Cafe Streets and Kiezblocks as Civic Commons Policies for and Patterns of Outdoor Dining in Berlin and Seattle

Abstract

This thesis investigates how outdoor dining helps activate streets, engender hybrid infrastructure and transform public right-of-way into civic commons, focusing on Berlin’s Kiezblocks and Seattle’s Café Streets. In both cities, outdoor dining programs reconfigure public streetscapes through spatial, operational, and governance interventions, but they emerge from distinct cultural and policy contexts: Berlin’s Kiezblocks are resident-driven traffic-calming initiatives that reclaim streets for mixed community use, while Seattle’s Café Streets arose from city-led partnerships with business improvement areas (BIAs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on theories of hybrid infrastructure and public space management, this study employs a design-based, visio-spatial methodology. Through on-street photography and site inventory, I analyze how outdoor dining spaces are structured, delineated, and experienced, capturing indicators including accessibility, physical barriers, public seating, and other factors. An analysis operationalizes these indicators to classify each site’s level of publicness and hybridization, offering a systematic framework for evaluating how civic these spaces remain alongside their commercial functions. Findings reveal that while both cities activate streets through outdoor dining, the spatial expressions of hybrid infrastructure differ markedly. Kiezblock sites tend to foster a more porous, co-designed interface between public and private realms, whereas Café Streets often reinforce commercial dominance with stronger territorial cues. These insights contribute to a deeper understanding of how café streets might mediate between privatization and activation to help foster a civic commons.