Speeed Investor

A Collaborative Architectural and Artistic Discourse in Kreuzberg, Berlin
2003-2004

Speeed Investor was an innovative bottom-up project carried out in 2003 in Berlin, which combined architecture, art, activism, and community engagement. The aim was to be "faster than the investors" by initiating an alternative architectural discourse. Through a series of workshops, presentations, and performative actions, the project explored participatory approaches to urban development and spatial appropriation, and formed a network of interdisciplinary collaborations. The project was initiated by architects Thomas King (Showroom Berlin) and Elke und Wolfgang (Peanutz Architekten).

The project focused on a "non-definition" of the term Speeed Investor, creating space for free association and open interpretation by participants and the public. This ambiguity invited visitors to engage with the project in various ways: joining the initiative, critically reflecting on its ideas, or actively supporting its development. Speeed Investor also played with the expectations of the audience, presenting itself as a professionally created venture while simultaneously rejecting traditional definitions of investment. This contradiction encouraged deeper engagement and prompted participants to question existing urban development paradigms.

Speeed Investor was an exploration of how investment could be reimagined to prioritise community needs and creative visions over profit-driven motives. The project underscored the tension between creative, grassroots initiatives and the capitalist forces of urban development. It was one of the earliest discussions about investment in urban spaces—a topic that, very few years later, became relevant considering urban transformations in Berlin - the wave of gentrification that hit Berlin, rapidly transforming it into a space dominated by commercial interests and rising property values.

Participants:

Thomas King (Showroom Berlin), Wolfgang Grillitsch und Elke Knoess (Peanutz Architects), Ifau Architects, Transform, Raumlabor, Formade, Magma Architects, Forever and a Day, Anna Krenz (Sinus 3), xth-Berlin, Framework Galerie, Studio Architects, Slothrop, Solarpolis, Workspheres, Stadion, Superbüro, Martin Kaltwasser, Rolf Zimmermann, Holger Lindmüller, Veronika Becker, Jens Lowitzsch, Maria and Stefan Saffer, Michael Lenke and Ralph Borchert, Jakob Racek, and others.

Timeline

The first meeting:
20–22 June 2003
Showroom Gallery
The first meeting with presentations and workshops. Local architects, artists, activists, and other professionals formed six working groups to develop creative concepts for the site - an adjacent vacant lot - Banja Luka.

Interim workshops:
Saturday, August 16, 2003
framework / Schlesische Strasse 28 / 10997 Berlin-Kreuzberg
12:00 p.m. Meeting point for all participants, display of the concept exposés/brochures prepared up to that point, preparation for the presentation
1:00 p.m. Welcome and 1st interim presentation of all concepts with the participation of all participants and invited guests - criticism is requested, then further processing on site.
8:00 p.m. Barbecue in Banja Luka, Falckensteinstr. 1, 10997 Berlin

Sunday, August 17, 2003
4:00 p.m. 2nd interim presentation of all concepts with the participation of all participants and invited guests. Guests: Dr. Schulz, two specialists from the project development and real estate scene and a real estate banker will be present as guests to advise and discuss the projects.
Determination of the date of the final presentation of Speed Investor 1 in October (LUX).
6:00 p.m. End of the interim presentation in the waterfront area of Framework with friends and guests and music

Final Presentation (November 29–30, 2003):
LUX Club in Kreuzberg
The culminating event used the format of a "fair" to showcase project outcomes.
Contents:
Must be left open - Lack of definition of Speed Investor
But: Speed Investor plays with expectations of visitors/public by pretending to have a precise, professionally tailored shape. Such withdrawal from a definition is leading to a definition for the presentation.
Therefore concept of a Fair as a framework of the Presentation
Effect:
Public is attracted by our advertising and PR, e.g. bill boards, press releases, invitations, films, announcement of publication.
Once entering the space the public discovers that the predefined non-definition leaves space for free association and is confronted with various options: - joining Speed Investor, -taking for serious what they see, -thinking further, -supporting Speed Investor, etc.
Classical Speed Investor-tools as communication, serving food, confusion, clustering and decentralised networking lead to the following portfolio of products/actions:
- Preparing and serving food
- Creating the bill boards
- Films from our previous work
- Newspaper as publication of an assembly of all our results so far generated
- Distribution of the FalkensteinStr-Keys to strangers and interested parties in NY
- Life video-conference with Stefan Saffer, NY
- Story-Telling
All of the Speed Investors are cordially invited to submit an expression of interest concerning any of the aforementioned implementation elements and to start planning within their group/team.