Next to the. Celebrated by their fans worldwide. Felix. Paul van dyke. Three german d. J. Superstars does it get any more bombastic. Come on into festivals backstage parties and a place where no one attain stardom just like that superstar deejays in forty five minutes to double. Your children like chocolate. You cant live without your smartphone. To new york tomatoes the supermarket. As we go about our daily lives schumann was often the last thing on your minds. Invisible hands slavery in the twenty First Century starting december second on d w. Welcome to arts twenty one this week we look into urban living. Half 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 arts twenty one traveled around the world to find answers. We talked to Award Winning chilean architect and a handle on our dana if we do nothing they will go even in slums we spoke with a collective assemble which they build where no one else wants to go and create stylish yet socially responsible housing. Were really interested in how you give people the tools to china the environments that are indifferent. And we look to berlin the german capital has turned into an underwriter over speculators and a testing ground for urban development again but still very mixed in the prognoses are correct 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 but the emphasis here is on cosy kooning 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 up. Its just good new computer. Its about feeling at home finding a welcome refuge from the daily routine in the harsh world of them hard and thats a big theme here just omitting time to enjoy his day job said. 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. Of the. 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 baldpate. 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. And. This unidentified disc shaped object is a table and appropriately enough its called major tongue snap connecting mechanism was made with a three d. Printer. A prime example of new multifunctional furniture flex it is a bad a desk and a wardrobe in one day they 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 its was very hard to forgive 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 van boll a mensa his aim is produce to. Departments 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 the crucial question for the creator. Of all of this housing space is a kind of consumer item and we have to avoid overdoing things in may 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 huge wardrobe recently hes in the hole goes up. At a time when many city dwellers find themselves priced out of the market for apartments maybe a new mentality would make sense to talk 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 in 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 slate 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 but i think its about looking at what are you sure of yourself with your life and choose not to question it but just to make sure its really meaningful i think as an american. And as the culture that i live in in new york and its just its you have to fight to find meaning again and its theres so much thats temporary and theres so much that. Its in the choices you know and i think we know this house is intended to help you evaluate your choices and to really figure again about how you get. From the old school to all new from snowing to so good home designers are searching for compact but Unconventional Solutions a pretty radical statement for furniture and interiors fans. On the british collective assembled brings together architects in residence architecture and art innovative ideas and a selfhelp to create socially responsible housing crime. By somebody who is the top of 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 of dallas. 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 welcome. Ill just tell you inside. This is the space which is why we have to do projects and i mean its kind of lucky 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 draw up their energy 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 assemble 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. Transform the way really interested in how you give people the tools to change the environments that they live in that day and habit every day. In liverpool the crew turned their attention to history in a rundown neighborhood neglected by authorities who considered by 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 adelaide. Nice. Productive to still keep the Community Links 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 some. The bathroom tiles are made here in what used to be a corner shop the granby workshop 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. Project were trying to find ways all means 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 where there is kind of moments whether its. All whether its. You know making sure that the key moment is the one which is really wonderful. 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 its been likened to an amish Style Construction assemble are about passion rather than tom. I mean the moments of joy. People Start Talking about something that youve been thinking of as a design as a construction project as that other thing as i write more is that right towards our own 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 this 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 thing when i showed him 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 are people who cant find a way to. Go someplace else and he 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 theyre 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 mole and 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 or close enough 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. 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. Day out sick collected suggestions. Many submissions focused intensely on the social aspects how people live together and at the same time privately. Those who share 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 use the negative that comes on the one front. For many years politicians were happy to leave accommodation to the free market and neglected to build Public Housing and now residents are paying the price Affordable Housing is becoming increasingly difficult to find especially in big cities lin including. Monaco 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 side