Since architect Petra Kahlfeldt was appointed Berlin’s new Senate Building Director at the end of December 2021, criticism has been raining down from the German architecture scene. There is talk of a “victory for Berlin’s traditionalists” and that Petra Kahlfeldt’s previous commitment is in “stark contrast” to Berlin’s current challenges. In the context of the debate, the opinions […]

Since architect Petra Kahlfeldt was appointed Berlin’s new Senate Building Director at the end of December 2021, criticism has been raining down from the German architecture scene. There is talk of a “victory for Berlin’s traditionalists” and that Petra Kahlfeldt’s previous commitment is in “stark contrast” to the current challenges facing Berlin. The debate brings together the opinions of two highly renowned German architects. An overview of the current situation – including Petra Kahlfeldt’s first public reactions – by Theresa Ramisch, editor-in-chief of G+L – Zeitschrift für Landschaftsarchitktur und Stadtplanung.

It has been clear since December 2021 that architect Petra Kahlfeldt will succeed Regula Lüscher and Hans Stimmann. Petra Kahlfeldt will become Senate Building Director in the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development, Building and Housing under Senator Andreas Geisel. She thus helps to determine the cityscape and overall planning of Berlin. Regula Lüscher, who is Swiss, held the office of Senate Building Director for 14 years. She retired in July 2021. Berlin’s former building senator Sebastian Scheel kept the position vacant until after the parliamentary elections. Petra Kahlfeldt’s appointment is currently drawing a protest from the German architecture scene.

Petra Kahlfeldt (*1960 in Kaiserslautern) studied architecture in Berlin and Florence from 1979 to 1985. After studying architecture, she worked at the Berlin architecture firm Henning Pohle and also worked independently in an office partnership with her husband Paul Kahlfeldt from 1987 until her appointment as Senate Building Director in 2021. She was also a research assistant at the Chair of Design and Building Construction at TU Berlin from 1990 to 1995. From 2001 to 2003, she chaired the BDA Berlin. Between 2004 and 2009, she taught as Sutor Professor for Monument Conservation and Design at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste and at HafenCity University in Hamburg. Since 2004, she has been a professor in the teaching and research field of “Historical Building Constructions, Monument Conservation and Design” at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts, HafenCity Hamburg, the University of Bologna and the Berlin University of Applied Sciences. She is also a member of various advisory boards. More about Petra Kahlfeldt here.

Opponents describe the decision as an affront

In the run-up to the appointment, numerous renowned architects, academics and initiatives had already called for a transparent and open process for filling the position. 450 architects, initiatives and associations had signed an open letter “For an open and transparent selection of the new Senate Building Director”. On Monday, December 20, 2021, the SPD officially announced that Petra Kahlfeldt would take over the position of the new Senate Building Director. Since then, there have been numerous comments in various media about Petra Kahlfeldt’s appointment. One of the loudest voices is probably the initiative around HG Merz, Philipp Oswalt and Matthias Sauerbruch. On archplus.net, they published a text with the subtitle “Declaration of war on a social and ecological urban policy” in the wake of Petra Kahlfeldt’s appointment. In it, they describe the appointment without a selection process and public discussion as an “affront to the signatories” of the above-mentioned open letter.

Criticism of Petra Kahlfeldt: conservative and pro-privatization

According to the publication, Petra Kahlfeldt’s “previous job profile is in stark contrast to the current challenges facing Berlin”. Together with her husband, she has so far been “responsible for the realization of villas and luxury residential complexes in the upper price segment”. According to the report, Petra Kahlfeldt does not stand for “a city oriented towards the common good”, “sustainable, climate-friendly urban development” or “affordable housing construction oriented towards the common good”. It threatens to “relapse into the ideological trench warfare of an era in which key issues for the future were neglected for a long time”. She is “close to conservative circles that have campaigned for the reconstruction of the city according to historical patterns”. She has also “repeatedly advocated the privatization of public spaces”. Kahlfeldt is co-author of a Berlin position paper “in which a far-reaching privatization of public land in the center of Berlin is called for”. Petra Kahlfeldt had “also repeatedly reaffirmed this position in later speeches”. Therefore, “considerable conflicts in Berlin’s urban society” and building policy blockades are to be expected.

Withdrawal of the appeal demanded

The text was signed by the following planners:

Those involved are calling for the appointment of Petra Kahlfeldt as Senate Building Director to be withdrawn and for an open and transparent selection process to be carried out “that is appropriate to this important office and worthy of a capital city”. You can read the exact wording here.

Matthias Sauerbruch on Petra Kahlfeldt: “no experience with more complex participatory processes”

The initiative is not alone in its criticism. Architecture critic Nikolaus Bernau described the appointment of Petra Kahlfeldt in the Berliner Zeitung as a “victory for Berlin traditionalists”. He came to the conclusion that the “well-situated bourgeois architectural aesthetic a la Kahlfeldt & Kahlfeldt” could not cope with the current challenges facing Berlin.
In an interview with Die Welt, the renowned architect Matthias Sauerbruch said: “Petra Kahlfeldt is a colleague who has simply run an architecture firm, who has taught to a certain extent at various universities and has sat on a number of juries. She is a very friendly and communicative person, but has no experience with more complex participatory processes or administration at city or state level.”

Petra Kahlfeldt represents positions that run completely counter to the coalition agreement

The Association of German Architects Berlin in turn published a statement entitled “New appointment of the Senate Building Directorate lacking transparency and vision” in which it defines the new appointment “according to apparently party-political criteria” as a missed opportunity to fill the “office that is so important for the development of the city with the support of the professional public.”

In a guest article on freitag.de, Kristin Feireiss and Matthias Grünzig, who also signed the publication on archplus.net, also spoke out in more detail. Here they once again point out the missing examples of affordable housing and the planning of new urban quarters in Kahlfeldt’s portfolio. Furthermore, Petra Kahlfeldt has no experience in managing administrations. At the same time, she represents positions “that run completely counter to the coalition agreement”. As a member of the Stadtkern planning group founded in 2011, she has been advocating the privatization of public properties and areas for years.

Arno Lederer positions himself against Matthias Sauerbruch

In a guest article on welt.de, Arno Lederer, on the other hand, deliberately takes a stand against the criticism of Petra Kahlfeldt and also against some of his fellow architects. “This defamation harms all architects” is the title of his article. In it, he describes Petra Kahlfeldt as a “renowned and widely respected architect” and asks directly whether Matthias Sauerbruch’s statements about Petra Kahlfeldt are defamatory. The interview is peppered with half-truths and insinuations. According to Lederer, Matthias Sauerbruch’s statements left behind a “deliberately manipulative devaluation of the Senate Building Director”. He had even considered whether the interview with the “intelligent and thoroughly charming colleague Sauerbruch” was a fake. At the same time, he is harsh on the eight “esteemed” colleagues who are calling for the appointment to be withdrawn. They do not “even have the linguistic skill to formulate the accusations in a question to the future Senate Building Director”.

Lederer: BDA should call for constructive dialog

In his guest article, he also addresses the BDA and its members directly. He asks whether this is really the way they want to deal with each other. It is a public office that is at stake here, not an individual building. Mutual defamation in public created the image of an “already quarrelling bunch that – for this very reason – should not be taken into consideration”, said Lederer. The demands for a transparent selection process were justified. The open letter had shown that German architects could speak with one voice. What followed was shameful. The BDA would now be well advised to firstly stand up against the public defamation and secondly to call for constructive dialog on the other side.

Berlin architecture critics Zohlen and Haubrich back Petra Kahlfeldt

But Petra Kahlfeldt also received support from other quarters. Alongside Arno Lederer, Berlin architecture critic Gerwin Zohlen also accused the authors of the archplus publication of defaming Petra Kahlfeldt and her architectural oeuvre. In his article, journalist and architecture critic Rainer Haubrich also described the new Senate Building Director as “a good choice”. In turn, Berliner Zeitung publisher Holger Friedrich defined the new SenateBuildingDirector in a debate article entitled “Wenn Frauen bauen: Zum Start von Senatsbaudirektorin Petra Kahlfeldt“, defined the appointment of Petra Kahlfeldt as an “opportunity”. The uproar surrounding her appointment would confirm an opportunity for a new start. The Berlin group of Stadtbild e.V. also publicly welcomed the appointment. Its founder Peter Dobrink wrote in the Berliner Zeitung that Petra Kahlfeldt stands for creative openness, harmonious proportions and local traditions. And that is exactly what Berlin needs now.

In a nutshell: the criticism of Petra Kahlfeldt

To summarize, a total of eight German architects and planners – indirectly supported by the BDA Berlin – have publicly denied that the new Senate Building Director is competent for the position. They accuse her of having outdated views. According to the critics, these are contrary to the modern, sustainable urban design that is now needed in Berlin. Petra Kahlfeldt is accused of approving the privatization of public real estate and spaces in Berlin’s city centre. In the past, she and her architectural firm have primarily realized luxury buildings and villas and have therefore not acted in the interests of the common good. The critics also question whether Petra Kahlfeldt can and wants to promote participatory processes in the sense of a participation-oriented urban society.

Petra Kahlfeldt responds to criticism

What is Petra Kahlfeldt’s opinion on all this? She has since responded to the criticism in various interviews. G+L has also been able to talk to her. In it, she points out that the post of Senate Building Director is not only a professional position, but also a political one. This is often forgotten. She is also surprised that she has been criticized before she has even been able to make a substantive decision. And in an interview with Die Welt, she also discusses her urban development vision. “My guiding principle is the compact European city,” is the headline of the article. And Die Zeit quotes Kahlfeldt as saying: “There will be more high-rise buildings”. However, both articles are subject to a charge.

However, an interview with Petra Kahlfeldt is freely available on radioeins.de. Here she explains her job in general and that she sees herself as a bridge builder in her new position. When asked whether she has experience with a larger scale or the creation of affordable housing, Petra Kahlfeldt replies that her traditional professional focus is actually on conversion areas. These were sometimes larger urban quarters or individual buildings. Her traditional area, however, is the design and construction of existing buildings. Petra Kahlfeldt answers the question of whether Berlin Mitte needs more privatization instead of social housing in the negative. There is a good reason why Berlin has decided not to sell state-owned planning areas. When asked about her proximity to the Stadtkern planning group, Petra Kahlfeldt replies that the group is defined by its interdisciplinarity. This is also where instruments are discussed with urban planners that can be established contrary to speculation. You can listen to the whole interview here.

In an interview with G+L editor-in-chief Theresa Ramisch , the new Berlin Senate Building Director Petra Kahlfeldt comments on the accusations made against her.