Florian Hertweck published a new article at a+u journal.
a+u’s November issue features the most recent wave of construction in Berlin. Thirty-two years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall – a period longer than the life of the wall itself – and the city has entered a new phase of normalization, with the genre, styles, and values of architecture being decidedly different from those of the post-Reunification euphoria. While major initiatives such as the restoration of Museum Island have brought glory back to the many monuments of historic Berlin, this current period of so-called normalization has benefited from Berlin’s “putatively abnormal, vacated, fragmented, and duplicative condition,” as outlined by Florian Hertweck. Berlin became a cultural capital that attracted young, risk-taking creatives, with opportunities for cross-disciplinary experimentations and collaborations. Self-determined building groups sought to provide well-designed and affordable housing by negotiating unwanted urban pockets and well-planned construction schemes.
While a+u 16:08 provides a comprehensive index to the landmarks of Berlin from Schinkel to the post-Reunification construction boom, this issue highlights 14 recent works that range from the restoration of Neues Museum to the conversion of an abandoned grocery store in the former East Berlin into a residence. They are representative of this new chapter in the city’s remarkable history. A series of thematic essays, on Museum Island, on Schinkelplatz, on the Tempelhof site, on building groups, underscore the complexities and challenges in this transformative process. (a+u)
Hertweck, Florian: Berlin – From Castle in the Air to Creative Metropolis, in: a + u Architecture and Urbanism, no 11/2022, p.84-93.
https://orbilu.uni.lu/handle/10993/52973
https://au-magazine.com/shop/architecture-and-urbanism/au-202211/