The Future of Berlin's Tempelhof Airport

Right on the coattails of my USAF colleague Dale Lindemann’s book “Last Flight from Tempelhof (Amazon link in the right hand column), in my weekend reading of Fast Company magazine I noted an international design competition about what to do with the old airport.

The airport opened in the 1930's with the vision that Berlin would be the capital of Europe, and Tempelhof would be at it's center. After WWII, the airport was occupied by the Americans, eventually becoming the center of USAF operations there. The airport famously was a major center of Operation Vittles flights, supplying the city during the Soviet blockade in the late 1940's.

Like many of the former linguists and airman who were stationed there, I am very interested in learning what is going to happen with this fantastic building now that it has been closed as an airport. I lived there for four and a half years, at first in a section known as H2Long, then in Head Building East (“HBE”).

This competition, arranged by the International Federation for Housing and Planning (IFHP), is about urban sustainability – students are invited to develop unconventional and innovative ideas that give shape to the concept. IFHP will host a presentation of these ideas later in September in Berlin.

Quoting from the IFHP website, here is more information about the theme of this competition:

“When air traffic operations at Tempelhof ceased at the end of October 2008, Berlin regained possession of over 360 hectares of open land and a centrally located complex of buildings that is among the largest in the world. The opening up to Berliners of this inner-city site and its development on ecological principles into a vibrant, functioning and sustainable part of the city represents a unique opportunity for the future of Berlin. In this context, a sustainable, process-related strategy for the future development of the Tempelhof area is to be sought, taking into consideration the unique urbanistic and green qualities of the site, opening the site to the city and creating new residential qualities for future generations. Innovative concepts for a modern city district have to be developed based on an integrated planning concept that takes into consideration aspects of urban ecology and the integration of intelligent urban technology. We are looking for urban concepts that intelligently integrate ecological, economic and social aspects and produce a new urban-architectural image.”

I’ve included a couple of photos of the airport that I found on various websites over the years – mine are in storage and have yet to be digitally scanned. As always, if you recognize these and have a copyright interest, please let me know!

There is an excellent photo on the back cover of “Last Flight from Tempelhof” – it shows an aerial view of an open house at the airport during the days of the USAF’s administration of the facility. Accompanying this post is a similar shot from the 1984 Open House.

These springtime events were always well attended by the community, and all of my friends looked forward to them for various reasons – we sold snacks – hamburgers or wursts – as fundraising activities for our clubs and associations. It wasn’t unusual to sell close to 1,000 a day out there on the tarmac.

As a follow-up, I’ll have a future post after the presentations in September.