Bilfinger Berger Award

THE BILFINGER BERGER AWARD WAS PRESENTED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN OCTOBER 2007. THE WINNING ENTRIES FOCUSED ON FORWARD-LOOKING SOLUTIONS TO URBAN PROBLEMS AND WERE DISCUSSED AS PART OF AN INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM IN BERLIN

During the lull between Christmas and New Year’s Day 2006,Cordelia Polinna, 32, sat in her apartment in Berlin and was starting to get a little bored. In four weeks’ time, Antonia, her first child,was due, and by her eighth month she really didn’t feel like venturing outside Berlin to visit friends. And so the e-mail from her thesis supervisor came at just the right time. The professor wanted to let her know about a competition being sponsored by Bilfinger Berger: what can Germany learn from positive initiatives elsewhere in the world? Go ahead, he wrote, send in a case study! The first prize: 40,000 euros. So Cordelia Polinna, an urban planner at the Technical University in Berlin, sat down at her desk. While in London researching her doctoral thesis on new approaches to urban development, the Idea Stores project had struck her as a brilliant idea: libraries that use modern architectural design and a broad range of services to stimulate poor and disadvantaged districts, like a shot in the arm for a languishing patient. “Now that would be just the thing for Berlin!” she’d thought at the time. Just before New Year’s Eve she sat down at her desk and started writing about how the concept of Idea Stores works.

ENTRIES FROM 29 COUNTRIES
Cordelia Polinna wasn’t the only one to put her thoughts to paper and then submit them to the Bilfinger Berger Award. Five dozen planners, scientists and other experts from around the world took part. They wrote about the conversion of a Brooklyn-based brewery into an attractive residential district, transparency in administration in Singapore, environment-friendly transport models in the Campania region of Southern Italy, photovoltaic cells used in noise protection walls in Australia, partnerships between the private and public sectors in bridge construction in Canada... Overall, 58 studies were submitted, reporting on initiatives and solutions in 29 countries. “The more we read, the more obvious it was to us that this award is a worthwhile venture,” remarked jury chairman Klaus Töpfer, former German Federal Environmental Minister and former director of the UN Environment Program Secretariat in Nairobi, as Bilfinger Berger introduced the prizewinning case studies at a symposium in October 2007 in Berlin. Central to the symposium theme of “Mobility, Creativity, Partnership. Impulses for the City of the Future” was the question of whether proven solutions from abroad were transferable to Germany. Experts from the worlds of politics, business and science came together to discuss the topics of urban development, mobility and alliancing— a form of contracting that rests on cooperation rather than confrontation between clients and contractors. In his submission, attorney Andrew Chew described how alliancing in Australia had improved cooperation between the public sector and private companies, and thereby took second place in the competition.

The independent jury awarded third place to a case study by Oxford University-based researcher Georgina Santos on the London congestion charge. The congestion charge in London could well be a model for a great number of cities in Germany. “We have to do some rethinking. Climate change is a reality. And fifty percent less carbon dioxide in cities is possible!“ said Klaus Töpfer. The jury’s choice for first place, however, was the case study by the young urban planner, Cordelia Polinna. “These modern libraries in London show how important it is for buildings to be well thought-out, from a psychological point of view,”explained TV journalist and author,Gabriele Krone-Schmalz, who was also a member of the jury.

THESES FOR THE FUTURE
Central to this award is the recognition that, in addition to a well-functioning economy, other factors are becoming increasingly important for cities.The Prognos Institute distilled the received submissions down to five theses that impact on the future of cities:

“SOFT SKILLS”
Traditional factors in business relocation, such as low tax rates and low-priced real estate, are no longer sufficient to attract people and companies. Competition between cities and regions is determined by access to knowledge, innovative strength and cultural attractions—in short, by the creative potential of a city.

ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY MOBILITY
Decreased traffic pace, lack of parking space and environmental pollution are the consequences of increasing motorization. The public is looking for a genuine alternative to the automobile.

PARTICIPATION
In order to survive in the competition for relocation, a city needs the involvement of its population. Civic participation is not an end in itself but a prerequisite if local authorities are to overcome the challenges.

ALLIANCES
Public-private partnerships (PPP) are pointing the way to a new culture of cooperation between government and the private sector, from which both sides profit. Alliance contracts go one step further: not simply aimed, for the most part, at legally safeguarding partners’ own interests, they also offer incentives to strive for joint success through risk-sharing.

MODERNIZED ADMINISTRATION
The way in which administration functions is too strongly regulated and not sufficiently results-driven. The public sector needs to see itself as an efficient service provider and public citizens as customers. Administrative processes need to be speeded up and simplified.

Cordelia Polinna hopes that the city administration in Berlin will learn from these theses. Shortly after the birth of her daughter, she moved with her boyfriend from the hip student district of Prenzlauer Berg to Neukölln, where she grew up and where apartments are considerably cheaper.

Her decision met with complete incomprehension. “How could you move to Neukölln when you have a child?” asked her friends. Neukölln is comparable to Tower Hamlets in London: an ethnic mix, high unemployment rate, run-down public spaces and a lot of young people with no prospects.“When a district looks shabby, it’s just asking for the vandals to move in,” says Polinna. “On the other hand, buildings that are aesthetically pleasing, of top quality and which won’t need renovating after a couple of years prove to local people that‘We are valued!’Good architectural design promotes self-esteem—it’s the best defense against vandalism. ”This is the lesson of London’s Idea Stores, of which there’s nothing of the kind in Berlin. At least not yet.

Bilfinger Berger Magazine portrays the three winners of the Bilfinger Berger Award and their best practice models. A selection of all 58 submissions in German and English has been published in book form: Klaus Töpfer/Herbert Bodner (eds.):
“Ideenimport— Experten aus aller Welt geben Impulse”
[Importing ideas—New impulses from experts all around the world]. Stuttgart 2007. ¤ 24.95.

(Text: Bernd Hauser, Photos: Paul Hahn, Illustration: Steven Dohn)