With empty terminals and plane-less runways, the skeleton of Berlin’s ex-Tegel international airport stands motionless, as if frozen in time. State-funded developers are building what they advertise as the “City of the Future” on a now-vacant 1,236 acres, where a bustling airport used to serve up to 24 million passengers annually until its closing in 2020.
The ambitious $8 billion development features affordable housing and accessible green space, as well as a scientific research center dubbed “Urban Tech Hub” — all in an environmentally sustainable community. It is a futuristic vision, but one that is plagued by the past.