Berlin is one of the most dynamically redeveloping European metropolis of the last decades. But how is the process of change proceeding in the urban structure in the capital of the biggest (in terms of population)1 European country? The author is concerned with the methods of reshaping the urban tissue, especially of the service segment, in the central area and in the distant residential districts of the eastern Berlin. The idea of the article concerns also the effects that were brought by the programmes and projects connected with the functional and spatial unification of the two, previously disconnected, parts of Berlin. Attention was paid to places, where the city life concentrates in its various forms.

Berlin is one of the most dynamically redeveloping European metropolis of the last decades. But how is the process of change proceeding in the urban structure in the capital of the biggest (in terms of population)1 European country? The author is concerned with the methods of reshaping the urban tissue, especially of the service segment, in the central area and in the distant residential districts of the eastern Berlin. The idea of the article concerns also the effects that were brought by the programmes and projects connected with the functional and spatial unification of the two, previously disconnected, parts of Berlin. Attention was paid to places, where the city life concentrates in its various forms.