Marzahn: West

Marzahn West is shaped by large prefabricated housing estates, wide green courtyards and a clearly planned urban layout. The defining local feature of Marzahn West is the deliberate relationship between housing blocks, pedestrian paths and clearly structured shared open space. How Marzahn West is used over the course of the day depends on repeated building types, green courtyards and the separation of through traffic from internal routes. Marzahn West lies in the borough of Marzahn-Hellersdorf, about 12 km northeast of central Berlin. Marzahn West merges gradually into Dorf Falkenberg and Gewerbegebiet Bitterfelder Straße; building scale, street activity and open space change before any clear boundary is felt. The immediate streets and open spaces give Marzahn West a recognisable local identity of its own. Together, these elements make the smaller everyday zones that exist inside a large planned layout central to the identity of Marzahn West.