Over the past years there has been a growth of several consolidated urban developments at the outskirts of Berlin, all of which can be grouped under the planning term "new suburbs." The basis behind their town planning was the controlled extension of the urban area in order to prevent an unrestrained urban sprawl from overflowing into the attractive countryside and farmland surrounding Berlin. The central planning concept was the development of mixed use areas which include residential, business, consumer and cultural facilities. The settlement "Karow Nord" (Karow North) counts as one such city-border development, as does "Rummelsburger Bucht" (Rummelsburger Bay).
On the flipside of the coin, in the course of Berlin becoming the nation's capital a need for new residential space directly downtown also developed. Developments such as the "Schlange" (Snake) in the neighbourhood Moabiter Werder illustrate how modern housing construction must respond to the city space without simultaneously short-changing the quality of life.
