Water is the resource of the 21st century, and rivers are an important part of our ecosystem. Sally Below worked with landscape architect Ralf Steeg for nine years in an initiative to clean up the Stadtspree.
The idea became a technology: in cooperation with numerous research institutions and engineering offices, a system of stormwater overflow basins was developed. Since September 2012, a pilot plant has been operating in Berlin’s Osthafen.
With exhibitions, articles, lectures and political lobbying, they represented their concern to make the Spree a bathing river again and thus also to change city life in a sustainable way. SPREE2011 was featured, among other things, in the German contribution to the 11th International Architecture Biennale 2008 in Venice and in the anniversary exhibition “WeltWissen. 300 Jahre Wissenschaften in Berlin” and was an exhibition partner in the German pavilion at EXPO 2010 in Shanghai.
