Located on the eastern outskirts of Berlin, Adlershof is a quick 20-minute train ride from the city center. In GDR times Adlershof was Berlin's celebrated socialist science mecca. So when Germany's reunification threatened its further existence, the area embarked on an experiment: the creation of a science park, merging solar technology research with solar industry, in one winning equation.

Since 1993, Berlin has invested billions of euros in the area -- billions the heavily indebted city doesn't have. But Adlershof's public relations manager, Peter Strunk said it was money well-invested in a bold vision, born of necessity.

"This science park project was created to prevent us from social catastrophe after reunification," Strunk said. "There were so many research facilities located here so instead of closing them down, a decision was made to create an integrated landscape of science and business, to re-establish those industrial structures that had to be dismantled."

A pioneering urban project

The science park is embedded in Adlershof's overall urban planning concept, covering over four square kilometers (1.5 square miles). Its fresh urban landscape is still so new that it looks like a city whose virtual, graphic animation existence has simply been mounted onto the material world.

Adlershof is stream-lined and squeaky clean, with no mom and pop shops, quirky corners, or rough edges to add a bit of charm and irregularity to its neat, urban profile. Its main avenue is strewn with sleek, modern buildings of glass and steel housing scientific institutions and high tech companies.

Off the main strip are freshly-plowed streets named in honor of science icons, like Albert Einstein and Max Born. And there's 66 hectares (163 acres) of land still left undeveloped, waiting to be sold, or rented.