Francesca Weber-Newth

For decades, cars have dominated city streets. The Free Street Manifesto challenges this norm, reimagining streets as shared spaces that address global challenges like climate change and inequality. Through bold visuals, comics, and scientific insights, it inspires action and has become a key reference for the transition towards sustainable mobility.

Funding: Stiftung Mercator

Subcontractors: Reindeer Renderings, WAALD, JOVIS

Partners: Social Science Center Berlin (WZB), Technical University Berlin (TU), fabulism, Urban Impact

Our team conducted extensive academic research into topics such as technology, mobility, and climate change, specifically their relevance for cities. We translated these insights into a vision of a sustainable future for the European city.

We gathered feedback on our initials ideas from experts and citizens (including 3-day deep dive participation with a group of 50 people representing a cross-section of society). We then developed a manifesto in english & german (7 topics: neighbourhood, mobility, economy, health, climate, politics, participation), and published a book with accompanying website with inclusive content for all ages (including comics, facts and references for further reading).

My role as project manager for paper planes e.V. involved coordinating the team, designing and organising workshops with experts, and steering the subcontractors.

https://www.strassen-befreien.de/en/start

Many people have been passionate about the development of Tempelhof Airport (THF) for years — whether about the future use of the airfield (Tempelhofer Feld), or how to handle the listed architectural heritage of the airport building. With such a wide range of stakeholders and participation formats, keeping track can be challenging. However, all the different phases of participation share one thing in common: The discourse about the future of the airport building has always taken place at the intersection of politics, administration, and civil society.

The aim of the (double-sided) poster, was to visualise and communicate the dynamic culture of participation at THF to the general public.

As part of the strategy team redeveloping Tempelhof Airport, I initiated and steered this narrative/communication piece, which maps the four stages of public participation at THF.

[Concept & design by Urban Catalyst]

The poster (as PDF) can be downloaded here:

https://www.thf-berlin.de/kapitel-der-beteiligung

As part of the strategy team redeveloping Tempelhof Airport, I was responsible for coordinating this cooperative development project from the developer side (Tempelhof Projekt GmbH). We collaborated with the citizen initiative Torhaus e.V., to renovate the gatekeepers house (‘Torhaus’) according to heritage regulations. Having installed underfloor heating, insulation, and a bathroom, the 50sqm house can now be used for workshops, radio broadcasting and other uses.

A brochure — which outlines the history of the building and explains the renovation works carried out, as well as the importance of this pilot project for Tempelhof Airport as a whole — can be downloaded here:

[Concept & design by Urban Catalyst]

https://www.thf-berlin.de/fileadmin/user_upload/04_Entwicklung/Kooperative_Entwicklung/Broschuere_2024/270724_TorHaus_EN.pdf

Photo 1: Francesca Weber-Newth

Photo 2: ©Tempelhof Projekt GmbH

Photo 3: © Torhaus e.V.

As part of the strategy team redeveloping Tempelhof Airport, I led the development of the 'THF-Beteiligungskompass' tool. This strategic tool serves as a guide for public participation at THF.

[Concept and design by Urban Catalyst GmbH]

The full 32-page document can be downloaded here:

https://www.thf-berlin.de/entwicklung/beteiligung/thf-beteiligungskompass

Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine

Promprylad is an urban regeneration project of a former factory space in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine. The project aims to create a sustainable and multifunctional hub for community art, creative industries, art and community work. The vision is to fit the needs of the region as well as National context.

The​ ​objective​ ​of​ ​this​ ​project​ was​ ​to​ ​identify​ ​common​ ​interests​ ​between​ ​the​ ​interdisciplinary team​ developing the former umbrella factory ​and​ ​the​ ​surrounding​ ​community.​ ​Workshop​ ​participants​ were guided in ​​formulating ​a​ ​research aim,​ ​design​ing ​a​ ​questionnaire,​ ​testing​ ​the​ ​prototype​ and carrying ​out​ ​the​ ​research​.​

Role: Workshop design & delivery

Local people have been inventing unique and innovative projects across the globe. Taken together these projects paint a picture of a different kind of neighbourhood - where positive effects are generated - by everyone, for everyone - in the course of going about their daily lives.

Community Lover's Guide shares these local projects, recognising that these imaginative projects are incredibly important. They stimulate our creative thinking and show us what is possible, as well as encouraging everyone to see how they can play a vital role in building wonderful places to live today ...  and a more sustainable future.

For the Community Lover's Guide to Berlin, Isolde Nagel and I collated essays on 17 bottom-up initiatives in the city—ranging from community garden Prinzessinengärten, to youth fashion label Rütli Wear, and work-art-community space ExRotaprint.

Role: Editor

(research, project selection & coordination, copy writing & editing)

In this project I worked alongside photographer Chris Dorley-Brown to document the social history of Hackney Wick Fish Island.

In a workshop with the senior citizens of Trowbridge Estate we collected personal photographs and exchanged stories about the neighbourhood from the 1930s until now — talking about the people, the employment, family, and the changes.

The memories and photographs were compiled in a 24-page newspaper supplement for ‘The Wick’ newspaper.

Role: Project lead

(project design, archival research, interviews, workshop facilitation, copy writing)

In this walk — entitled “Walking is not an Olympic Sport: Stories/ voices/ histories in Hackney Wick” — I collaborated with poet Jude Rosen to guide a group through the neighbourhood Hackney Wick Fish Island. Through poems, social history, and current events related to the Olympic Games, we mapped various layers of (social) space.

Part of Clays Lane Live Archive, presented at the events progamme of the Supplement Gallery in 2012.

Role: Project co-lead

(concept, research, coordination, guide)

Utopian Nights: The “Commons”

Valletta, European Capital of Culture 2018

Utopian Nights invites the public to engage with specific contemporary issues to promote a more inclusive society. With artists and local as well as international thinkers, the public participated in a collective effort to design a utopia, an alternative society for a better future. The Utopian Nights on “the commons”, took place on at Chinese Garden of Serenity in Santa Luċija.

I contributed by talking about three case studies Berlin: Prinzessinengärten, Haus der Statistik and Flughafen Tempelhof.

2019 | TRANSCRIPT 

Available here

Who wins and who loses in urban regeneration? What are the mechanisms at play? I look at two neighbourhoods that are adjacent to large-scale regeneration schemes: the 2012 Olympic park in London and the Mediaspree waterside development in Berlin. By analysing how urban regeneration is experienced on the ground, my study counters the notion that Olympic-led regeneration is any different from other forms of neoliberal urban development. Adopting Pierre Bourdieu's view of the social world as made up of competitive 'games', an analysis of the two neighbourhoods reveals how the concepts of 'culture' and 'community' are strategically employed in the 'game' of urban regeneration – to the benefit of some and the detriment of others.

Stadtaspekte translates literally as "City-Aspects". The team behind this magazine (a motley crew of architects, geographers and artists) aim to provoke our idea of what city means, illustrating urban culture in its many forms. Through the lens of photography, art, activism and social psychology the magazine inspires new perspectives on how we interpret our surroundings.

Role: translator (deu -> eng)

issues 'Land in Sight' (2015) and 'New Spaces' (2016)

Mauerpark [Wall Park] lies on the former no man's land which separated East and West Berlin for 27 years. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this borderland area was seen as a space where the two halves of Berlin could grow together again. 

This short documentary film asks individuals why the park is such as important urban space. 

Role: project lead

(concept, interviews, transcription/translation)