Events

As part of the Berlin Science Week, IRI THESys created an audio tour which takes listeners along the pre-1920 border of Berlin and Charlottenburg to explore the city through the lens of urban infrastructure systems. Narrated by THESys Member Timothy Moss, the audio tour visits five exciting examples of infrastructure which has shaped the city since its creation 100 years ago. It highlights how Berlin’s energy and water infrastructure systems were used as a tool for urban expansion, unification, and modernization in the 1920s. It also shows just how infrastructure can be relevant to current-day efforts to render energy and water systems more flexible, environmentally sustainable, socially just, and politically accountable.

Throughout the tour, Tim references his brand-new book ‘Remaking Berlin. A History of the City through Infrastructure, 1920-2020’ (MIT Press) which examines the city’s turbulent history through the perspective of its often invisible water and energy infrastructures. The tour begins in Moabit and ends in the Mierendorffkiez. Stops will include a former wastewater pumping station, the Charlottenburg power station, a street water pump and a former gas works.

The THESys Walkshop on Urban Infrastructure can be viewed and explored on laptops and PCs, as well as downloaded on any smartphone through the free app izi.TRAVEL – a global storytelling platform which provides audio tours to over 350 destinations around the world.