Berlin, city without form : strategies for a different architecture. / txt
Strategies for a different architecture
Philipp Oswalt with Anthony Fontenot.
- English edition.
- 159 p. : ill. ; photo. ; 23 cm. book
- Basics 99 Berlin, city without form .
Includes bibliographical references.
Twenty Years Later Preface 2020 -- 20 Automatic Urbanism I 29 -- Generators 32 -- Conglomeration 43 -- Destruction 53 -- Void 67 -- The Ephemeral 75 -- Collision 87 -- Doubling 97 -- Simulation 107 -- Mass 123 -- Metabolism 133 -- Automatic Urbanism II 145 -- Bibliography 154 -- Image credits 158 --
Berlin was shaped by the events of the twentieth century in a process of "automatic urbanism." More than any other metropolis, the city absorbed the forces of that epoch -- modernity, fascism, two world wars, Stalinism, socialism, the Cold War, revolt, capitalism -- and gave them form. This book shows how even today, opposed ideological, political, economic, and military forces continue to produce unplanned structures and activities and urban phenomena beyond the categories of urban design and architecture that conceal rich potential. Berlin reveals particularly clearly phenomena that have shaped urban development in the twentieth century in other places as well: conglomeration, collision of borders, destruction, void, mass, metabolism, and simulation. The present book, which caused a sensation when first published in German twenty years ago, is now being published in English for the first time. Its surprising and informative analysis of Berlin as a prototype of the modern city destroys the ideologies of heroic modernity as well as the new nationalisms and shows how the modern city "as found" can become the point of departure for new forms of context-specific architecture and urban planning.-- Reinhold Martin, Columbia University New York.
Translated from the German.
9783869222745 3869222743
1900-1999
Architecture--History.--Germany--Berlin City planning--History--Germany--Berlin--20th century. Architecture, Postmodern--Germany--Berlin. Architecture. Architecture, Postmodern. City planning.
Berlin (Germany)--Buildings, structures, etc. Germany--Berlin.