Learning from Berlin | Tactical Strategies for New Urbanisms

Berlin’s unique rebirth is an active and dynamic example of a redevelopment of a city in the attempt to realign itself as a global capital. Its changed landscape during the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first century promotes an ethereal metropolis developing new prototypes for living. The vast array of experimentation spanning three major territorial shifts are critical to these radical transformations. Prewar, postwar and unification have generated a collage of new visions implementing urban forms within distinct neighborhoods.

Extensive comparisons have been made between Chicago and Berlin during the turn of the century. In 1891 Mark Twain visited Berlin and published his experience in the New York Sun “The German Chicago” stating “Berlin is the European Chicago”. He described the city as “the newest I have ever seen”(Twain 88/89). At this time, Berlin was compared to Chicago both by its range of development and its speed of growth. It had changed from a historical city to a new age metropolis. Edmund Edel describes in the Großstadt-Dokumente 1908 Berlins characteristics with words that attributes American metropolis. Leo Colze writes around the same time about the “Kaufhaus des Westens” as a symbol of the modern, a technical and organizational masterful performance, based on the American model.

Reunification of Berlin triggered an intense conversation within the architectural discipline and created a fierce debate about metropolis. The question of how to develop a unified Berlin is guided by a framework “Planwerk Innenstadt” from Senate Building Director Hans Stimmann. It re-introduced the concept of critical reconstruction for the Friedrichstadt, the “European City” for the Potsdamer Platz, the Lehrter Bahnhof area and the Spreeinsel. Stimmann writes in 1995 “a city can only become a metropolis if it maintains a hold on its past. Libeskind “condemned any call or support for a return to the ‘historical’ city as an expression of ‘reactionary tendencies’, a ‘dogmatic and anti-democratic concept of society’ and an ‘unimaginative rumination of bureaucratic and administrative formulas’ in architecture.”(Kähler 384). Within the discipline, Berlin is a unique architectural playground oscillating between a range of radical transformations. The ability to visit and experience these urban transformations is part of the studio research.

FACULTY

John Manaves, AIA along with Alice Kriegel founded studio Berlin in 2008. He has committed the summer semester in facilitating and teaching the program for the past seven years. The program has been consistently dedicated to researching urban inter­ven­tions and new urban­isms in Berlin.

Alice Kriegel, Dipl.-Ing.Arch. BDA, studied and worked in Berlin during critical reconstruction. In 2004, she joined ECE, the Hamburg-based international project developer and was involved in the master planning of Überseequartier Hamburg Hafencity and Weser Quartier Bremen.

SCHEDULE

18 May - 27 June

Week 1 [5.18-5.22]: Chicago - Berlin Comparison/ Pre-departure/ Arrive in Berlin May 22nd

Week 2 [5.24-5.30]:

Phase 1 | Fieldwork; Chicago, Berlin, Hamburg and Athens

Week 3 [5.31-6.06]: PROJECT 1 : INDIVIDUAL / REVIEW

Phase 2 | Tactical Strategies for New Urbanisms

Week 4 [6.07-6.13]: PROJECT 2 : GROUP / REVIEW

Phase 3 | Final Project | Tactical Strategies for New Urbanisms:

Week 5 [6.14-6.20]: PROJECT 3 : EXHIBITION AND PRESENTATION, BERLIN

Week 6 [6.21-6.28]: PROJECT 3 : EXHIBITION AND PUBLICATION, CHICAGO


Fieldwork | Chicago, Berlin, Hamburg and Athens:The studio examines both intrinsic and extrinsic influences that have shaped its territories. The summer semester will be primarily based in Berlin and involve an extensive investigation into pivotal moments of the city. The ability to be study abroad and experience the cultural dynamics of a city is critical to the research.

Extended trips to Hamburg and Athens will further the discussion on urban development. Masterplans within visited sites will be evaluated and documented including the Hafencity and the Olympic Village proposal for 2024 in Hamburg and the Piraeus Masterplan and the 2004 Olympic Village in Athens.

Variable Cities and Behavioral Modeling: Concept Development: Digital strategies and behavioral modeling will explore the dynamic and variable elements within the cities of research. New digital tools will be developed to design and document the findings.

Final Project | Tactical Strategies for New Urbanisms: The studio proposal is to define Berlin’s current urban existence in order to expose its transient dynamic. Activities and temporary space created by and for the new collective will be documented and explored. The mapping of these strange territories will reveal complex relationships. The interest of the studio is to develop new ways to experience and reframe these curious places of moment uncertainty. A new strategy for an impermanent urban intervention will expose the hidden relationships and potentials. These provocative visions implemented in the urban context to mediate between a current and potential future generate a temporary and an intermediary moment. The research will conclude with a design project and exhibition exploring the relationship between Berlin and the misplaced collective.

Exhibition & Final Review: The Final Review will take place as an exhibit within a gallery space in parallel coordination with students and faculty at the UDK Berlin and TU Berlin’s Center for Metropolitan Studies The entire process including design research, fieldwork and design projects will be documented through compelling and communicative graphics in a book for publication.

Multiple options for work spaces are available. They include the Betahaus at Moritzplatz and the UDK Berlin.