Pilot project for the cultural reuse of the former fire station at Tempelhof Airport, Berlin

In a city where the pressure on shared spaces is constantly increasing, Torhaus Berlin e.V. is opening the doors to a special place this summer: With its official opening on August 15, the former fire station at Tempelhof Airport will, for two months, become a testing ground for cultural practice, community, and transformation.

From August 15 to October 18, we invite Berlin-based collectives, artists, and practitioners to bring this space to life together – with events at the intersections of club culture, art, movement, and urban practice. During the day, the venue will host workshops, discussion formats, and collaborative processes that explore new forms of working together. In the evenings, a rotating lineup of collectives will curate a diverse program. The open call, published jointly with the Clubcommission Berlin e.V., was met with great enthusiasm: more than 200 collectives applied.

The collectives Fiestuki, Treason, VUULVA Power & BerlanAllee Studio, Cassette Heads Sessions, Milk Me, and Cura x Muster will each curate one of six club nights.

Parallel to the event program the permanent exhibtion "notes on rescue" will present works of Berlin-based and international artist engaging with questions of community, climate, adaptive reuse – and, not least, the act of rescuing and being rescued. The former fire station thus becomes a life-sized playground: a space suspended between architectural heritage and performative present, built order and lived practice, historical functions and speculative futures.

Featured artists include: Ulrich Formann, Bahar Kaygusuz, Hauck Plümpe, Kollektiv Hotel Regina, Emma Mende and Bela Brillowska.

We see these two months as an open experiment and a shared learning process: How can spaces for (counter-)culture not only emerge temporarily, but also be made available in the longer term – especially here, in Berlin’s largest public building?

How can spaces for subculture be created not only temporarily, but secured permanently—especially here, in Berlin's largest public building?
The project is part of the model space series within the Cultural Modernization Program of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion and is funded by this department and the Lotto Foundation Berlin.