Felix Piel

Mind the Gap
Railway lines as inner-city densification potential

Germany is facing a significant shortage of affordable housing, particularly in major metropolitan areas. Inner-city redensification options in large cities are nearly exhausted, with little new land available for construction. Most redensification measures now focus on converting or adding floors to existing buildings. Additionally, the development of remaining urban areas is often in private hands, leading to land speculation and the privatization of housing stock, which drive up rents in major cities. Innovative building typologies, such as constructing over inner-city railway tracks, are rarely considered. These unused areas, located in prime urban locations, offer substantial potential for new living spaces, commercial use, public amenities, and green spaces. Overbuilding railway tracks could also reduce noise and eliminate the spatial separation caused by the tracks. Since Deutsche Bahn AG, a state-owned railway company, owns the track areas, it provides a valuable opportunity for acquiring affordable land for social housing. Utilizing this land could allow public authorities to increase the supply of social housing.
Berlin, in particular, faces a severe shortage of affordable and social housing. The master’s thesis explored the potential for redensification through overbuilding rail tracks on the local S-Bahn network. The thesis analyzed the legal and technical requirements, resulting in three theoretical designs for hybrid rail-overbuild projects on different sections of the track network. These designs primarily focused on residential use, but they also incorporated public and commercial functions to provide added social value. Each project was designed based on the unique characteristics of the surrounding location and neighborhood, ensuring the new structures would integrate into the urban fabric in a socially sustainable manner. These solutions demonstrate the potential to alleviate housing shortages while enhancing urban environments. 
The first theoretical part was carried out as group work together with Moritz Mennenöh and Tim Schell.

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