Assignment 02 - Individual Design
SPIELSCHAFTHERGESTELLT

“Children/kids”, “garden”, “urban” and their associated words were the basis for the realization of this project proposal for the site of the nearly abandoned, Kid’s Garden in Nuekolln, Berlin. A brief word-mapping exercise, beginning with these three words as the base, produced words such as “openness”, “flowing”, “organic”, “rigid” and “metal”. These words then began to influence the spatial quality and materiality of the proposal. The location of the site, directly across the street from a playlot, provided an obvious opportunity to link these two areas which have strongly connected programmatic uses. Together, the Kid’s Garden and the Playlot form a large multipurpose venue for children (and adults alike) to recreationally experience nature. The solution was to install a playscape that would incorporate the process of industrial fabrication with the ideas of a sublime human interaction with nature. Unlike most traditional playscapes which use only natural materials, the surface for this proposal is a triangulated steel mesh that meanders through the site like “river” and is covered by a translucent structural fabric. The morphology of this surface allows spaces for activities on the site - playing, running, sitting, and walking – to naturally occur, allowing the user to inadvertently program the space. Moments of void within the fabric expose the underlying structural framework, while allowing trees and vegetation to penetrate and spill onto its surface – here, nature “comes through” and intermingles with the artificial.

Assignment 01 - Historical Research
East Berlin Architecture: Karl-Marx Allee and Frankfurter Tor by Hermann Henslmann

During the era of the Berlin Wall (1940-1990), the great division between East and West Berlin also marked a separation of East/West Germany and, as part of the Iron Curtain, a division between Western and Eastern Europe. Beginning around 1961, during the Cold War era, this divide produced, in East Berlin – the Soviet Bloc of Berlin, a city that was in a state of considerable economic decline. West Berlin was allowed to share in the prosperity of West Germany’s Post-WWII “economic miracle”, thanks to large subsidies from West Germany’s capital, Bonn. Meanwhile, East Berlin however was notably less fortunate: “Its gray buildings did not merely lack a coat of paint that their Western counterparts had; there were fewer new buildings, and fewer older ones were being renovated.” (Ghosts of Berlin, Brian Ladd) In addition to deteriorating architecture, East Berlin suffered overall economic decay due to a lost/lack of industrial production and commerce activity. There were less vehicles and retail stores than those which existed in West Berlin. The drab architecture, muted sounds and pungent smells worked together to amplify the negative image of the city.
“Since the reunification of Berlin, after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1990, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin.” (East Berlin, Wikipedia.com) Many obvious differences still persist between the two halves of the city, despite these efforts: the aesthetics of East Berlin are distinctly different, partly because of the greater survival of Pre-WWII façades and streetscapes, some still showing signs of wartime damage, and partly because of the distinctive style of urban Stalinist architecture used in the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). As in other former East German cities, a small number of GDR-era names commemorating socialist heroes have been preserved, such as Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße; this followed a long process of review in which many such street names were deemed inappropriate and were changed, including Karl-Marx-Allee. (East Berlin, Wikipedia.com)
The Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental boulevard commemorating the notable German socialist/communist Karl Marx. It was originally constructed between 1952 and 1960 between the Friedrichshain and Mitte boroughs of Berlin. From 1949 to 1961, the boulevard was named Stalinallee – declared “The First Socialist Street of the German Capitol”, and prior to that, Große Frankfurter Straße. Karl-Marx-Allee was the flagship project of the Post-WWII East Germany Reconstruction program. It was designed by the architects Hermann Henselmann, Hartmann, Hopp, Leucht, Paulick and Souradny to contain “spacious and luxurious apartments for plain workers, as well as shops, restaurants, cafés, a tourist hotel and an enormous cinema (the International)”. (Karl-Marx-Allee, Wikipedia.com) Hermann Henselmann architects, most famous for constructing buildings in East Germany during the 1950s and 60s, were the principal design firm on the project. During the construction of Karl-Marx-Allee, the firm practiced the Social Realism , or Stalinist, architectural style which was characterized by monumentality and ornamentation. The monumentality of the boulevard is physically expressed in its dimensions: 292ft (89m) wide and roughly 6,500ft (2km) – or over a mile – long. The boulevard is sandwiched by monumental, tiered “wedding-cake style” eight-story buildings, typical of the social classicism of the Soviet Union. The boulevard is bookended by twin towers at Frankfurter Tor on the east end and Strausberger Platz on the west – both also designed by Hermann Henselmann. Frankfurter Tor, constructed between 1953 and 1956, was done in the Stalinist and neo-classical architectural styles. It consists of a grand square and two domed towers which serve as the landmarks for Karl-Marx-Allee. In respect to the buildings that line the boulevard, the ornamentation of the façade varies from building to building; however it often equally consists of traditional Berlin motifs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Most of the buildings are covered by architectural ceramics. Since the German reunification, most of the buildings, including the two Frankfurter Tor towers, have been restored. Karl-Marx-Allee has been praised by many postmodernists as “true city planning on a grand scale” and as “Europe’s last great street”. Karl-Marx-Allee, became in a sense, a refutation of the Stalinist architecture that originally existed on the street – again, its original name was Stalinallee. The Stalinist architectural style emphasized urban public and residential buildings of high and middle quality, excluding mass housing, and selected infrastructure projects. “In most of the structures, underneath the rich wet stucco walls are simple brick masonry. The masonry naturally dictated narrow windows, thus leaving a large wall area to be decorated. Fireproof terra cotta finishes were introduced in the early 1950s. Most of the roofing was traditional wooden trusses covered with metallic sheets.” (Stalinist architecture, Wikipedia.org). Stalinist buildings were typically very ornate and expensive to build; therefore they were considered inefficient by Nikita Khrushchev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, following Stalin’s death in 1954. Khrushchev favored the new International Style of modern architecture that had been previously deemed “dehumanizing” due to its pre-fabricated unadorned concrete and steel forms. This new architectural style was incorporated into the later construction period of Stalinallee; therefore both architectural styles can be found along the re-named Karl-Marx Allee.

Assignment 02 - Individual Design
SPIELSCHAFTHERGESTELLT

“Children/kids”, “garden”, “urban” and their associated words were the basis for the realization of this project proposal for the site of the nearly abandoned, Kid’s Garden in Nuekolln, Berlin. A brief word-mapping exercise, beginning with these three words as the base, produced words such as “openness”, “flowing”, “organic”, “rigid” and “metal”. These words then began to influence the spatial quality and materiality of the proposal. The location of the site, directly across the street from a playlot, provided an obvious opportunity to link these two areas which have strongly connected programmatic uses. Together, the Kid’s Garden and the Playlot form a large multipurpose venue for children (and adults alike) to recreationally experience nature. The solution was to install a playscape that would incorporate the process of industrial fabrication with the ideas of a sublime human interaction with nature. Unlike most traditional playscapes which use only natural materials, the surface for this proposal is a triangulated steel mesh that meanders through the site like “river” and is covered by a translucent structural fabric. The morphology of this surface allows spaces for activities on the site - playing, running, sitting, and walking – to naturally occur, allowing the user to inadvertently program the space. Moments of void within the fabric expose the underlying structural framework, while allowing trees and vegetation to penetrate and spill onto its surface – here, nature “comes through” and intermingles with the artificial.

Assignment 01 - Historical Research
East Berlin Architecture: Karl-Marx Allee and Frankfurter Tor by Hermann Henslmann

During the era of the Berlin Wall (1940-1990), the great division between East and West Berlin also marked a separation of East/West Germany and, as part of the Iron Curtain, a division between Western and Eastern Europe. Beginning around 1961, during the Cold War era, this divide produced, in East Berlin – the Soviet Bloc of Berlin, a city that was in a state of considerable economic decline. West Berlin was allowed to share in the prosperity of West Germany’s Post-WWII “economic miracle”, thanks to large subsidies from West Germany’s capital, Bonn. Meanwhile, East Berlin however was notably less fortunate: “Its gray buildings did not merely lack a coat of paint that their Western counterparts had; there were fewer new buildings, and fewer older ones were being renovated.” (Ghosts of Berlin, Brian Ladd) In addition to deteriorating architecture, East Berlin suffered overall economic decay due to a lost/lack of industrial production and commerce activity. There were less vehicles and retail stores than those which existed in West Berlin. The drab architecture, muted sounds and pungent smells worked together to amplify the negative image of the city.
“Since the reunification of Berlin, after the dismantling of the Berlin Wall in 1990, the German government has spent vast amounts of money on reintegrating the two halves of the city and bringing services and infrastructure in the former East Berlin up to the standard established in West Berlin.” (East Berlin, Wikipedia.com) Many obvious differences still persist between the two halves of the city, despite these efforts: the aesthetics of East Berlin are distinctly different, partly because of the greater survival of Pre-WWII façades and streetscapes, some still showing signs of wartime damage, and partly because of the distinctive style of urban Stalinist architecture used in the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). As in other former East German cities, a small number of GDR-era names commemorating socialist heroes have been preserved, such as Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz and Karl-Liebknecht-Straße; this followed a long process of review in which many such street names were deemed inappropriate and were changed, including Karl-Marx-Allee. (East Berlin, Wikipedia.com)
The Karl-Marx-Allee is a monumental boulevard commemorating the notable German socialist/communist Karl Marx. It was originally constructed between 1952 and 1960 between the Friedrichshain and Mitte boroughs of Berlin. From 1949 to 1961, the boulevard was named Stalinallee – declared “The First Socialist Street of the German Capitol”, and prior to that, Große Frankfurter Straße. Karl-Marx-Allee was the flagship project of the Post-WWII East Germany Reconstruction program. It was designed by the architects Hermann Henselmann, Hartmann, Hopp, Leucht, Paulick and Souradny to contain “spacious and luxurious apartments for plain workers, as well as shops, restaurants, cafés, a tourist hotel and an enormous cinema (the International)”. (Karl-Marx-Allee, Wikipedia.com) Hermann Henselmann architects, most famous for constructing buildings in East Germany during the 1950s and 60s, were the principal design firm on the project. During the construction of Karl-Marx-Allee, the firm practiced the Social Realism , or Stalinist, architectural style which was characterized by monumentality and ornamentation. The monumentality of the boulevard is physically expressed in its dimensions: 292ft (89m) wide and roughly 6,500ft (2km) – or over a mile – long. The boulevard is sandwiched by monumental, tiered “wedding-cake style” eight-story buildings, typical of the social classicism of the Soviet Union. The boulevard is bookended by twin towers at Frankfurter Tor on the east end and Strausberger Platz on the west – both also designed by Hermann Henselmann. Frankfurter Tor, constructed between 1953 and 1956, was done in the Stalinist and neo-classical architectural styles. It consists of a grand square and two domed towers which serve as the landmarks for Karl-Marx-Allee. In respect to the buildings that line the boulevard, the ornamentation of the façade varies from building to building; however it often equally consists of traditional Berlin motifs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Most of the buildings are covered by architectural ceramics. Since the German reunification, most of the buildings, including the two Frankfurter Tor towers, have been restored. Karl-Marx-Allee has been praised by many postmodernists as “true city planning on a grand scale” and as “Europe’s last great street”. Karl-Marx-Allee, became in a sense, a refutation of the Stalinist architecture that originally existed on the street – again, its original name was Stalinallee. The Stalinist architectural style emphasized urban public and residential buildings of high and middle quality, excluding mass housing, and selected infrastructure projects. “In most of the structures, underneath the rich wet stucco walls are simple brick masonry. The masonry naturally dictated narrow windows, thus leaving a large wall area to be decorated. Fireproof terra cotta finishes were introduced in the early 1950s. Most of the roofing was traditional wooden trusses covered with metallic sheets.” (Stalinist architecture, Wikipedia.org). Stalinist buildings were typically very ornate and expensive to build; therefore they were considered inefficient by Nikita Khrushchev, the new leader of the Soviet Union, following Stalin’s death in 1954. Khrushchev favored the new International Style of modern architecture that had been previously deemed “dehumanizing” due to its pre-fabricated unadorned concrete and steel forms. This new architectural style was incorporated into the later construction period of Stalinallee; therefore both architectural styles can be found along the re-named Karl-Marx Allee.