Questions on Dwelling is a publication platform and research collective, focused on modes of urban settlement and habitation. It is managed by Zoë Ritts, with collaborators in Berlin and Toronto.

Our texts can be found at independent bookstores in Berlin, Vienna, Montreal, Toronto, and Los Angeles.

Research 03

Karl-Marx-Str. 95
Ongoing research

In 2015, Berlin Mayor Franziska Giffey proposed the use of former department store on Karl-Marx-Straße for emergency housing to accommodate the wave of asylum seekers entering Germany that year. The Catholic help organization Malteser Hilfsdienst gGmbH operated the temporary accommodation, housing 800 people—including families—between 2015 and 2018. 

The 2015 conversion to accommodation center was troubled, met by some neighbourhood residents with concern. According to the transcript of a town hall meeting documented in a Kiez und Kneipe Neukölln blog post, “Raphael Duetemeyer from "Malteser Hilfsdienst" asked for a little patience. It is not possible to teach people the usual manners in public spaces in this country overnight. This requires some effort,” writes the article’s author. 

The building, originally constructed in the late 1970s and later renovated in 1990, has over 9,200 qm over five floors. In 2020 it was purchased by Ryotaro Chikushi, who founded the Japanese–German cultural exchange group NION, focused on “the Berlin music, art, tech to urban development scene.” Slated to open in 2021, it remains under construction at the time of writing, privately financed by Chikushi and seeking additional donation-based funding. NION, which refers to itself as a “community Kiez design project,” would use the building for “restaurants and individual retailers,” “a start up campus, an area for e-sports and a game center,” offices, companies, daycare, an event space, “gastronomy,” and “an area for neighborhood culture with a café.” (See their website)

During an initial renovation phase in 2021, we were able to enter the building and document artworks and drawings left behind by the refugees who lived there sometime during 2015–2018. We were moved by the beauty and intimacy of this mark-making act. It is our intention to find the authors of these drawings, and ask them about their work. This research is ongoing, and will be documented in a forthcoming publication.



05/12/2021