William J. V. Neill and Hanns-Uve Schwedler (editors) URBAN PLANNING AND CULTURAL INCLUSION Lessons from Belfast and Berlin Howard Williams, Colin Wight and Norbert Kapferer (editors) POLITICAL THOUGHT AND GERMAN REUNIFICATION The New German Ideology? Anglo-German Foundation Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-71459-1 (outside North America only) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
Urban Planning and Cultural Inclusion Lessons from Belfast and Berlin Edited by William J. V. Neill Reader in Urban Planning Queen s University of Belfast Northern Ireland and Hanns-Uve Schwedler Managing Director of the European Academy of the Urban Environment Berlin Germany
Editorial matter, selection and Chapter 14 William J. V. Neill and Hanns-Uve Schwedler 2001 Chapters 1 and 3 William J. V. Neill 2001 Chapter 2 Hanns-Uve Schwedler 2001 Chapter 6 Sir Charles Brett 2001 Remaining chapters Palgrave Publishers Ltd 2001 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2001 978-0-333-79368-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0LP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The authors have asserted their rights to be identified as the authors of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2001 by PALGRAVE Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010 Companies and representatives throughout the world PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of St. Martin s Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd). ISBN 978-1-349-41988-3 DOI 10.1057/9780230524064 ISBN 978-0-230-52406-4 (ebook) This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Urban planning and cultural inclusion : lessons from Belfast and Berlin / edited by William J.V. Neill and Hanns-Uve Schwedler. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. City planning Northern Ireland Belfast. 2. City planning Germany Berlin. 3. Multiculturalism Northern Ireland Belfast. 4. Multiculturalism Germany Berlin. I. Neill, William J. V. II. Schwedler, Hanns-Uve. HT169.G72 B4948 2000 307.1'216'094167 dc21 00 066575 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01
Contents List of Figures and Table List of Maps Acknowledgements Foreword Notes on the Contributors vii ix x xi xiii Part 1 Introduction 1 1 Memory, Spatial Planning and the Construction of Cultural Identity in Belfast and Berlin an Overview 3 William J.V. Neill 2 The Urban Planning Context in Berlin: a City Twice Unique 24 Hanns-Uve Schwedler 3 The Urban Planning Context in Belfast: a City Between War and Peace 42 William J.V. Neill Part II Spatial Planning and Urban Design in Berlin and Belfast 55 4 A New Plan for Berlin s Inner City: Planwerk Innenstadt 57 Wolfgang Süchting and Patrick Weiss 5 Struggle for the Inner City a Plan Becomes a Declaration of War 69 Simone Hain 6 Victorian and Edwardian Belfast: Preserving the Architectural Legacy of the Inner City 85 Sir Charles Brett 7 Architectural Ambivalence: the Built Environment and Cultural Identity in Belfast 100 Malachy McEldowney, Ken Sterrett and Frank Gaffikin v
vi Contents Part III Cultural Diversity in Berlin and Belfast: Cultural Quarters within the City 119 8 Turkish Commercial and Business Activities in Berlin: a Case of Organic Urban Development and Contact 121 Renate Müller 9 Contacts and Conflicts over Worship and Burial in the Kreuzberg District of Berlin 134 Peter Heine 10 Remaking the City: the Role of Culture in Belfast 141 Frank Gaffikin, Michael Morrissey and Ken Sterrett Part IV Promoting the City in Berlin and Belfast 163 11 The Variety of Identities - Experiences from Berlin 165 Bernhard Schneider 12 Building a Shared Future: the Laganside Initiative in Belfast 177 Mike Smith and Kyle Alexander 13 The Culturally Inclusive City: the Belfast Potential 194 Bill Morrison Part V Conclusion 205 14 Planning with an Ethic of Cultural Inclusion: Lessons from Berlin and Belfast 207 William J.V. Neill and Hanns-Uve Schwedler Bibliography 216 Index 224
List of Figures and Table Figures 1.1 Parliament Buildings at Stormont, Belfast 15 6.1 The Albert Clock, long regarded as the centre of Belfast 86 6.2 Belfast City Hall completed in 1905, whose dome superseded the Albert Clock as the centre of Belfast 87 6.3 Lanyon s Warehouse in Bedford Street built about 1855, demolished to make way for a 23-storey office block 90 6.4 Christ Church by William Farrell of 1833, burnt and vandalised, a victim of the Troubles, awaiting possible restoration 97 8.1 Model for physical expansion of Turkish commercial activities in Berlin 124 8.2 Turkish economic activities in Berlin urban districts (according to entries in the 1997 Turkish classified directory) 129 8.3 Registration and de-registration of businesses 130 by Turkish people in Berlin from 1981 to 1996 11.1 Martin-Gropius-Bau 168 11.2 Brandenburg Gate placed in a new context 172 11.3 Wild boars and the pace of Berlin 173 11.4 More museums than rainy days 174 11.5 The Reichstag s new dome 175 12.1 Belfast s new Waterfront Hall, Hilton Hotel and British Telecom Tower 183 12.2 Nightlife on Laganside 184 12.3 A wall mural in Cathedral Quarter 187 12.4 Belfast s new Salmon of Knowledge 188 13.1 A door remains tentatively open on one of Belfast s peacelines 198 13.2 Reaching across the divide in Derry/Londonderry 199 13.3 Royal Avenue: Belfast s major Victorian thoroughfare, circa 1908 200 13.4 The CastleCourt Shopping Centre on Belfast s Royal Avenue, circa 1994 201 vii
viii List of Figures and Table Table 5.1 Crucial west east differences in perception and evaluation of the eastern inner city 79
List of Maps 2.1 Major urban development projects in Berlin 28 3.1 City of Belfast and wider urban area 43 3.2 Belfast s peacelines 44 3.3 Belfast city centre 45 3.4 The cultural neutrality of shopping on Belfast s main shopping thoroughfare 48 4.1 Planwerk Innenstadt a plan for the inner city 59 4.2 Central Berlin around 1940 64 4.3 Central Berlin around 1989 64 4.4 Central Berlin around 2010 64 8.1 Distribution of the Turkish population amongst the urban districts (Bezirke) of the city 122 12.1 Laganside boundary in relation to the city centre 180 ix
Acknowledgements Translations Jenny Johnson; Michael LaFond All quotations derived from German-language sources have been translated into English; the accuracy of the rendition is guaranteed by the joint editors, not by the individual authors. Illustrations All the illustrations and pictorial material were kindly provided by the authors. The joint editors would like to express their thanks for permission to use illustrations to the Berlin Ministry for Urban Development (Land Berlin), for Maps 2.1, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4; to Manuela Preuss for Fig. (photo) 11.1; to Partner für Berlin, Gesellschaft für Hauptstadtmarketing, for Figs. (photos) 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5; to Professor F.W. Boal for Map 3.2; to the Laganside Corporation for Figs. (map) 12.1, (photos) 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.5 and to Chris Hill Photographic for Figs. (photos) 13.2 and 13.4. x
Foreword Cities which are divided along ethnic and cultural lines are nothing new. From a historical point of view entire societies were constructed on the basis of urban segregation. This structuring was, for example, both a constitutive and conflict-regulating element in Middle-Eastern city-states. It provided collective strength and social certainty, upheld despotic rule and was accepted in society. But nowadays in democratic constitutional countries urban segregation is perceived rather as a threat, in any event as ambivalent and as a source of conflict. The Federal Republic of Germany may be cited as an example of this. For many years (and for many people probably still today) integration of foreigners meant not only learning to speak the German language, but also learning to be German: if you want to live here, then you must become one of us! However, this could only mean for recipients negating their own identity and assuming a strange one. Be this as it may, the co-editors of the present work have taken as their starting point the belief that if cities wish to survive in competition with one another and not be submerged in tensions, they need to identify, create and maintain some kind of a shared identity amongst their inhabitants. But of course this does not mean negating the many and varied identities amongst urban population groups which also express themselves in spatial terms. On the contrary, what is at issue is how urban planning and city management can take these identities on board constructively and can assist them without allowing the city to deteriorate into a disconnected, hostile conglomeration of many and varied places to live. Belfast and Berlin are currently in the process of responding to this challenge. Since the Berlin Wall came down and Germany was reunited, two cities with a combined population of 3.5 million are fusing together in the Federal capital. What are the implications of this for urban planning? How do the planners approach their task? Since the Good Friday Agreement, in the Northern Irish capital, town planners are now required to confront the question of whether their activities contribute towards bringing together Catholic and Protestant Belfast and how they can physically deal with these two urban cultures which have been diametrically opposed for such a long time. xi
xii Foreword Questions of this nature formed the central focus of a symposium organised early in 1999 by the European Academy of the Urban Environment and The Queen s University of Belfast, School of Environmental Planning. To a large extent the present publication is based on this conference. The symposium was made possible at the time thanks to funding support from the Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society and the Ministry for Urban Development of the Federal State (Land) of Berlin. For their support we would like to express our thanks. In addition last but not least we would like to thank the authors of the individual chapters here brought together, as well as other participants at the symposium. Many of the ideas which are now formulated are based on discussions in which we all shared. Jenny Johnson and Michael LaFond translated the German chapters into English. Our thanks to them. Our thanks also to David Houston, Irene Watson and Catherine Moore for their invaluable assistance with the text. Finally, we would both like to thank the authors and the institutions which they represent for enabling us to use photographic and graphic material which they have provided. WILLIAM J.V. NEILL HANNS-UVE SCHWEDLER
Notes on the Contributors Kyle Alexander is a professional urban planner and is Director of Development of the Laganside Corporation in Belfast. Sir Charles Brett is a former Chairman of the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Chair of the International Fund for Ireland. He is President and founder member of the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society. Frank Gaffikin, PhD, is Co-Director of the Urban Institute, a research and consultancy unit of the University of Ulster. He has been involved in community development and urban regeneration for a number of years and is the author of several books on the theme of urban regeneration. Simone Hain, PhD, trained in fine arts, now works freelance in Berlin as a writer and historian of urban planning. Her principal study and publishing fields are the history of architecture in the twentieth century, history of building in the GDR, post-war reconstruction planning and architecture in East Berlin and monument conservation for buildings of the modern period. Peter Heine, PhD, is Professor of Islamic Studies in the non-arab world at the Humboldt University of Berlin. His principal research emphases include the history of the Islamic world and culture, conflicts between the Sunni and Shiite sects, the Islamic religion in the diaspora, especially in Germany and in the Indian sub-continent. Malachy McEldowney is a town planner with an architectural background and a planning academic. He worked for Leicester City Council in the 1970s and for De Montfort University in the early 1980s. Since 1981 he has been a lecturer/senior lecturer in the School of Environmental Planning at Queen s University of Belfast. He has been Head of School since 1993 and Professor of Town and Country Planning since 2000. xiii
xiv Notes on the Contributors Bill Morrison is an architect-planner and is chief planner with responsibility for the city of Belfast. Mike Morrissey, PhD, is Co-Director of the Urban Institute in Belfast. He has worked in the Northern Ireland Polytechnic and the University of Ulster since 1975. His main interests are in local labour markets and local economic development. Recent publications include (with Frank Gaffikin) The New Unemployed: Joblessness and the Market Economy (1992) and A Tale of One City (1996). Renate Müller, geographer, is a research and teaching assistant in the Institute of Geography at the Free University of Berlin. Her fields of interest include socio-spatial development in the Berlin urban area. William J.V. Neill, PhD, is Reader in Urban Planning in the Queen s University of Belfast. He worked for many years as an urban planner in the United States and has published widely in the field of urban identity and city marketing. Bernhard Schneider is a freelance architect and consultant. He works for various Berlin Ministries as well as Partner für Berlin GmbH. His published works deal with questions of public space and of museum architecture. He has been in addition fundamentally involved in setting up the Berlin urban consultation process known as Stadtforum. Hanns-Uve Schwedler, PhD, is a geographer by training and managing director of the European Academy of the Urban Environment in Berlin. His publications include works on urban development questions, in particular dealing with socio-spatial segregation in the Middle East. Mike Smith is a professional urban planner and chartered surveyor. He is Chief Executive of the Laganside Corporation in Belfast. Ken Sterrett, PhD, is a lecturer in the School of Environmental Planning at Queen s University in Belfast. His main research interests are in the sociology of design and aesthetics and in community involvement in planning. Before joining the School at Queen s, he worked as a senior planner with the Department of the Environment for Northern Ireland.
Notes on the Contributors xv Wolfgang Süchting, town planner and architect, is a civil servant in the Berlin Ministry of Urban Development, where he heads the project group dealing with Planwerk Innenstadt. Patrick Weiss, town planner, works as a civil servant in the Berlin Ministry of Urban Development. He coordinates the section dealing with the historical city centre Historisches Zentrum in the Planwerk Innenstadt project group.