The winds of change sweep a city: good accessibility legislation, but inadequate practice

By Birger Agergaard

Berlin radiates its grandiose history. Pompous seventeenth century buildings and stylistic eighteenth century buildings blend with functionalistic buildings from the nineteenth century and the ones that did not fall under wartime bombs contrast magnificently with today's new edifices in glass, steel and stone.

With its population of approximately 3.5 million, Germany's new capital is the city being subjected to the most momentous changes in Europe, yet its charisma still seems to be intact.

Immense building programmes

"Every year, one third of all the buildings open to the public are rebuilt," says PR consultant Andreas Maydorn of the information network Movado, which has registered the accessibility to some 50,000 public buildings in Berlin since 1992. And which tries to keep an overall view of the immense building programmes, the ambitious public traffic plans and the complicated road and footpath projects.

Movado is primarily a service provider but, as a user organisation, it has also promoted the view that buildings should be approached from the aspect of Design for All, rather than providing special solutions for the disabled.

Of course, new buildings must comply with the German legislation governing grade-separated access, while everybody must also be guaranteed access to refurbished buildings. Although these requirements are enshrined in Germany's celebrated DIN standards, Movado criticises the exception raised in Berlin, which allows for them to be side-stepped if the accessibility solutions cost more than 10 percent of the total investment in the building.

Nor are the city administration's own projects 100 percent accessible: in some places, there is audio information at street lights, while in others there is nothing. New pavements often have kerb cuts at pedestrian crossings, but not always.

Movado Project manager Bärbel Wysocki also mentions the example that one of the underground lines (U5) provides good access for wheelchair users at the end stations, but not in the city centre!

The other side of the Potsdamer Platz

Potsdamer Platz - the buildings may be new and visionary, but they are not 100 percent accessible.

The neighbourhood around the Potsdamer Platz and the Marlene Dietrich Platz is known all over the world as Europe's biggest building site. Here, some of Germany's most wealthy property developers have had a fine old time making magnificent buildings: Daimler-Chrysler rubs elbows with Sony's German Headquarters, the Stella Music Theatre, casinos and a magnificent shopping centre with direct access to suburban trains and the underground.

But the property developers simply ignored the advice given by the disabled people's organisations and Movado, and Berlin's planning authorities closed a complacent eye.

Potsdamer Platz - the buildings may be new and visionary, but they are not 100 percent accessible.

The result is that there is no free access for wheelchair users in a number of buildings, while outdoors, there is at least one example of a ramp ending in a step! For the blind and visually-impaired, these places are dangerous labyrinths without any markings, while in one case a tactile leading-line ends up in a smart circle: congratulations, you have reached a dead end!

"How it could happen? You need approval from the planning authorities, but those Mercedes people were just allowed to go ahead and their fancy architects insisted on their architectural freedom," says Andreas Maydorn.

After protests from Movado and the disabled people's organisations, a working party was appointed that suggested a series of improvements, some of which have been made. But it is still far from perfect, laments Movado.

"Berlin has thrown away its chance to boast the title of "the city of accessibility": the politicians still do not realise that accessibility is an essential parameter."

Lehrter Stadtbahnhof

The chance for Berlin to make up for the sins of omission in the Potsdamer Platz may come with the Lehrter Stadtbahnhof (the new central station).

In a short while, the city administration and the German Federal Railways, Deutsche Bahn, will start expanding this station into Berlin's biggest the train, underground, suburban train, bus and road interchange. When completed, the new hub will service 110,000 passenger transfers daily, while total rail traffic will account for 240,000 passenger movements every day.

In the first large-scale consultancy assignment received by the organisation, Movado has been invited asked advise on good accessibility. Despite a precarious financial situation, Movado has offered its services free of charge for this assignment, because it regard the case as a prestige project.

If Movado's advice is followed, the station will be provided with logical approach roads, grade-separated access, lifts in all the right places, information for the blind and deaf and so on.

Regrets from Berlin

Wolfgang Kämpe, of Berlin's office for disability issues, says that the first 10 years after the German reunion were difficult because it was a time for new thinking and so many things were happening at the same time. He sincerely regrets the Potsdamer Platz case.

"There was no clear awareness about accessibility, but we have learned a lot from that mistake. I hope that we shall never have another case like that again and, at the moment, I sense that there is a positive appreciation of the area," says Kämpe.

He says that Movado plays an important role in the development of accessibility in Berlin, one reason why he is the first to regret that Movado's poor finances are making it difficult for the organisation to plan ahead and do its job as it would like to.

"The public authorities are having to digest substantial budget cuts, which also have affected Movado, but I have written to them about our efforts to prevent further cut-backs."

Since reunification, unemployment in Berlin has increased from 10.6 percent in 1991 to 17.9 percent in 1998.

Only one step further

Project manager Bärbel Wysocki does not believe that Berlin has learned anything from the mistakes of the chaotic first ten years.

"We have learned from our mistakes, but Berlin as such has not. The city has only moved one step further. We are witnessing some desultory experiments with barrier-free buildings, and some administrative departments and a few architects are showing some concern for Design for All, but that does not mean that it is at all a commonly accepted principle in Berlin."

Facts

Movado Since 1991, Movado (the name is Esperanto for 'continuously moving') has been making efforts towards increasing accessibility and Design for All in Berlin. The organisation co-operates with disabled people's and tourist organisations in Germany and other countries.

Although the greatest importance is attached to accessibility for the motory disabled, Movado also deals with the groups with sight and hearing disabilities.

Movado is in partnership with the disabled people's organisations in Berlin: they deal with political aspects, while Movado deals with objective aspects.

As a place of work, Movado itself forms a social dimension, as 40 percent of the organisation's approximately 60 employees are themselves disabled, whose tasks also encompass recording information.

Movado is also well found on the professional level, with a group of highly trained engineers and architects employed as heads of the various departments. 

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 1, April 2000