00:01:37.640 --> 00:01:40.280
Amsterdam, Barcelona, Brussels

00:01:40.760 --> 00:01:43.760
and Budapest.

00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:46.320
The housing situation

00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:49.320
in Berlin has gone worse and worse
every year.

00:01:49.560 --> 00:01:55.000
The big companies that own lots of flats
in Berlin, they don't care about us.

00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:56.240
They don't care about us at all.

00:01:56.240 --> 00:01:58.520
They care only about their profits.

00:01:58.520 --> 00:02:00.400
So we have to stand up here.

00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:04.360
We have to stand up against them
to make sure that also the politicians,

00:02:04.360 --> 00:02:07.960
they hear us
and they implement the necessary steps

00:02:08.400 --> 00:02:13.240
to help us to live here for rent
that we can actually pay for.

00:02:13.640 --> 00:02:15.040
That we don't have to move

00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:18.160
to the outskirts of Berlin
and now even at the outskirts of Berlin.

00:02:18.280 --> 00:02:20.680
We can't live there anymore.
We have to move out of Berlin.

00:02:20.680 --> 00:02:21.800
So where are we going to live?

00:02:30.920 --> 00:02:33.240
The work that I have been doing
for the last 20 years

00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:38.240
in Berlin was possible
because of this relaxed nature.

00:02:38.720 --> 00:02:40.280
I could take chances with my own work.

00:02:40.280 --> 00:02:43.160
I didn't have to make so much money
I could experiment.

00:02:43.160 --> 00:02:45.640
But I see that people in the last

00:02:45.640 --> 00:02:48.560
five years, especially young people, don't

00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:52.000
even come to Berlin because they can't
find the affordable place to live.

00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:54.920
So I see this in a very direct

00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:55.760
personal way, that

00:02:56.840 --> 00:03:00.280
the work that I was able to do and develop

00:03:01.080 --> 00:03:03.720
is not accessible to young people.

00:03:03.720 --> 00:03:06.720
So that that's telling me something

00:03:06.800 --> 00:03:09.800
that the young generation,
the new generation

00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:14.200
doesn't have the same possibilities.

00:03:14.200 --> 00:03:17.840
Is discouraged
from taking chances, risks,

00:03:17.840 --> 00:03:23.000
and in a sense, I would say discouraged
from even taking steps

00:03:23.000 --> 00:03:25.440
to realise dreams.

00:03:39.960 --> 00:03:42.320
The situation of the income in Berlin

00:03:42.320 --> 00:03:45.320
is really the income is really low,
but the price are getting higher.

00:03:45.320 --> 00:03:49.200
If you see those both graphs
so the income does not really move a lot

00:03:49.520 --> 00:03:53.080
the people getting the same as they
got years ago.

00:03:53.600 --> 00:03:56.320
But they have to work to pay way more for

00:03:56.320 --> 00:03:57.200
for the rent.

00:04:00.880 --> 00:04:03.240
People got relaxed in Berlin,
like myself in

00:04:03.240 --> 00:04:06.640
the last decades.
It was a relatively easy place and

00:04:07.720 --> 00:04:08.840
relatively comfortable.

00:04:08.840 --> 00:04:13.160
And some people describe Berlin
as having been a playground,

00:04:14.320 --> 00:04:15.240
a place to

00:04:15.240 --> 00:04:19.000
to enjoy life, a place
to go to parties, a place to enjoy life

00:04:19.000 --> 00:04:22.080
and find a nice place to live
and not have to work too much.

00:04:24.320 --> 00:04:27.160
But Berlin these so-called

00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:30.160
problems of the world
are catching up with us in Berlin.

00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:33.560
You know, Berlin is catching up
to London, New York, Barcelona, Paris.

00:04:34.000 --> 00:04:36.120
High rents, stress to people.

00:04:38.680 --> 00:04:39.920
Yeah, that's great!

00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:42.920
There now, we'll put the Silverfish in focus.

00:04:45.920 --> 00:04:47.600
Perfect.

00:04:49.240 --> 00:04:51.160
Yeah, that's good isn't it?

00:04:51.160 --> 00:04:54.160
Thats it, can you just leave it a little bit? Yeah.

00:04:58.040 --> 00:04:58.840
There's a lot of people.

00:04:58.840 --> 00:05:02.200
They they kicked them out of our building.

00:05:02.320 --> 00:05:02.840
They kicked them out.

00:05:02.840 --> 00:05:04.160
They were threatened.

00:05:04.160 --> 00:05:05.360
They phoned them.

00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:06.760
They terrorized them.

00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:09.640
They proposed them money to get out in.

00:05:09.640 --> 00:05:11.160
And some people are old people.

00:05:11.160 --> 00:05:12.720
They are frightened. They got out.

00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:15.440
No one is looking for another apartment.

00:05:15.440 --> 00:05:18.520
If it's not really
if not really have to do

00:05:19.240 --> 00:05:22.840
because everyone knows that
it will be worse to find something new.

00:05:23.080 --> 00:05:28.360
I know a lot of people who had to to
move on and to find a new place to stay.

00:05:28.360 --> 00:05:33.440
And it's becoming frustrating
because you live here, you work here

00:05:33.440 --> 00:05:37.560
and there is no no,
you can just wait like two

00:05:37.560 --> 00:05:41.800
or three years maybe searching
and if you don't find anything so

00:05:42.440 --> 00:05:46.040
It's difficult to find something
and it will be more expensive.

00:05:47.000 --> 00:05:48.000
So everyone who

00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.960
is more or less happy with the situation.

00:05:50.960 --> 00:05:53.120
He's in

00:05:53.120 --> 00:05:54.920
stays like this.

00:06:07.200 --> 00:06:13.960
I’ve been in Berlin filming the very real housing crisis that they have here like in other major cities around the world...

00:06:13.960 --> 00:06:17.920
And today while filming shipping containers
used as emergency housing

00:06:17.920 --> 00:06:19.960
I’ve just stumbled across this abandoned building...

00:06:19.960 --> 00:06:25.320
It looks like something from the future that was built in the past and something tells me this chance encounter

00:06:25.320 --> 00:06:28.640
is going to change the whole direction of this documentary.

00:06:34.120 --> 00:06:35.720
Right now, we need houses.

00:06:35.720 --> 00:06:40.120
We need apartments more than we can build
and everything is about.

00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:43.120
We have to build houses
as soon as possible.

00:06:43.560 --> 00:06:46.480
We it's not even possible to talk really
about quality

00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.480
of housing because we need it right now.

00:06:49.960 --> 00:06:52.360
We have to think in another way.

00:06:52.360 --> 00:06:55.360
You know, it is not.

00:06:55.560 --> 00:07:01.560
We, we, we,
we can't go back to a situation that is..

00:07:01.840 --> 00:07:04.120
we sold all these.

00:07:04.120 --> 00:07:06.600
So we have to think in in a new way.

00:07:06.600 --> 00:07:09.440
But I don't know what way
it should be.

00:07:09.440 --> 00:07:10.480
I really don't know.

00:07:11.000 --> 00:07:14.080
Berlin has.. Berlin is making a transition

00:07:14.400 --> 00:07:18.360
in these last couple of decades
from being a city

00:07:18.360 --> 00:07:24.240
where we have on average
had time to relax enjoy life,

00:07:25.320 --> 00:07:29.080
work in the garden, start a new
project, maybe go to a demonstration.

00:07:29.760 --> 00:07:35.080
And we're transitioning into a population
that is stressed that

00:07:35.920 --> 00:07:38.920
either doesn't have time or doesn't
think it has time,

00:07:39.520 --> 00:07:42.360
meaning people are withdrawing,

00:07:42.360 --> 00:07:45.360
people are working to pay
the rent, people are afraid, people are

00:07:46.280 --> 00:07:49.040
are in a sense, being privatised, yeah.

00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:53.760
So it's it's a dangerous path
if we're not conscious of it.

00:07:53.760 --> 00:07:57.120
And if we can't turn it around.

00:07:57.120 --> 00:08:01.240
And so I think it's right
to look at housing and the cost of housing

00:08:01.240 --> 00:08:03.640
as a as a foundation for that. If

00:08:04.600 --> 00:08:05.320
if the housing on

00:08:05.320 --> 00:08:10.600
average is demanding too much rent,
which demands us to work

00:08:11.320 --> 00:08:15.880
too much to pay for it,
then it definitely has a huge impact

00:08:15.880 --> 00:08:18.840
on how we're living and here we are.

00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:35.440
Hi is that

00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:39.080
Matthias Ludwig? Yeah, I'm Matthias
Ludwig, I'm on the phone.

00:08:39.320 --> 00:08:40.520
Great, wy name is Rory Ryder.

00:08:40.520 --> 00:08:44.280
We've been filming in Berlin,
the street protests

00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:48.560
and we've been looking into the housing
situation and on our journey filming,

00:08:48.560 --> 00:08:52.680
I came across a very interesting building
which I believe you wrote about.

00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:54.960
Is it about the REH?

00:08:54.960 --> 00:08:55.840
Yes, that's right.

00:08:55.840 --> 00:08:57.160
So where did you find it?

00:08:57.160 --> 00:09:01.000
Well, we were filming Shipping Containers
in Berlin, which we use for refugees

00:09:01.560 --> 00:09:04.560
and in fact, they're all over Berlin
and we've seen them in three

00:09:04.560 --> 00:09:06.360
or four different locations.

00:09:06.360 --> 00:09:08.160
And we just walked across the road.

00:09:08.160 --> 00:09:12.840
And next to the shipping containers
was this building, which is all abandoned.

00:09:12.920 --> 00:09:15.000
And then I found out that you did this
brochure.

00:09:15.000 --> 00:09:16.200
Yes, that's right.

00:09:16.200 --> 00:09:18.920
We did that catalog some time ago.

00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:19.520
That's right.

00:09:19.520 --> 00:09:19.840
Yeah.

00:09:19.840 --> 00:09:23.720
They seem to be
somehow forgotten and they have to

00:09:24.120 --> 00:09:28.320
have been quite popular during the GDR time.

00:09:28.920 --> 00:09:31.560
And now it seems that

00:09:31.560 --> 00:09:34.200
people have forgotten them.

00:09:36.800 --> 00:09:40.080
If it's okay with you, would it be okay
if I bring a camera and interview you?

00:09:40.200 --> 00:09:43.920
Yes, you're welcome to come and see me in Wismar

00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:46.920
and we can discuss about the building.

00:10:01.680 --> 00:10:03.160
So can you remember all the things

00:10:03.160 --> 00:10:06.160
that the REH was used for
and what they were used for?

00:10:07.320 --> 00:10:09.120
The REH has been used for

00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:12.960
basically  for almost anything
you can imagine.

00:10:13.000 --> 00:10:13.520
Everything,

00:10:13.520 --> 00:10:18.120
basically what was missing,
they were used for like shops,

00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:21.120
for example, like ice cream

00:10:22.120 --> 00:10:24.640
shops, ice cream, coffees,

00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:27.640
even churches they had been used for.

00:10:27.840 --> 00:10:31.960
They've been used for hostels, many,
many things for libraries,

00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:36.440
for example,
basically everything which was necessary,

00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:38.480
and what was missing at that time.

00:10:43.640 --> 00:10:46.640
It's quite interesting to talk to people

00:10:47.400 --> 00:10:52.440
which knows this building
from their childhood and they really enjoy

00:10:52.480 --> 00:10:56.680
seeing these buildings in photographs
and they think, wow,

00:10:56.840 --> 00:11:00.600
I saw this when I was 18 or 20 or

00:11:00.600 --> 00:11:05.480
something like that, and most of them
didn't see it for a long time anymore.

00:11:05.720 --> 00:11:09.160
But this is due
to the political situation.

00:11:12.560 --> 00:11:14.680
Due to the situation

00:11:14.680 --> 00:11:17.680
after the Second World War,
after the Second World War,

00:11:17.800 --> 00:11:21.600
there was a lot of destruction
amongst buildings.

00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:25.560
Of course, a lot of buildings were
missing, a lot of functions were missing.

00:11:25.880 --> 00:11:30.600
And in almost any countries in the world
which were involved

00:11:31.400 --> 00:11:34.600
in the Second World War, they had to solve

00:11:35.080 --> 00:11:38.320
how to substitute missing buildings.

00:11:40.560 --> 00:11:43.560
The REH was a child of

00:11:43.640 --> 00:11:46.920
of the GDR of of East Germany.

00:11:48.280 --> 00:11:51.840
And of course, everybody knows East
Germany is not existing anymore.

00:11:51.840 --> 00:11:55.040
And all the people gave that basically up.

00:11:55.040 --> 00:11:58.040
So they forgot this because

00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:01.640
actually the state doesn't exist anymore.

00:12:01.640 --> 00:12:04.720
And that's why
I think it has been forgotten.

00:12:10.080 --> 00:12:13.080
When there is conflict in colder countries.

00:12:13.280 --> 00:12:17.680
But they need space, they need hospitals,
they need something very quick to protect

00:12:17.760 --> 00:12:18.600
wounded people,

00:12:18.600 --> 00:12:23.840
but also people from the Red Cross
or whoever it might be to to operate.

00:12:23.920 --> 00:12:26.120
They still operate in tents, possibly.

00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:28.240
Could these be used
if they were made in a new way

00:12:28.240 --> 00:12:32.120
for medical centers
that could be quickly deployed

00:12:32.120 --> 00:12:35.320
Because I've seen these
REH has been moved onto ships,

00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:39.800
Yes, it's still a solution
for for military usage as well.

00:12:39.800 --> 00:12:44.600
I mean, that's the original first usage

00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:50.400
for mobile homes in army

00:12:50.480 --> 00:12:53.880
conditions has been the hospital
of course,

00:12:53.960 --> 00:12:57.600
because in modern war

00:12:57.680 --> 00:13:00.680
lots of people got wounded.

00:13:00.880 --> 00:13:05.800
So you had to had a kind of flexible,
transportable hospital.

00:13:05.800 --> 00:13:11.280
And at the beginning there were tents,
of course, or they were tent hospitals.

00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:13.280
Later on in colder regions

00:13:13.280 --> 00:13:16.560
You would have to protect these people.

00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:20.840
Of course, from cold and diseases
and so on.

00:13:21.080 --> 00:13:24.880
So you need proper houses

00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:27.840
and also for ventilation and so on,

00:13:27.840 --> 00:13:31.120
so proper, more harder

00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.920
houses are a lot better in that case.

00:13:33.920 --> 00:13:38.480
And of course something like
the REH would be transportable

00:13:38.720 --> 00:13:44.520
very quickly by helicopters to places
where you could up a settlement or where

00:13:44.560 --> 00:13:47.560
you could have a hospital
which is working,

00:13:47.640 --> 00:13:52.480
which could do much more than a tent,
would actually help.

00:13:52.640 --> 00:13:56.560
Because if you are thinking
about operations, for example,

00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:01.040
and so on, this could be done
in a kind of flexible,

00:14:01.040 --> 00:14:05.720
transportable hospital, of course,
and I think that's possible.

00:14:05.720 --> 00:14:08.960
And I guess this exists already

00:14:08.960 --> 00:14:13.920
by the Army,
but not in the shape of REH of course.

00:14:14.000 --> 00:14:17.520
So I probably do have containers,
what they transport

00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:23.600
and nowadays and they just screw
together a couple of containers in the end,

00:14:23.680 --> 00:14:27.960
but it would be a lot more elegant
that you just could extend

00:14:27.960 --> 00:14:31.960
the space like an REH is doing that.

00:14:41.240 --> 00:14:44.280
Realising how fascinated I am about the
biulding

00:14:44.280 --> 00:14:49.560
Mattias has put me onto 3 other people I should
interview to find out more

00:14:53.360 --> 00:14:56.040
I saw it maybe six years ago

00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:00.000
there at the rural village
here in the neighborhood.

00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:04.240
And I asked the the owner and he said, oh,

00:15:04.240 --> 00:15:07.960
you can take it, it's only waste.

00:15:08.280 --> 00:15:12.000
And I say, okay,
we take it and bring it in the museum.

00:15:12.360 --> 00:15:16.600
And so we translocated this
building into the museum.

00:15:20.280 --> 00:15:20.640
Yeah,

00:15:20.640 --> 00:15:24.720
the strange thing was every morning
and every evening when I just went

00:15:24.720 --> 00:15:29.880
from my apartment to my workshop,
I passed by this, this building.

00:15:30.520 --> 00:15:32.520
But I never realised that it's there.

00:15:32.520 --> 00:15:34.720
It was just like a ghost.
It was just hidden.

00:15:34.720 --> 00:15:37.360
It was away
when I just entered it and open it.

00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.360
And that was the first time
I just realised that,

00:15:39.360 --> 00:15:41.760
there's this huge space yeah

00:15:43.680 --> 00:15:48.840
And the very special thing about it, it
looks bigger than it really is, you know?

00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:52.880
I mean, it only has 85 square meters,
but in this structure from Prenzlauer

00:15:52.880 --> 00:15:56.920
Berg, it's
one of the biggest halls and areas

00:15:56.920 --> 00:15:58.400
you have as a common space.

00:16:16.920 --> 00:16:20.160
I saw this hall at Ostbahnhof, broken

00:16:20.160 --> 00:16:24.320
they were we tried to go in
and but not so much and so on.

00:16:25.280 --> 00:16:27.640
And Jürgen

00:16:27.640 --> 00:16:30.480
we saw it and Jürgen said

00:16:30.480 --> 00:16:33.320
and I also had this place

00:16:33.320 --> 00:16:38.160
that was all in that we she
we will start to get a big place.

00:16:38.160 --> 00:16:45.200
And then Jürgen I sit here
and then Jürgen called me in the evening,

00:16:45.480 --> 00:16:48.480
Elke, I got to the hall!

00:16:48.960 --> 00:16:52.160
You know this one at Ostbahnhof it's one mark!

00:16:57.000 --> 00:17:00.360
God is my God.
I got to shock, of course.

00:17:00.880 --> 00:17:03.400
Then I called Toni Pfeiffer

00:17:03.400 --> 00:17:06.600
my mentor Muse wife, and Toni

00:17:06.600 --> 00:17:08.760
Oh, my God. She flipped out.

00:17:08.760 --> 00:17:13.000
So then I got this job with her

00:17:13.000 --> 00:17:16.000
to make an international market

00:17:16.040 --> 00:17:20.320
only one day a week and find these people.

00:17:20.880 --> 00:17:22.440
And I did this and this.

00:17:22.440 --> 00:17:24.120
And so this halls came.

00:17:24.120 --> 00:17:28.080
And the other hall,
because they knew there was another one.

00:17:28.080 --> 00:17:30.680
So I told Toni.

00:17:30.680 --> 00:17:33.840
So we had two. She was she loved it. Yeah.

00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.200
The REH

00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:49.680
the Raumerweiterungshalle is a very special

00:17:49.960 --> 00:17:52.960
mobile building or mobile home.

00:17:53.160 --> 00:17:57.760
You can put it together like a harmonica

00:17:58.440 --> 00:18:01.440
and you can put it out.

00:18:01.680 --> 00:18:06.400
And so it's a very great idea

00:18:06.960 --> 00:18:09.960
to build it up, build it down

00:18:10.200 --> 00:18:11.360
and transported it.

00:18:16.640 --> 00:18:21.000
Our REH is from seven segments.

00:18:21.360 --> 00:18:24.120
And you can put out two segments

00:18:24.120 --> 00:18:27.480
or three or four or all seven. Yeah.

00:18:27.680 --> 00:18:31.720
And so you can look about your, your need

00:18:32.040 --> 00:18:35.280
and so you can take the space
more or less.

00:18:43.080 --> 00:18:43.880
Do you think that's

00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:46.880
what attracted you to the GDR

00:18:47.680 --> 00:18:50.000
thing, the simplicity? Yes.

00:18:50.000 --> 00:18:53.920
You know, this hall made
also this fascination for me

00:18:53.920 --> 00:18:57.000
in this kind of hall and this place

00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:01.000
and how it came that I Jürgen saw it
and I, you know,

00:19:01.000 --> 00:19:05.240
this magic thing with
it that it, you know, and

00:19:06.400 --> 00:19:08.680
that was the point I loved.

00:19:08.680 --> 00:19:12.120
When I read this

00:19:12.120 --> 00:19:16.280
and I saw the first of these buildings,

00:19:17.800 --> 00:19:19.400
I was very interested

00:19:19.400 --> 00:19:23.040
and interested
about these kind of buildings.

00:19:23.360 --> 00:19:27.760
It was a special form of mobile buildings,

00:19:28.160 --> 00:19:30.960
um, founded after the Second World

00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:33.960
War of the lost spaces, bombed areas,

00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:39.360
and then it came more and more as a mobile

00:19:39.360 --> 00:19:44.240
building of shops, cafes, restaurants

00:19:44.600 --> 00:19:47.240
and of course Intershops.

00:19:54.600 --> 00:19:57.600
The feedback was beautiful, you know.

00:19:57.720 --> 00:20:00.720
Then one day morning I rented this,

00:20:00.720 --> 00:20:03.720
this flat here and,

00:20:05.640 --> 00:20:10.000
and didn't knew
and I was in the middle page of Tagesspiegel

00:20:10.000 --> 00:20:13.680
inside the paper about
culture with the hall.

00:20:13.840 --> 00:20:16.160
I still have all these papers.

00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:18.640
It's yesterday, it's yesterday.

00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:21.960
When you didn't come it's yesterday,
you know, but it's a moment now.

00:20:22.200 --> 00:20:26.520
It was we say - I did it.

00:20:26.520 --> 00:20:27.840
And it was also with the.

00:20:27.840 --> 00:20:28.800
money.

00:20:28.800 --> 00:20:32.480
My mother was very
she was a very CDU person

00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:35.320
and she thought, I'm not normal.

00:20:35.320 --> 00:20:38.400
What do want with this East stuff.

00:20:39.360 --> 00:20:42.240
You know, they had another..

00:20:42.240 --> 00:20:42.960
yeah?

00:20:42.960 --> 00:20:45.800
And and I liked it, you know,

00:20:45.800 --> 00:20:49.320
and find out
and what they throw everything away

00:20:49.320 --> 00:20:53.960
and the good things the books
and they had so good things to you know

00:20:53.960 --> 00:20:57.760
and not too 50 or 70 kind of chocolate

00:20:57.760 --> 00:21:01.080
that they had maybe 5,6,7

00:21:02.600 --> 00:21:05.000
When I was walking around Berlin
I realised that

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:08.000
theres
some people living in shipping containers,

00:21:08.040 --> 00:21:12.040
which seems to be a typical solution
from governments to put people

00:21:12.040 --> 00:21:16.320
in shipping containers and also people
living in smaller and smaller places.

00:21:17.800 --> 00:21:20.440
Do you feel like the REH has

00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:24.320
could inspire a new generation
of arquitects and governments

00:21:24.320 --> 00:21:28.920
to think more radically about
a futuristic system of social housing?

00:21:29.160 --> 00:21:30.760
I think

00:21:30.760 --> 00:21:33.080
the rebuilding of the REH

00:21:33.080 --> 00:21:38.800
with modern materials,
with innovative materials can be a

00:21:40.120 --> 00:21:43.120
solution of of a lot of problems,

00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:46.200
problems of immigrants, refugees,

00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:51.240
social housings and and other things.

00:21:51.640 --> 00:21:56.120
I only think that no one gets the idea

00:21:56.200 --> 00:22:00.600
because it's a forgotten building
and no one, no one has

00:22:00.600 --> 00:22:03.000
it's on their screen.

00:22:03.000 --> 00:22:04.920
What type of temporary accommodation

00:22:04.920 --> 00:22:07.920
does the state of Berlin
usually provide refugees?

00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:12.680
The only thing I know is
they we're looking for space to

00:22:12.680 --> 00:22:15.720
to put them in and there are actually

00:22:15.720 --> 00:22:19.120
a lot of temporary container solutions

00:22:19.120 --> 00:22:22.120
which are able to to build

00:22:22.920 --> 00:22:25.480
really, really quick.

00:22:25.480 --> 00:22:28.480
But I don't know what the situation is
right now.

00:22:28.800 --> 00:22:29.840
no idea.

00:22:29.840 --> 00:22:32.760
It's it's about the shape and the material

00:22:32.760 --> 00:22:36.480
which is very attractive, attractive
to my mind

00:22:36.840 --> 00:22:39.480
and much nicer than a standard

00:22:39.480 --> 00:22:42.720
container building of whatever

00:22:43.040 --> 00:22:46.800
because these are just blocks and have no

00:22:48.120 --> 00:22:48.840
shape which

00:22:48.840 --> 00:22:52.600
is attractive in any way,
it's purely function.

00:22:52.760 --> 00:22:56.040
But the REH is apart from function.

00:22:56.040 --> 00:22:59.280
It's also a nice design of course,

00:22:59.280 --> 00:23:02.280
and functional design of course.

00:23:02.840 --> 00:23:05.760
As far as I know,
the main uses of these buildings.

00:23:05.760 --> 00:23:06.440
At the beginning

00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:10.800
it was just a structure to
to get housing for construction workers.

00:23:11.080 --> 00:23:15.000
So in the in the late fifties, sixties
they had this problem that they had

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:18.000
just a lot of new construction
things to do

00:23:18.360 --> 00:23:21.360
in the countryside and they started

00:23:21.360 --> 00:23:24.240
inventing these kind of

00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:27.440
none permanent housing possibilities to, to,

00:23:27.640 --> 00:23:30.640
to get a home for the construction workers
during the week.

00:23:30.720 --> 00:23:33.760
And as far as I know, they they once
they invented the structure,

00:23:33.760 --> 00:23:37.200
they discovered
other possibilities to use it.

00:23:37.640 --> 00:23:40.680
Because the GDR had this idea
to develop the countryside.

00:23:41.040 --> 00:23:44.520
Every little village should have
the structure like a little town,

00:23:44.520 --> 00:23:49.000
you know, they wanted to have like
a medicine there, a kindergarten.

00:23:49.000 --> 00:23:52.000
They wanted to have a shop,
gymnastic floors,

00:23:52.320 --> 00:23:55.320
just in case a school didn't have like a
like a gym.

00:23:55.400 --> 00:23:58.680
These were sleeping areas
in the countryside,

00:23:58.680 --> 00:24:01.800
in a huge camping areas
for young people,

00:24:01.800 --> 00:24:04.840
to have the chance
to have a vacation trip on the East Sea.

00:24:05.360 --> 00:24:08.240
So this is the idea to, to get

00:24:08.240 --> 00:24:11.360
get a a little
infrastructure to the countryside.

00:24:16.800 --> 00:24:18.320
Do you think it would be possible,

00:24:18.840 --> 00:24:21.840
the local government
say to the central government,

00:24:21.960 --> 00:24:26.240
we need you to finance the land
that's bought outside Berlin.

00:24:26.280 --> 00:24:26.920
We can't do it.

00:24:26.920 --> 00:24:28.760
We haven't got enough money
or they can do it etc.

00:24:28.760 --> 00:24:32.640
They can talk together,
and we'll use the state owned companies

00:24:32.640 --> 00:24:36.240
to build this affordable housing quickly.
Could that be a possibility?

00:24:36.840 --> 00:24:39.120
I guess this is
what's happening right now.

00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:42.120
Everything that the housing companies,
the state owned

00:24:42.440 --> 00:24:45.000
six companies should do that.

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:48.840
They are the ones who have to
to build affordable housing.

00:24:48.840 --> 00:24:53.320
And the only one which has been built
in quite a large number

00:24:54.080 --> 00:24:59.080
in, in, in a civil version,
that's the REH and all the others.

00:24:59.400 --> 00:25:00.360
Not really.

00:25:00.360 --> 00:25:03.720
There have been more prototypes
and more the vision of

00:25:03.720 --> 00:25:08.400
how could future living be
and how is it like

00:25:08.600 --> 00:25:11.640
living in a spaceship or whatever?

00:25:11.640 --> 00:25:16.600
So they have been visions of the sixties
and seventies basically.

00:25:25.720 --> 00:25:28.720
But the REH was reality.

00:25:29.160 --> 00:25:32.240
Everyday's reality in a socialist

00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:33.160
country.

00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:40.640
As I dig deeper,

00:25:40.640 --> 00:25:44.360
trying to better understand the reasons
behind the housing crisis in Berlin,

00:25:44.920 --> 00:25:48.480
I'm starting to wonder whether something
like the Silverfish, if redesigned to

00:25:48.480 --> 00:25:51.600
today's standards,
could provide an answer for emergency

00:25:51.600 --> 00:25:52.640
shelter.

00:25:55.280 --> 00:25:57.280
And for many, many years,

00:25:57.280 --> 00:26:00.600
almost 30 years they
were living with these buildings,

00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:05.760
which is and still still
some of them do live with these buildings.

00:26:06.240 --> 00:26:09.520
And that's the big exception
about the REH

00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:14.000
that is has been working
in that amount of numbers.

00:26:14.320 --> 00:26:16.280
That's very special about that.

00:26:22.600 --> 00:26:23.200
Right now

00:26:23.200 --> 00:26:26.600
because of the situation
we have in Berlin on the housing market,

00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:31.000
the Senate starts to talk more

00:26:31.000 --> 00:26:35.360
of with Brandenburg
with the state surround, surround Berlin.

00:26:35.720 --> 00:26:38.880
They started talking
about housing projects

00:26:38.880 --> 00:26:41.880
of maybe building companies
outside of Berlin.

00:26:42.400 --> 00:26:45.920
So this happens right now
because there's no other possibility.

00:26:51.360 --> 00:26:52.720
It's true

00:26:52.720 --> 00:26:55.840
of big, post-industrial Western cities
they are diversify.

00:26:55.840 --> 00:26:58.840
And that means people are living

00:26:59.120 --> 00:27:02.320
and working in ever new ways,

00:27:02.360 --> 00:27:03.280
right?

00:27:03.280 --> 00:27:04.720
Family structures are changing.

00:27:04.720 --> 00:27:07.200
The working structures are changing.

00:27:11.720 --> 00:27:12.600
What's happening is

00:27:12.600 --> 00:27:16.120
the the housing is not keeping up with that

00:27:18.040 --> 00:27:20.680
people are are living differently.

00:27:20.680 --> 00:27:22.240
They are different.

00:27:22.240 --> 00:27:25.600
They are diverse,
not just international but diverse.

00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:28.600
That the way people live and want to live.

00:27:43.400 --> 00:27:44.240
The homelessness

00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:48.440
situation is a problem
that everybody knows.

00:27:48.800 --> 00:27:51.800
But we used to think about it

00:27:52.000 --> 00:27:56.080
just as a problem for poor countries
and it isn't.

00:27:56.480 --> 00:28:00.200
You see a lot of people
also in Western countries,

00:28:00.200 --> 00:28:03.280
they are living in tents
or under the bridge.

00:28:03.560 --> 00:28:06.720
I'm really surprised about also

00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:10.200
seeing people that could have a job,

00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:13.400
but they can afford the normal rent

00:28:13.560 --> 00:28:17.920
and they have to live in that condition.

00:28:24.640 --> 00:28:28.320
We're investing our energy and things
like community land trust, cooperatives

00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:31.960
that have a good track record
over the years and decades of

00:28:33.040 --> 00:28:36.040
developing and maintaining

00:28:36.360 --> 00:28:39.360
affordable housing and places to work.

00:28:40.840 --> 00:28:43.840
It's a long and difficult process of

00:28:45.160 --> 00:28:47.320
connecting the left

00:28:47.320 --> 00:28:50.560
leaning policymakers and planners

00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:55.120
with civil society activists and experts

00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:59.280
who are interested in nonprofit,
non speculative, common good approaches.

00:29:00.400 --> 00:29:02.680
It's a big challenge to get

00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:05.680
the government
as well as other people on the left,

00:29:05.840 --> 00:29:07.600
to see that there are things

00:29:07.600 --> 00:29:11.120
that are privately organised,
more or less privately organised,

00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:14.360
but nonprofit, non speculative

00:29:14.360 --> 00:29:17.360
and very democratic community controlled.

00:29:17.880 --> 00:29:20.680
That, that's that's the frontier
is, as I see it.

00:29:20.680 --> 00:29:25.600
Don't you find it ironic that now, 50
years later, there's now a shortage of buildings,

00:29:25.960 --> 00:29:29.120
but the one building that was invented for
the shortage of buildings

00:29:29.120 --> 00:29:30.760
is now being forgotten?

00:29:30.760 --> 00:29:32.080
That's quite ironic.

00:29:32.080 --> 00:29:36.240
Yes, it was invented for the purpose to, to

00:29:37.840 --> 00:29:40.040
to, to give more space

00:29:40.040 --> 00:29:43.120
and substitute destroyed buildings

00:29:43.120 --> 00:29:46.600
by other buildings, by the REH.

00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:50.000
And now we have a shortage of buildings

00:29:50.120 --> 00:29:51.120
again, because of war,

00:29:51.120 --> 00:29:53.600
we are so many people at one place

00:29:53.600 --> 00:29:57.240
that still there's not enough space
for living anymore.

00:29:57.600 --> 00:30:02.120
And also the other reason is that
a lots of people are moving in the moment.

00:30:02.120 --> 00:30:08.120
So we have a lot of movement
within the nations and even worldwide.

00:30:08.120 --> 00:30:10.720
So people are moving from here to there.

00:30:10.720 --> 00:30:14.600
And in some parts
you don't need any buildings anymore

00:30:14.600 --> 00:30:17.960
and some other parts
you need even more buildings.

00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:21.320
And that's the problem.
In the moment,

00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:24.480
it would be very good to have flexible

00:30:24.480 --> 00:30:28.120
and transportable buildings once again,

00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:34.840
which people could move themselves
or they could be moved for the people,

00:30:34.840 --> 00:30:37.320
of course.
And this is not happening at the moment.

00:30:37.320 --> 00:30:40.760
We have a very unflexible

00:30:41.120 --> 00:30:46.160
building strategy in the moment,
so we build buildings for

00:30:47.200 --> 00:30:50.200
100 or 200 years or even longer.

00:30:50.320 --> 00:30:55.160
But our society in the moment
needs also lots of flexible buildings.

00:30:55.400 --> 00:30:57.880
I mean, in terms of energy conservation.

00:30:57.880 --> 00:31:01.920
Of course it's good
that you keep buildings for a long time

00:31:01.920 --> 00:31:05.720
because they require
a lot of energy for building.

00:31:05.720 --> 00:31:10.280
So if you knock them always down,
it's it's a lot of wasted energy.

00:31:10.520 --> 00:31:14.160
But on the other hand,
we need a lot of flexible building

00:31:14.160 --> 00:31:19.640
also in the moment
because society is changing very fast

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:23.920
and we have to be adopted to that

00:31:23.920 --> 00:31:25.640
of course.

00:31:25.640 --> 00:31:28.880
It's just in a nomadic structure
so you can change.

00:31:29.240 --> 00:31:32.760
So just in time you are done
with, with your work,

00:31:32.760 --> 00:31:36.640
with your social project, whatever, you
just put it together and you move.

00:31:38.280 --> 00:31:39.680
And the x-GDR, they had and didn't

00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:43.640
have this money and these possibilities
to build huge houses there.

00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:46.880
But they had these little tiny houses
and they, they,

00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.600
they had the same function.
As an architect.

00:31:49.600 --> 00:31:51.600
I see the tiny house movement, of course,

00:31:51.600 --> 00:31:55.880
a little bit critical in terms
of designing, most of the projects

00:31:55.880 --> 00:31:58.960
I know they're kind of romantic style.

00:31:59.200 --> 00:32:03.600
So what they try to do
is to keep the appearance of a standard,

00:32:03.600 --> 00:32:06.600
normal, fixed house.

00:32:06.600 --> 00:32:09.920
They want to keep the aesthetics
for a tiny house.

00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:13.880
So basically it looks like a miniature
villa on wheels,

00:32:13.880 --> 00:32:18.920
which
I think it cannot be for modern society.

00:32:18.920 --> 00:32:23.680
So I think the REH in terms of
architecture is much more advanced

00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:27.720
because if you imagine in the fifties
or in the sixties

00:32:27.720 --> 00:32:31.640
or even in the seventies,
this was a modern version.

00:32:31.640 --> 00:32:34.240
So it was more like having

00:32:35.240 --> 00:32:37.840
an airplane or

00:32:37.840 --> 00:32:41.280
a vehicle,
which was very modern at that time.

00:32:41.840 --> 00:32:45.240
So you were offering something
for the future

00:32:46.240 --> 00:32:49.880
at these days already.
Where the tiny house is

00:32:50.200 --> 00:32:53.080
is looking is a little bit retrospective.

00:32:53.080 --> 00:32:56.080
He's having this kind of

00:32:56.720 --> 00:33:01.280
a nice atmosphere,
which is actually not happening, you know,

00:33:01.600 --> 00:33:05.120
and you cannot live with one or two people

00:33:05.120 --> 00:33:08.320
near lake
and the rest of the world doesn't exist.

00:33:09.320 --> 00:33:12.920
We are a society of billions of people

00:33:13.280 --> 00:33:16.240
and we have to find
also modern solutions.

00:33:16.240 --> 00:33:22.800
And we cannot use solutions
which are just pure romanticism and

00:33:23.640 --> 00:33:27.480
and you are away
from the rest of the society.

00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:30.480
I think that's, of course, the problem

00:33:30.760 --> 00:33:34.680
we have with the tiny house movement
in the moment.

00:33:34.800 --> 00:33:37.880
Of course. The structure has this, this,

00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:44.040
this special
thing that you have space under the REH.

00:33:44.520 --> 00:33:47.120
And this is why we us sometimes
and there's a fox,

00:33:47.120 --> 00:33:50.120
foxes living under under the space.

00:33:50.240 --> 00:33:53.200
So you you create in the in the

00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:57.960
in the city space you create possibilities
for some animals to live here.

00:33:57.960 --> 00:33:59.720
You know, it's just like a housing.

00:33:59.720 --> 00:34:01.240
It's like a housing on two levels.

00:34:01.240 --> 00:34:04.360
You know, under under my furniture shop

00:34:04.600 --> 00:34:07.600
there's a little Fox family living there

00:34:08.480 --> 00:34:09.800
and then there's me.

00:34:09.800 --> 00:34:12.800
And on the on the

00:34:13.640 --> 00:34:14.600
on the upper

00:34:14.600 --> 00:34:17.600
level, there's often the birds coming
in, you know.

00:34:17.800 --> 00:34:19.600
So this is like a tent.

00:34:19.600 --> 00:34:22.600
And as it is just a metal structure,

00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:26.400
you very often
hear the birds running, running around you,

00:34:26.400 --> 00:34:29.840
you know. This is what makes you like
this natural feeling, you know.

00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:32.240
And as a coincidence, now it's raining.

00:34:32.240 --> 00:34:35.360
I don't know if people are hearing this.

00:34:36.160 --> 00:34:38.720
So when it's raining,
you just hear the rain.

00:34:38.720 --> 00:34:42.640
So it, it's just like a soft,
smooth, dripping.

00:34:43.040 --> 00:34:46.120
You feel safe, you're in your tent,
but you feel it.

00:34:46.120 --> 00:34:50.320
So this is why the very special structure
is that it's, it's

00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:54.720
it's it, it brings
you back to a natural living in the city.

00:34:54.960 --> 00:34:59.160
This is very special about this
space I have very often here.

00:35:01.480 --> 00:35:02.440
Yeah.

00:35:08.840 --> 00:35:09.400
I did some

00:35:09.400 --> 00:35:13.240
research on trailer parks
in America recently

00:35:13.240 --> 00:35:16.240
where they're all becoming privatised

00:35:16.320 --> 00:35:19.080
and the people's rents are going up.

00:35:19.080 --> 00:35:22.400
And then when the rent goes up, which
they can't afford, they decide to leave

00:35:22.480 --> 00:35:25.640
but the cost of moving
the big transportable home, is too high,

00:35:25.640 --> 00:35:28.640
it's so expensive they abandoned it.

00:35:28.760 --> 00:35:32.760
So if there was a way to sort of combine

00:35:33.200 --> 00:35:37.760
trailer parks with a new type of building
that people do have control of their home

00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:40.920
and they can move them
and they're not stuck in these sort

00:35:40.920 --> 00:35:44.360
of trailer park situations
which clearly are not working in America.

00:35:44.720 --> 00:35:46.640
Do you think that's something
that could be achievable

00:35:46.640 --> 00:35:49.640
and how difficult would it be?

00:35:50.640 --> 00:35:54.080
I think it's definitely nowadays
achievable

00:35:54.080 --> 00:35:59.040
that you would build something
which is similar to the REH.

00:35:59.360 --> 00:36:05.360
I mean, yes, we have even better
materials, we have even stronger materials

00:36:05.360 --> 00:36:11.360
and we have even more lightweight
materials to build a building like that.

00:36:11.600 --> 00:36:13.280
So it's definitely possible.

00:36:13.280 --> 00:36:15.520
I mean, the only problem is,

00:36:16.960 --> 00:36:19.640
is possible to use

00:36:19.640 --> 00:36:22.640
some of these buildings in the moment

00:36:23.160 --> 00:36:26.120
our building regulations
are not like that.

00:36:26.120 --> 00:36:29.760
You just buy a transport, a portable home

00:36:29.960 --> 00:36:33.200
and put it somewhere
because that's not possible

00:36:33.480 --> 00:36:36.360
by the building regulations,
because the building regulation

00:36:36.360 --> 00:36:41.480
wants to have a standard, probably
a proper building with a pitched roof

00:36:41.480 --> 00:36:44.960
and with the standard sizes
we normally have.

00:36:44.960 --> 00:36:50.080
So if you would be able
to buy a transportable house,

00:36:50.080 --> 00:36:52.920
it would be very, very difficult
to put it somewhere

00:36:52.920 --> 00:36:56.280
because the regulations
are not allowing it.

00:36:56.280 --> 00:36:59.320
So I think to make it technically

00:36:59.320 --> 00:37:02.320
it's, it's absolutely no problem

00:37:02.600 --> 00:37:06.320
because we have lots of better materials
like carbon fibre,

00:37:06.600 --> 00:37:11.040
which is a lot stronger, lot stiffer
a lot more lightweight.

00:37:11.040 --> 00:37:15.440
We have timber material to build it.

00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:18.920
We have better adhesive materials.

00:37:19.480 --> 00:37:21.920
So basically it's

00:37:21.920 --> 00:37:24.960
not a big problem to design it
and build it.

00:37:25.040 --> 00:37:28.680
Today
we have the technology to print a house,

00:37:28.800 --> 00:37:32.960
to print a building,
whatever is the shape.

00:37:33.680 --> 00:37:35.880
So where is the future?

00:37:35.880 --> 00:37:39.360
The future
which is a present for a niche of visionary

00:37:39.400 --> 00:37:43.600
people, vision, structure
construction and architecture and technician, engineering.

00:37:44.360 --> 00:37:45.440
They are

00:37:46.760 --> 00:37:48.440
building in the factory

00:37:48.440 --> 00:37:52.400
assembling, testing and then transport

00:37:52.520 --> 00:37:55.520
and reassemble on site.

00:37:55.800 --> 00:37:59.920
What does it mean
or what are the consequences of this? Cost

00:37:59.960 --> 00:38:02.920
effective, safer

00:38:02.920 --> 00:38:05.360
and many other benefits

00:38:05.360 --> 00:38:10.160
in the sense of time, money and health.

00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:15.640
If the market is there,
if enough people buying this

00:38:16.520 --> 00:38:22.000
because the industry would have been
picked is up already, if you could sell it

00:38:22.000 --> 00:38:27.200
like a car, if you could sell it
in in in amounts of millions,

00:38:27.440 --> 00:38:31.600
it would be a big commercial success,
of course.

00:38:31.600 --> 00:38:37.040
And then the car industry would basically
build it and not, not the house industry,

00:38:37.840 --> 00:38:41.120
but you don't have any possibilities

00:38:41.120 --> 00:38:44.120
to use this building in the moment.

00:39:02.720 --> 00:39:03.720
Hello.

00:39:03.720 --> 00:39:06.160
Hello, This is Matthias Ludwig speaking.

00:39:06.160 --> 00:39:08.360
I have a nice surprise for you.

00:39:08.360 --> 00:39:12.760
I actually talked to Klaus,
Both the

00:39:12.920 --> 00:39:17.960
inventor of the Raumerweiterungshalle
He is actually living in Schwerin,

00:39:17.960 --> 00:39:23.640
which is close to Wismar
and he's willing to give an interview.

00:39:23.640 --> 00:39:27.600
He is quite old, but he's very well and
he's willing to answer all the questions.

00:39:28.080 --> 00:39:28.840
We're just coming.

00:39:32.200 --> 00:39:34.000
You weren't looking for me, were you?

00:39:34.000 --> 00:39:38.640
You're like, where is he?
No, I just went to get a drink.

00:39:58.160 --> 00:40:00.600
Let's ring the bell.

00:40:11.920 --> 00:40:14.920
We ordered this model of the REH,

00:40:14.920 --> 00:40:17.920
and my grandson put it together

00:40:17.920 --> 00:40:19.480
I’m too old to do it myself

00:40:19.480 --> 00:40:20.760
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:40:20.760 --> 00:40:22.080
I've seen this. Yeah.

00:40:22.080 --> 00:40:27.680
And this one?
We did some filming if, if you tell Mr Both.

00:40:27.680 --> 00:40:31.680
we did some filming of the three
in Berlin last week.

00:40:31.680 --> 00:40:35.720
It was beautiful sunny day
and we took the camera between the two

00:40:35.720 --> 00:40:38.800
and it looked when we went down
it looked like two trains going by.

00:40:39.360 --> 00:40:40.160
It was incredible.

00:40:40.160 --> 00:40:42.800
It really created that emotion,
you know, that feeling.

00:41:02.120 --> 00:41:04.600
The people walking by clicking

00:41:04.600 --> 00:41:05.640
their cameras.

00:41:05.640 --> 00:41:08.480
their cameras.

00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:13.960
For me personally, in part because of the shape,

00:41:13.960 --> 00:41:16.720
this was the model that I found

00:41:16.720 --> 00:41:19.360
the most pleasant to work with.

00:41:19.360 --> 00:41:22.800
It was fun because the demand

00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:25.400
for this shape was so high

00:41:25.400 --> 00:41:30.360
and the company could work in full swing

00:41:30.360 --> 00:41:33.840
making good profits with this building

00:41:33.840 --> 00:41:37.360
and the REH really fulfilled its purpose

00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:39.840
of being light and transportable.

00:41:43.960 --> 00:41:46.040
Then came the companies requesting bungalows.

00:41:46.040 --> 00:41:49.920
We had so much demand that it was really no concern.

00:41:49.920 --> 00:41:50.840
So would Mr. Both

00:41:50.840 --> 00:41:53.840
say that with this particular
building there's more freedom

00:41:54.080 --> 00:41:57.080
as opposed to this one
in terms of creative ability,

00:41:57.360 --> 00:42:01.760
freedom to deliver something
that they enjoyed making, which they thought

00:42:01.760 --> 00:42:03.000
the public would like?

00:42:03.000 --> 00:42:08.320
There was not one negative response to its shape.

00:42:08.320 --> 00:42:12.160
The easy transportation and setting up,

00:42:12.160 --> 00:42:15.040
was no longer possible with the later hall.

00:42:19.480 --> 00:42:22.400
Now he’s driving out of the factory,

00:42:22.400 --> 00:42:24.720
on to the road.

00:42:26.600 --> 00:42:30.440
They were all very proud of their REH halls.

00:42:30.440 --> 00:42:34.240
Now he is using the nose of the truck to push the

00:42:34.240 --> 00:42:36.760
REH onto the foundation.

00:42:40.840 --> 00:42:44.080
No, no, no, it was all by hand.

00:42:44.080 --> 00:42:48.320
There are six men inside pushing it out.

00:42:49.960 --> 00:42:53.960
So 60 years later
we now have a situation where

00:42:54.160 --> 00:42:58.200
in Germany and other countries in the West
there's a very big shortage of space

00:42:58.200 --> 00:43:01.960
and people think
shipping containers are solutions.

00:43:01.960 --> 00:43:04.960
And when I saw this building,

00:43:05.160 --> 00:43:08.600
I thought this is a fantastic solution
for this type of problem.

00:43:09.120 --> 00:43:11.120
Has he thought about this,
when he looked at the news

00:43:11.120 --> 00:43:14.000
and how does he feel about that? I'm
going to ask him.

00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:20.920
My father had the idea of designing an emergency shelter

00:43:20.920 --> 00:43:25.320
he even handed the plans for it to the GDR government to consider

00:43:25.320 --> 00:43:28.840
to build a so-called round city, only made of REH halls.

00:43:28.840 --> 00:43:32.240
With hospitals, shops, houses and everything.

00:43:34.840 --> 00:43:37.720
And if there was a big emergency, like, for instance, Chernobyl

00:43:37.720 --> 00:43:43.760
in a populated area then, one could transport them to wherever they are needed.

00:43:44.960 --> 00:43:48.760
My father had all these ideas at that time,

00:43:51.040 --> 00:43:52.760
but they were never put in practice.

00:43:52.760 --> 00:43:54.960
Or even taken seriously for that matter.

00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:57.640
He handed them in, but nothing came of it.

00:43:57.640 --> 00:44:01.000
I suppose it all depends on who you hand them to.

00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:09.680
In all great cities in the GDR.

00:44:11.240 --> 00:44:14.240
The buildings were present were there.

00:44:14.240 --> 00:44:17.880
But it's a situation of this.

00:44:18.600 --> 00:44:21.080
No one remembers about it.

00:44:21.080 --> 00:44:24.080
And all come to the museum,

00:44:24.600 --> 00:44:28.680
see the Raumerweiterungshalle the REH.

00:44:29.280 --> 00:44:35.000
They say yes, it was at the Baltic Sea
or I saw it in Berlin,

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:40.040
or I saw it at the motorway
to Berlin as an Intershop, or

00:44:41.120 --> 00:44:41.680
only when

00:44:41.680 --> 00:44:44.960
they see the building
and see the interior,

00:44:45.600 --> 00:44:50.640
they remember and say, yes,
there was the building I know now.

00:44:50.640 --> 00:44:51.760
I remember.

00:44:51.760 --> 00:44:55.720
But in the normal life
they don't remember it.

00:44:56.120 --> 00:44:56.840
It is.

00:44:56.840 --> 00:45:01.880
I always say it's a forgotten building
or a lost space.

00:45:02.360 --> 00:45:05.360
We can say that in in past decades,

00:45:07.680 --> 00:45:11.600
revolutions or uprisings were, were due to

00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:15.600
to the high cost of food
because people were hungry.

00:45:15.600 --> 00:45:19.160
What's emerging now is revolt,

00:45:19.880 --> 00:45:22.880
unhappiness, demonstrations.

00:45:23.040 --> 00:45:25.360
We're not close to a revolution yet,
but people are unhappy

00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:27.080
about their housing and situation.

00:45:27.080 --> 00:45:27.800
They're just unhappy.

00:45:27.800 --> 00:45:30.680
But it's a crisis situation.

00:45:30.680 --> 00:45:33.680
And it's true
that it's impacting young people the most.

00:45:34.400 --> 00:45:37.400
So younger generations are coming, coming,
coming along.

00:45:38.080 --> 00:45:41.280
They can afford a place to live,
the can't

00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:43.160
they can afford, a decent place to live.

00:45:43.160 --> 00:45:45.080
They can afford
an appropriate place to live.

00:45:45.080 --> 00:45:48.600
They can afford to live where they want
to live or need to live because of work.

00:45:49.240 --> 00:45:51.440
They can't afford to live
with the people they want to live with.

00:45:52.520 --> 00:45:55.520
They can't afford to move. They..

00:45:56.320 --> 00:45:59.680
people are basically forced to work

00:46:00.600 --> 00:46:03.600
a lot more to pay their rent.

00:46:03.880 --> 00:46:07.960
So this is this is a pressure on people
in on, on, on the society.

00:46:08.600 --> 00:46:11.680
I think it's a it's a
it's a kind of a huge

00:46:12.720 --> 00:46:15.720
it's a form of coincidence of I don't know

00:46:16.280 --> 00:46:18.920
of of the architectural
construction history

00:46:18.920 --> 00:46:21.840
because it has been created
by engineering.

00:46:21.840 --> 00:46:24.440
So these were not architects
and artists

00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:27.440
These were technical, educated people

00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:30.440
who are having this idea of the form

00:46:30.600 --> 00:46:33.600
and they they were able to do something

00:46:33.800 --> 00:46:35.840
that reminds me,
I don't know, like, like

00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:39.920
some spiritual spaces like, like Roman
Roman churches.

00:46:39.920 --> 00:46:41.920
I don't know if you just

00:46:41.920 --> 00:46:45.720
see the Roman church form,
if you see this one, this is also

00:46:45.720 --> 00:46:49.520
the form is has been created by a
by engineering.

00:46:49.520 --> 00:46:54.720
So by thinking about both
the simple physics of space, you know.

00:46:55.080 --> 00:46:59.920
And this is something I liked a lot
about the space this is and it's

00:47:00.600 --> 00:47:04.160
and I love
that it has been invented by a limited

00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:06.000
amount of

00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:09.000
material, craftsmanship and possibilities.

00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:13.320
So the limitation of these things
in the x-GDR

00:47:15.080 --> 00:47:17.720
forced them to do something
very special.

00:47:17.720 --> 00:47:19.000
This is why I just love it!

00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:23.240
I have a lot of talks about that
with friends, and Im always captured in my

00:47:23.360 --> 00:47:27.000
position as an urban planner because
they're all angry and they have no hope.

00:47:27.680 --> 00:47:32.320
And I always say that some years ago
it was even worse.

00:47:32.320 --> 00:47:35.320
The political situation
right now is better.

00:47:35.600 --> 00:47:38.800
This is what I see in
my, my daily work, actually.

00:47:39.280 --> 00:47:42.040
But that doesn't help the people.

00:47:42.040 --> 00:47:43.520
Right now they have no hope.

00:47:43.520 --> 00:47:46.520
And they see that

00:47:47.720 --> 00:47:52.120
they see no way they
that, that it can be better right now.

00:47:52.120 --> 00:47:55.320
And you seen in the newspaper
you'll always

00:47:55.320 --> 00:47:58.480
see the numbers and the price
are getting higher and higher and higher.

00:48:00.800 --> 00:48:03.720
It's, it's difficult even for me.

00:48:03.720 --> 00:48:06.440
I have to hope that somewhere
it has to stop.

00:48:06.440 --> 00:48:09.600
It cannot always be more expensive
and more expensive.

00:48:09.600 --> 00:48:12.520
But right now it's difficult

00:48:12.520 --> 00:48:13.520
I think.

00:48:35.080 --> 00:48:36.800
Hello, this is Matthias

00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:38.760
Ludwig speaking.

00:48:38.760 --> 00:48:40.000
Hello, Rory.

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.640
I have quite a sad message for you.

00:48:45.440 --> 00:48:46.040
Actually

00:48:46.040 --> 00:48:51.520
Klaus Both
died on the 19th of September.

00:48:51.920 --> 00:48:56.600
I just talk to his wife
and to his daughter,

00:48:56.960 --> 00:49:00.520
and they told me
that he actually passed away.

00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:03.000
I'm quite shocked about that.

00:49:03.000 --> 00:49:06.360
I just wanted to pass you that message.

00:49:12.800 --> 00:49:15.600
When I first heard the news
that Klaus Both had died

00:49:15.600 --> 00:49:19.640
is something I felt like a forgotten hero
had passed away, and I was wondering

00:49:19.640 --> 00:49:23.240
whether his father's ideas for emergency
housing would be forgotten for good.

00:49:24.240 --> 00:49:24.880
Apart from the

00:49:24.880 --> 00:49:28.920
pressures on the domestic housing market
in Berlin and other major cities,

00:49:29.480 --> 00:49:32.800
we also live in a world where wars
and other natural disasters

00:49:33.080 --> 00:49:36.320
leave around 20 million people
suddenly homeless each year,

00:49:36.880 --> 00:49:39.720
and I can't help
but think a modernised Silverfish

00:49:39.720 --> 00:49:42.720
would be a perfect solution
for these displaced people.

00:50:59.080 --> 00:51:00.600
The really special thing

00:51:00.600 --> 00:51:04.920
what we should talk about in Berlin
is that all those rules

00:51:05.240 --> 00:51:09.600
for the state owned housing companies,
they came from a movement

00:51:09.640 --> 00:51:14.840
which said we have to have more stricter
rules for that part of the housing sector,

00:51:15.200 --> 00:51:16.640
the government can control,

00:51:16.640 --> 00:51:19.080
we have to control it.

00:51:19.080 --> 00:51:22.080
Sometimes I miss the 68

00:51:22.200 --> 00:51:26.760
flower power situation
because at that time people were

00:51:27.720 --> 00:51:30.120
active and they

00:51:30.120 --> 00:51:34.240
did protests for their rights
and they were fighting for things

00:51:34.240 --> 00:51:37.240
and they gained a lot of things of course,

00:51:37.280 --> 00:51:40.280
and I'm missing that nowadays.

00:51:40.400 --> 00:51:44.640
Everything is so quiet
and but not everything is working.

00:51:44.680 --> 00:51:46.640
That's that's the point.

00:51:46.640 --> 00:51:49.160
And we have to make things working.

00:51:49.160 --> 00:51:52.160
There are lots of problems in the moment
which have to be solved.

00:51:52.320 --> 00:51:54.960
Of course.

00:51:54.960 --> 00:51:58.040
We always had this in German history
for the last 100 years.

00:51:58.040 --> 00:52:01.040
People always forgot their past.

00:52:05.280 --> 00:52:08.040
A lot of people don't take any risks

00:52:08.040 --> 00:52:11.960
anymore in the moment,
but I think it's very much important

00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:16.880
if you want to solve problems
or if you want to have ideas

00:52:16.880 --> 00:52:21.160
or if you want to move on to somewhere,
you have to take risks.

00:52:21.160 --> 00:52:23.480
Otherwise it's not working. Especially

00:52:25.040 --> 00:52:26.000
if things are not

00:52:26.000 --> 00:52:29.800
very stable, then the risks are getting
bigger and bigger of course.

00:52:29.800 --> 00:52:31.520
Yeah, but

00:52:31.520 --> 00:52:35.160
to be somewhere in a retreat
and then just watch it

00:52:35.160 --> 00:52:39.440
with remote control or whatever,
it's it's not working.

00:52:39.440 --> 00:52:40.400
I mean, you have to be

00:52:40.400 --> 00:52:44.600
involved in the situation
and you have to be active, of course.

00:52:44.600 --> 00:52:51.200
And that's why we should solve actively
our living problem.

00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:54.160
And our housing problem also, of course.

00:52:54.160 --> 00:52:58.640
And we cannot give everything to people

00:52:58.640 --> 00:53:02.960
which we think
that they could solve these problems.

00:53:03.480 --> 00:53:04.520
Some specialists.

00:53:14.960 --> 00:53:17.480
There are right now
hundreds of millions of people

00:53:17.480 --> 00:53:21.600
living in a situation
that lacks of basic needs.

00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:26.680
And when it comes to think
about a solution for that,

00:53:26.960 --> 00:53:30.080
you have to find it in on-site basis

00:53:30.320 --> 00:53:34.040
because you just can move
millions of people away from their home.

00:53:39.680 --> 00:53:41.760
All over our planet.

00:53:41.760 --> 00:53:47.000
There are the problems with space,
with areas

00:53:47.000 --> 00:53:48.920
around great cities.

00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:57.080
We really have to find an alternative way

00:53:57.080 --> 00:53:59.400
to bring people back together.

00:54:03.080 --> 00:54:05.040
When we see the history

00:54:05.040 --> 00:54:08.000
and don't learn about the history,

00:54:08.000 --> 00:54:10.640
then there is no innovation.

00:54:23.000 --> 00:54:24.720
My conclusion of the end of filming

00:54:25.160 --> 00:54:28.160
is that even if something like the
Silverfish existed today,

00:54:28.720 --> 00:54:31.960
most people I spoke to in Berlin
would still rather live in the city

00:54:31.960 --> 00:54:33.880
and fight for a fairer system.

00:54:33.880 --> 00:54:38.600
They also want to be close to their work,
friends, family and the city's vibrancy.

00:54:39.160 --> 00:54:41.920
So the idea of a Silverfish
as a solution to solving

00:54:41.920 --> 00:54:45.000
Berlin's housing crisis seems unlikely.

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:48.360
But perhaps a new type
one built from modern materials,

00:54:48.360 --> 00:54:52.480
which is compliant with the safety
regulations of today, could be an ideal

00:54:52.480 --> 00:54:57.000
solution for emergency accommodation
on the outskirts of Berlin for its future.

00:54:59.240 --> 00:55:02.240
As I think about the
building and how it could be redesigned,

00:55:02.240 --> 00:55:07.160
I imagine the millions of people living in countries
displaced by wars and other natural disasters,

00:55:07.160 --> 00:55:11.560
and it makes me think… that the missing key to
reviving this forgotten building

00:55:11.560 --> 00:55:14.520
could be as simple as providing a central utility hub,

00:55:14.520 --> 00:55:18.360
one which would allow multiple Silverfish to
connect and share the facilities,

00:55:18.360 --> 00:55:21.240
which would allow people to come and go as they please.

00:55:21.240 --> 00:55:26.680
These could also be assembled quickly on borders
between countries, allowing people fleeing from war

00:55:26.680 --> 00:55:28.840
the temporary homes and safety they need.

00:55:35.720 --> 00:55:37.960
Taking a look at the building
for the last time,

00:55:37.960 --> 00:55:40.960
I think about its past
and the people who made it possible,

00:55:41.200 --> 00:55:44.200
the thousands that were built
and used in everyday life.

00:55:44.400 --> 00:55:47.480
I think about this ingenious design
that's now being forgotten,

00:55:48.040 --> 00:55:51.400
and I can't help but think that it's
the past success of these buildings

00:55:51.400 --> 00:55:54.920
that reflect the importance of dignity
and community

00:55:55.480 --> 00:55:59.320
two vital principles that need to be
today's driving force when it comes

00:55:59.320 --> 00:56:03.920
to providing affordable accommodation
and emergency shelter for everybody!