If you’ve ever looked for advice on reaching your career goals, ever read a self-help book or ever talked to a therapist, you’ve probably heard the same piece of advice: visualize the future you want and you’re more likely to achieve it. It’s a psychological hack that professional athletes use, too. By focusing their attention on the finishing line, they reach it faster and with less exertion.
Dance has a very clear vision: more livable cities that are safe, healthy environments for communities of people to thrive. So, to inspire us to keep working towards the future we want, we asked architect Max Schwitalla of Studio Schwitalla to help us visualize a car-free Berlin. Like many cities, Berlin’s modern infrastructure has been designed around cars. But what if we started designing cities around people?
Why Rosenthaler Platz?
Anyone who’s ever commuted through Rosenthaler Platz in Berlin Mitte understands its challenges—especially for cyclists. Five main streets merge onto one junction and not one of them has a proper bike lane. Two thirds of road accidents involving cyclists happen at crossings or turnings, so Rosenthaler Platz was the perfect candidate for a transformation.
The outcome is a greener, more human urban space where people can meet, walk and cycle safely.
Our transformation of Rosenthaler Platz is just the beginning—there are more locations to come. Let us know if you have any suggestions for places we should reimagine next. Just share a picture of the location on social media and tag us using @danceofficial