Urban Tech Republic

Urban Tech Republic occupies the site of Berlin's former Tegel Airport and stands as one of the most ambitious urban redevelopment projects currently underway in Europe. Tegel, once celebrated as a symbol of postwar technological optimism when it opened over half a century ago, closed to civil aviation in 2020 following the concentration of Berlin's air traffic at Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Rather than being sold off, the roughly 500 hectare site was retained in public hands, opening an exceptional opportunity for the state of Berlin to shape its next use with care and long term intent.

The development is steered by Berlin TXL Management GmbH, known until 2026 as Tegel Projekt GmbH, a company wholly owned by the state of Berlin that was founded in 2011 to plan the airport's future beyond aviation. Following extensive public and expert consultation on ideas and concepts, the state formally handed responsibility for implementation to the company in 2021, marking the beginning of the site's physical transformation. Since then, groundwork and remediation have progressed steadily, with the first phase of construction targeted for completion later this decade.

At the heart of this transformation is Urban Tech Republic itself, a research and industrial park dedicated to the technologies that will shape the cities of the future. Its programme is organised around six core thematic pillars, namely mobility, energy, materials, information and communication technology, recycling, and water, each addressing a distinct dimension of sustainable urban life. Within these themes, the site brings together research, development, testing and production, with dedicated facilities such as the FUTR HUB for digital and smart city solutions and the FUTR HUT for new construction methods and materials, alongside space for start-ups, established industry and academic partners, including a planned campus presence for several thousand students.

Urban Tech Republic sits within the wider Berlin TXL project, which also encompasses the Schumacher Quartier, a new residential district planned for more than five thousand homes, and the Tegeler Stadtheide, an extensive landscape and nature area of around two hundred hectares. Together these three elements are intended to bring social, ecological and economic priorities into balance on a single site, reflecting Berlin's broader ambition to model a sustainable, resilient and socially attentive approach to urban growth.

As a public sector project, Urban Tech Republic is funded through the state of Berlin via its wholly owned development company, supplemented by targeted urban renewal funding for the surrounding neighbourhood and by private investment from the businesses and institutions that lease space on site. This structure allows the project to combine long term public stewardship of the land with the dynamism of a growing commercial and research ecosystem, positioning Urban Tech Republic as both a testing ground for new technologies and a distinctive model for how a major European city can repurpose a piece of its own infrastructure history for the challenges ahead.