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Photo Credit: Ralph Stern
Berlin Studio Winter Semester 2017 Department of Architecture
Professor Dipl.-Ing. Ralph Stern, MAA, RA, AIA
Berlin ist eine Stadt, verdammt dazu, ewig zu warden, niemals zu
sein” (Berlin is a city condemned forever to becoming and never to
being.)”
Karl Scheffler
More than any other city, Berlin has made its mark on the
history of the 20th century: The city was the scene of major events
and trends in this century - the Modernist movement of the
twenties, the First and Second World Wars, National Socialism and
the Holocaust, the Cold
War and the collapse of Socialism, Capitalism and revolt - and,
at the same time, these events have shaped the city. Berlin, which
in the 19th century had been a boomtown without any tradition of
its own, absorbed these influences and gave them an expression. In
a process
of ‘automatic urbanism’ - recurring destruction, planning and
reconstruction -, the city developed into a montage of
contradictory ideological fragments. The city has become a text
which tells its story and, in doing so, reflects the history of the
20th century. Unlike
other cities, Berlin does not stand out on account of its
classical beauty, it is neither a composition which is the result
of an ideal plan nor is it the product of organic growth;
discontinuities and contradictions, diversity and emptiness
characterise the city. Berlin is ugly and, at
the same time, its intensity and its individual character are a
source of fascination. (Oswald, Philip, Berlin Stadt Ohne Form)
Of most cities, people have a sort of image in their head. An
image of what the city looks like through a collection of icons.
Berlin does not have such an image. One cannot go to the central
market place or the grand palace to look for its identity. The city
is not beautiful,
but presents itself more as a challenge. It pushes its visitors
to explore it and ever again it confronts them with new and
different perspectives, always postponing the moment when ones gets
a rip of it. Berlin is clumsily unfinished. Its appearances do not
reveal its
different meanings. (Cupers Meissen – Spaces of Uncertainty)
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Stern - Berlin Studio - Winter 2017
Berlin Context – Background History Berlin is a city that can
truly be regarded as an urban laboratory. A small, provincial city
in the eighteenth century, it exploded into an industrial force in
the nineteenth century, attracting architects, landscape
architects, and city planners that have played an essential role in
the development of modern practice and theory about tectonics,
spatial organization, and urban development. Located on the Spree
River, it served as a nexus for waterway develop-ment; located in
central Europe, it became a nexus of railway development fueling
rapid growth and industrial expansion.
Such expansion brought with it waves of immigration, together
with the cultural enrichment as well as the social tensions often
associated with a rapid population growth. Cultural institutions
flourished and, after the First World War, Berlin became the center
of the important German film industry and attracted protagonists of
the avant-garde in the areas of painting, literature, photography,
design, architecture, and urban design. Plagued by the
hyper-inflation of the Weimar years, all of these experiments came
to an end with Hitler’s ascension to power in January of 1933.
During the next twelve years, Berlin was fundamentally
transformed in all aspects: politically, culturally, socially,
and—finally—physically. The flourishing metropolis of four million
had become a landscape of ruins: physically and morally. It was
also an occupied city with control being shared (or contested) by
the Americans, English, French, and Russians. Cold War tensions
escalated, culminating in the formal, physical division of the city
between East and West in 1961; a division marked by the
construction of the Berlin Wall.
However, within these divisions, remarkable cultures of design
once again flourished and were marked by a series of International
Building Exhibitions that began in the 1950s and continued through
the 1980s and German Reunification in 1989.
Since Reunification, Berlin has again undergone profound
transformations: becoming Europe’s largest con-struction site,
reasserting its status as Germany’s capitol, attracting a
burgeoning music and culture industry, and becoming a global
tourist destination. The divisions of the Cold War, of East and
West, are less disappearing than overlaid with multiple forms of
intervention and investment. Given Berlin’s unique history, these
pressures (and opportunities) are creating tensions along economic
lines rather than ideological while simultaneously creating an
“experience economy” based on simulations of various pasts
including, most interestingly, the heady days of squats and the
highly permeable terrain characterizing the early
post-reunification years. Berlin is, once again, at the forefront
of architectural, landscape, urban, and social experimentation.
Themes and Emphasis The general theme of the Studio will
be “Stadt am Wasser” or, “City at the Waterfront”, in this case the
river Spree. There will be a range of issues that you will be
required to address: history of the site, infrastructure
(transportation linkages, waterfront access, green networks, etc.),
scalar range (urban, landscape, architectural, interior),
appropriate structural and material systems, social issues
(gentrification versus social diversity), and cultural
integration.
Emphasis will be placed on a comprehensive approach to, and
understanding of, built intervention in historically and culturally
significant urban areas. A scalar range in design from the urban to
detail is expected, as is the ability to develop a “program”
appropriate for the site. Much of the information and instruction
provided during the Berlin Field Trip will serve as a basis for
project analysis and development. Spree Context – Background
History The river Spree has historically served as a lifeline for
Berlin: barges brought supplies and building materials from the
surrounding region, pleasure boots traveled the Spree and the
broader waterways of the Havel, a system of canals and locks were
developed in the nineteenth century to facilitate the construction
of vast areas of Berlin Kreuzberg and elsewhere.
During the Cold War, the Spree, once the unifying element of the
city, became a line of division: demarcating the Eastern Sector of
the city from the Western Sectors. The area in which we will be
working, Berlin Kreuzberg, was under American control on the west
and Soviet control on the east. As such, both edges of the river
became heavily patrolled “borderlands” that therefore fell into
general disuse and disrepair with old industrial buildings
often
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Stern - Berlin Studio - Winter 2017
becoming “ruins” that few were interested in. Post-reunification
brought with it an interest in such buildings, by ravers and
squatters: many of the most active techno-clubs occupied various
buildings along the Spree and a number of the most prominent
“squats” also took hold on long-abandoned buildings.
The scenario since the year 2000 has changed once again. River
frontage has an obvious appeal for high-end development and, as if
a more obvious marker needed to be set, the DAZ (Deutsches
Architekturzentrum), the German Architectural Center, renovated and
moved into a large industrial building complex. For a while,
adjacent sites remained largely abandoned and the haunt of graffiti
artists, transitory “trailer parks” occupied by left-wing
“Autonomen”, and other low intensity uses. Inevitably, however,
this has changed and the development of the so-called “Media Spree”
concept for high-end investment was put forward. It met with a
great deal of resistance and debate with regard to public access to
waterfront areas, as well as cultural and social diversity.
Buildings such as the “Eisfabrik” were occupied, or re-occupied, by
squatters and became, in many regards, “sites of resistance” to
high-end development.
Abstract / Thematic Framework The sites that we have suggested
are all located in “contested terrain”. What had once been the
border between east and west may now be conserved a “borderland”
between the privileged and the disenfranchised. It will be your
task to intervene in this extremely sensitive debate in a manner
that is appropriate for urban and architectural development at the
same time it recognizes and mediates a broad range of
socio-economic conditions.
What isn’t an option are small-scale interventions. As you will
see, a number of the sites are occupied by very small-scale,
low-tech interventions (including tipis); for any long-term
stability to the sites, such interventions are provisional at best.
Therefore, the project this semester is about achieving a relevant
scalar intervention and the notion of “scale” can itself be used as
a thematic framework for interrogating the various physical,
social, and cultural forces at play on these complex sites.
Pedagogical Objectives First and foremost, you will learn to work
in teams in which you will need to cooperate, synthesize and
integrate a series of perspectives on the issues at hand. As such,
this serves to simulate more accurately the comprehensive working
environment of professional designers. Beyond this, you will also
have an opportunity to develop an individual project within the
broader framework provided by the teamwork. These projects should
reflect your own area of disciplinary skill and expertise.
Beyond this, and as mentioned above, the issue of scale is
important. It is recognized that many of you will be working at a
scale you are not familiar with; the Berlin Field Trip will serve
to provide a myriad of examples as to scalar variation and
complexity. In addition to scale, you will learn to make choices
and decisions about appropriate sites (therefore a range of site
possibilities in the same general area), you will learn to make
programing choices, and you will learn how to schematically
organize larger projects. You will learn to work with alternatives.
Most of all, you will learn how to work quickly and succinctly;
perhaps you might think of this as a design competition in which a
clear concept and succinct articulation are of greater value than a
long period of gestation: we have a great deal to accomplish within
a short period of time and you will learn how to apportion this
time in a manner that will lead to successful results.
Note from the Department Head (08.19.2016): “We will have two
studios divided into fall and winter term studios due to
circumstantial reasons: although the studios are autonomous and
independent, the Studio Presentation
must be clear about it, the sequence followed between those
studios must be clear to the students too, and a
minimum coordination for presentation is required.”