UFA Fabric originated by squatters community inspired to display innovation and a festive lifestyle year round. In 1979 after occupying two hectares of land on the former studio ground of Universum Film AG (Ufa) they began to coordinate jobs and generate their own goods. Although they had originally denied government funding due to the regulations that would accompany them, today it is recognized by the government and is regulated to sell goods to the public.
Today the community is constantly picking up new strategies and acting as a billboard the the surrounding communities and even the world. In relation to their original goal of innovation they have been evolving to becoming one of the most sustainable communities in Germany. All together they have structurally adjusted the original site to have green roofs, water recycling systems, and solar energy harvesting.
In order to upkeep the community, it required whomever is living there to have a job, whether that be keeping the animals, teaching the physical ed classes, or weeding the gardens. There is a variety of jobs that people shuffle through yearly depending on their current interest but, that is a perk of living on the site.
My visit to the UFA Fabrik was focused specifically on their sustainable design strategies. While I would like to visit again to understand the social dynamics better, it was interesting to learn about filtration and water retention on site. Something I would like to learn more about would be how the engineers structurally accounted for the added weight the green roofs to the existing Universum Film AG structures.
