Utilities, Land-Use Change, and Urban Development: Brownfield Sites as ‘Cold-Spots’ of Infrastructure Networks in Berlin

This paper explores the interrelationships between urban land use, resource consumption, and utility service provision with a study of brownfield regeneration—from an infrastructure perspective. Drawing on recent research into the spatial strategies of utility companies, after liberalisation and privatisation, I identify disused industrial sites as ‘cold-spots’ of infrastructure systems where energy and water consumption has recently collapsed. Using a case study of Berlin I analyse first the challenges facing the city's three major utilities as a result of shifting patterns of resource consumption and overcapacity in parts of their networks. In the second part I examine the responses of the three utilities to these challenges in the context of recent institutional changes to infrastructure provision; exploring how the utilities are moving towards greater spatial differentiation in their network management and what interest they have in brownfield regeneration.