The Rigaerstraße is a street in the northern portion of the Friedrichshain neighborhood (known as Nordkiez). The area was a hotbed of alternative culture, art, nightlife, and trendy but affordable living in the early 2000s, when it became the alternative to the rapidly gentrifying and increasingly expensive Prenzlauer Berg and Mitte. Eventually it too saw rising prices, but by then many occupations and alternative living projects had established themselves. The Rigaerstraße near Liebigstraße housed a cluster of prominent Hausprojekte. Some were evicted, like the Liebig 14 in 2011; others, such as the Liebig 34, remain. Conflicts with landlords, neighbors, and police persist, as in the case of the partial eviction of the Rigaer 94 in 2016.

In 2010, when I took the photographs in this gallery, the stretch of Rigaerstraße between Liebigstraße and Zellerstraße was a unique urban setting, where the many neighboring Hausprojekte imparted a contestatory and politically charged character to the street as a whole, through their posters, banners, and painted façades. These Hausprojekte taken together were more than the sum of their parts; their spatial, cultural, and visual potency suggested an alternative city, which could be experienced as an actual space in those few street blocks. Now, as one by one the Hausprojekte are completely or partly evicted, the uniqueness of the street threatens to give way to more of the same gentrification seen elsewhere in the neighborhood.