"Lots of people appreciated the open spaces and the authenticity of the Lost Places and would have liked freedoms like that to somehow be kept."
Carsten Joost studied architecture in Frankfurt am Main and moved to Berlin in 1997. He runs the planning agency Planungsagentur – Büro für alternative Stadtentwicklung, contributing alternative ideas for development in Berlin. To Joost, open spaces and access to the river are essential for ensuring quality of life in the city. He was co-initiator and long-term spokesperson of the public initiative Mediaspree versenken which in 2008 organised the campaign to stop development at Spreeufer, Spreeufer für alle. Over 30,000 people from Berlin signed the petition to keep the riverbank freely accessible and prevent high-rise development in the area. The initiative was not able to stop the planned construction but pushed through other demands, such as a public path along the riverbank. Also active as a filmmaker, Carsten Joost produces films for current political campaigns.
"The West German idea has completely suffocated that romanticism of the once free spaces and we can see the outcome here today: It‘s shocking."
Additional information:
Megaspree – how would we like the city to be? Megaspree film competition for the 2010 demo parade: Wie wünschen wir uns die Stadt? (How would we like the city to be?) A clip risking a look into the future – 20 years after the big Spreeufer discussions… By Carsten Joost and Susanne Lehnig and „Sechs Mal Mediaspree: Episoden aus der Berliner Mediaspree-Versenken-Kampagne“ http://www.carsten-joost.com/?page_id=2