Guided by Professor Phillip Misselwitz of the Technical University Berlin, the student researchers and faculty of the Harvard Mellon Urban Initiative Berlin portal toured the district of Kreuzberg, tracing specifically the imprint of migration, the presence of the refugee population, and housing typologies and spatial development patterns that have emerged in recent decades across the district. Professor Misselwitz, who for a longer time has led research seminars and studios on these themes at the Technical University Berlin, was drawing on the long history of the district to account for its current state and its place within the future plans for the development of Berlin. Among sites visited were Oranienplatz, which has been the center point of many civil protests, in particular those voicing the problems of the refugees; Kottbusser Tor – the focal point for an important citizen initiative against rising rent prices; and Prinzessinnengarten – a privately leased parcel of public land that has been turned into an urban gardening facility.