Accompanied by the director of the German Architecture Center (DAZ) Matthias Böttger, the Harvard Mellon Berlin portal research group paid a visit to the DAZ, in which they saw a current exhibition about new housing projects in Berlin. Among other issues, the conversation with Matthias focused on the recent Berlin phenomenon of ‘Baugruppen’ – initiatives from mostly upper middle-class citizens who assemble resources to form private housing development cooperatives. Students visited two sites where such construction was underway. Also, the group inspected the site of the Holzmarkt – a singular project along the northern bank of the Spree river in which nightlife entrepreneurs are turning into real estate developers, and directly opposite on the southern bank Tipiland – a countercultural settlement.