Critical reconstruction
The critical reconstruction (in German: kritischer Rekonstruktion) is the name given to the process of architectural and urban changes that took place in the German capital after the the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It constitutes the regulatory instrument for urban development in the city and its contents are made up of a series of regulations or demands. The movement encouraged a return to traditional architectural typologies and sought to contribute to the awakening of the historical memory hidden in the fabric of its streets and public spaces, not through the reproduction of these elements, but through their reinterpretation. The critical reconstruction is based on the incorporation of criteria and aesthetic guidelines of the old city of the century XIX in current urban planning, as a method of not losing the identity of the city, given the disparity of styles of architectural proposals that were formulated for Berlin.
The official reasons given for this strategy were twofold: firstly, that it was necessary to repair not only the damage caused by World War II, but also that caused by the planners during the reconstruction of the following years and, secondly, place, that not only the buildings, but the city as a whole needed to be rebuilt. With the fall of the wall, the city was left with strips of unbuilt land where the barrier had been erected. This scar cut through the city at its center, so German reunification changed the structure of Berlin where areas that were previously the periphery were now in the center and several streets that led to nowhere became main once again. The situation made possible a series of of projects destined to unite the urban structures on both sides and in which it was necessary to decide between a replica of the old buildings, a critical reconstruction based on a contemporary interpretation or a total break with the past. Thus, in the 1990s and 2000 Berlin became the largest construction site in Europe and was transformed to once again fulfill its role as the capital of Germany. Critical reconstruction set the tone for this transformation.
Originally, the term critical reconstruction corresponds to the name of a theory of architecture and urbanism developed by the Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues that was applied for the first time at the International Building Exhibition in Berlin (IBA) in the 1980s It was then used in the planning of the city after German reunification from 1991 with the support of the Berlin Senate, but its execution was largely in the hands of Hans Stimmann, who was the city's building director from 1990 to 1997 and until 2006 he was its planning director. From this position, the architect carried out Kleihues's idea of critical reconstruction.
From the historical conditions of Berlin, Stimmann and Dieter Hoffman-Axthelm had the responsibility to reunify the city with the criteria of postmodern architecture. The two worked overseeing the project from the Rotes Rathaus (Berlin City Hall), in the office of the senate's administration for the development of the city. Stimmann also used Critical Reconstruction as the basis for his Planwerk Innenstadt, a plan of development in central Berlin that favored the demolition of mid-century buildings and the infilling of vacant parcels with higher-density mixed-use structures.
The city's building authorities imposed strict guidelines on the size and appearance of all but federal buildings. This climate of relative hostility to experimentation led to the redevelopment of downtown in a way that provided a relatively homogeneous urban scene, which suggested that the history of this city must have continued without interruption. In an effort to rebuild Berlin as a "European city" traditional the office tried to avoid the avant-garde and gave priority to the historically harmonious. They created a set of rules: buildings must not be taller than 22 meters, streets would remain narrow, 20 percent of the building had to provide space for apartments, the buildings could not occupy entire blocks, but had to be broken into separate connecting structures, and the Senate office could veto any project. creation of a chaotic situation, the result of both the ambitions of private investors and architects, and the conflict of interest between the private sector and the public administration.
Primary examples of critical reconstruction in Berlin include Potsdamer Platz and Alexanderplatz. One of the most controversial projects was the demolition of the Palace of the Republic, the former seat of the GDR parliament, for the reconstruction of the baroque façade of the former Royal Palace of Berlin, which was the main residence of the Hohenzollerns since the XVIII until the fall of the German Empire in 1918.
Kleihues etymologically explained the critical reconstruction: “the term critical (kritisch) has its origin in the verb "krinein" from ancient Greek and means to separate, decide and judge. A noun derived from this verb is krisis: decision or significant change. The word reconstruction (Rekonstruktion) appears for the first time in Germany in the 19th century, when the restoration of old buildings began following the rules of number, measure and proportion of the European tradition”.
Discussion
At the time of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, urban planning in West Berlin had just reached a stage where the repair (as opposed to "rehabilitation") of the city had become in an official policy under the strategy of critical reconstruction. Additionally, from 1990 the new authorities distanced themselves from the idea of a unified urban plan for the eastern and western halves of Berlin. Consequently, the process of rebuilding Berlin was accompanied by divergent lines of thought, with a specific focus on issues such as the evolution of the concepts of critical reconstruction and soft urban renewal. The confrontation took place between neo-traditionalists on one side and various avant-garde on the other, but the doctrine of critical reconstruction dominated this debate, and more than just an academic designation it became a criterion for political decision-making.
Critical reconstruction and its attraction to the architecture of the imperial past, as an attack on post-World War II modernist developments, was seen by its detractors as a conservative approach to rebuilding the city. However, its defenders maintained that it did not consist in the nostalgic reconstruction of the historic city, but in the reconstruction of the modern city, in accordance with urban and architectural models for Berlin in the 19th century XXI. This approach was based on the view that the reconstruction should have a relationship with its historical legacy, through the analysis of the scales and proportions of the past. Its main proponent has been the architectural historian Dieter Hoffmann-Axthelm, who has located the "essence" of Berlin in Friedrichstadt's 18th century block structure.
The most dramatic of the debates took place on the site of the former Royal Palace, bombed during the war, and which the East German government took the decision to demolish. The site remained used only as a parking lot, until the 1970s when the Palace of the Republic was erected which was the seat of the East German People's Chamber. Just as East Berlin eradicated the Prussian palace, the removal of the East German palace it was interpreted by its detractors as the second attempt to set aside an unfavorable regime. There is also disagreement over whether the project is part of a campaign to rehabilitate the memory of Prussian militarism and Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II.
Features
Two elements would highlight the transformation of Berlin. First, the objectives of urban policy would point to the future and not to already solved problems: hygiene, social infrastructure, transport, etc. Second, taking into account the limitations of the city administration in terms of its ability to control urban processes, Berlin sought an example of a coupling of politics and the market in the service of urbanization.
Under the critical reconstruction program the new buildings conform to the traditional height (22 meters) and are coded to contain a certain percentage of masonry in the facade. Added to the maximum height was the prohibition of creating curtain wall facades.
The drastic urban planning would be in charge of standardizing East Berlin and West Berlin despite the fact that they had different sanitation networks. The critical reconstruction sought to develop a differentiated urban structure that is articulated as follows:
- Respect and rebuild the historical network of streets, its axis of view and historical squares.
- It is not necessary to build above the 22 meters of alero height and 30 meters of summit.
- To obtain a work license it is necessary to ensure that 20% of the constructed area is dedicated to housing.
- The objective of the new construction is the urban house occupying only one single plot. The maximum size of a plot is the apple.
In addition, Kleihues added to the already existing critical reconstruction features other rules, such as:
- the accentuation of horizontality in the facade of natural stone.
- the classic composition of a zone-zocalo used for shops, a main area, where offices are located, and an attic area, with two levels for homes.
- buildings must be grouped around a central courtyard with different functions.
The palace is part of Berlin's critical reconstruction movement to correct the more drastic urban modernism decisions made in the post-World War II city, particularly its eastern half.
This plan, forged by its chief architect for fifteen years, Hans Stimmann, based on the concept of "critical reconstruction" developed by Josef Paul Kleihues for the 1984-1987 International Architecture Exhibition, has remade Berlin on the plans prior to World War II, as if this and the communist period had not existed, and imposing rigid building regulations that vetoed, for example, the use of glass on facades and limited the height of buildings except in very concrete, such as Potsdamer Platz, in which he opened his hand to seduce the three multinationals that paid for the project.
Background
Since 1991, Berlin has experienced a period of expansion, similar to the one that followed the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), which ended with the proclamation of the German Empire. The economic boom then led to a wave of urban sprawl driven in a process known as Gründerzeit (the era of the founders) that developed amid the industrialization of the city at the time of the so-called "millionaire builders," who erected five-story apartment blocks in the city. Street networks were expanded and the main buildings needed for government were built.
In both cases, the rapid growth in construction was accompanied by considerable real estate speculation. Unlike Gründerjahre, however, the recent expansion is characterized by depopulation in the city center. Furthermore, only a minor part of its former industry remains, and Berlin is in the process of becoming a center of the service industry.
Kleihues had studied architecture at the universities of Stuttgart and Berlin and at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. His profession, however, he practiced above all in Berlin, where already in 1962 -one year after the construction of the wall- he opened an architecture studio. Already his first major project, a housing complex built in a working-class neighborhood in 1973, was programmatic by reinstating the classic block as a territorial unit, limiting the height of the building to 22 meters which since the XIX prevails in the German capital and also incorporates the classic interior patio. It was the return to the "European city", also promoted by other architects, such as Aldo Rossi.
International Exhibition of Urbanism (IBA)
In 1957, the International Exhibition of Berlin (InterBau) worked on the concept «The city of yesterday». Two decades later the Berlin architect Josef Paul Kleihues proposed and executed the Critical Reconstruction of Berlin. Kleihues formulated the concept in the program of the International Urban Planning Exhibition (IBA) in the 1980s.) of the city in the historical-cultural sense of the European tradition, as a place to live and not just as a city of offices.
Between 1979 and 1987, during the IBA, 28 architectural competitions were held with the aim of recovering the urban center as a residential area. The IBA was born out of concern that West Berlin's commercial and social center was shifting west away from the wall. The architects led by Kleihues also expressed alarm that urban planners in both East and West Berlin were "deconstructing" the "European city" by building wide avenues and homes far from workplaces. They considered that modernism had gone too far, so they favored what they called "critical reconstruction" from Berlin.
At that time, the Council of Europe contributed to the imposition on the continent of urban development principles such as the protection of historic locations, the careful conversion of the urban fabric and reuse of old buildings, as well as the reconstruction of destroyed buildings. In addition, he promoted the limitation of motorized traffic and the promotion of pedestrian traffic, and also advocated the recovery of public space, the mix of land uses, etc. An important consequence of this campaign was the emergence of critical reconstruction. Among the basic principles, critical reconstruction counted above all the restoration of historic streets, facades and traditional urban design principles regarding heights, street widths and sidewalks.
- IBA’87
The aim of the 1987 IBA edition was to develop and revitalize the "demonstration areas" selected in West Berlin following the concept of critical reconstruction where new buildings were based on the history in their respective location. Urbanism and architecture during the crucial season following the fall of the wall, with the IBA Methodological and Intellectual Heritage 1987, of which the concept of critical reconstruction is the most important feature. IBA 1987 included diverse styles of construction, as designers such as Álvaro Siza, Arata Isozaki, Rem Koolhaas and Oswald Mathias Ungers experimented with the emblematic five-story block of flats in Berlin. It was Kleihues who directed the exhibition and who convinced these architects to participate in it.
The IBA'87 was an urban and architectural plan of the West Berlin senate undertaken in order to recover residential use in the city center. Composed of two parts:
- The new IBA (IBA Neubau), under the title “critical reconstruction” and directed by Kleihues, sought to integrate contemporary buildings into the fabric of the historic city that had survived the Second World War.
- The old IBA (IBA Altbau), led by the architect Hardt-WaltherrHämer, and entitled the “careful urban renewal” (Behutsame Stadterneuerung), focused on the rehabilitation of existing buildings.
Development
The postulate of critical reconstruction was not only kept to the letter after the reunification of the city, but was adopted as an official doctrine by the public administration. Thus, the reinvention of Berlin ended up subject to endless guidelines designed to ensure the urban homogeneity of the XIX century.
German architecture specialist Wallis Miller has stated that “the section on new buildings for the 'critical reconstruction of the city' generally began with an invitational competition to design the various blocks and ended with the assignment of invited architects of the private buildings in each one”.
Critical reconstruction, should be carried out with conservatism in urban planning through contemporary architecture, not through the repetition of demolished buildings. This principle was also maintained when given a broad urban base under Stimmann's Berlin planning. It was only when asked about the layout of the city center that the critical reconstruction turned to a historical reconstruction.
The renovation, acquired an accelerated pace thanks to the appointment of Hans Stimmann, as director of public works of the city in 1991, who extended the philosophy of the Behutsame Stadterneuerung to the whole city, taking the He termed critical reconstruction to describe his approach to repairing the damaged fabric of Berlin. During the 1980s, Stimmann was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and was a West Berlin and East Berlin specialist within the IBA. That is why, when the wall came down, he became a fundamental figure and was called upon by his party to take on the task of inventing new planning instruments for a united Berlin.
The question of how to develop a unified Berlin was guided by a "Planwerk Innenstadt" of Stimmann as Director of Construction for the city's Senate. Thus the concept of critical reconstruction was reintroduced for the Friedrichstadt, Potsdamer Platz, the Lehrter Bahnhof area, and the Spreeinsel. Stimmann brought together renowned architects to work on the city, while giving rigid guidelines of critical reconstruction to the he asked them to conform. Until 2006, Stimmann was responsible for urban planning within the local government of Berlin.
Also in his own buildings, Kleihues submitted to the canon he had helped create. Because of his management, he was known as the & # 34; regent & # 34; and the "architect with built-in building permit". Shortly before his death, he was still engaged in creating an architectural archive in the German capital at the Berlin Academy of Architecture, a building designed in the first half from the 19th century by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, architect of the Prussian Berlin.
The chosen goal of the city government was to recreate an earlier age that would remove references to the noxious eras of the recent past. Whenever possible, they want to restore pre-war street patterns and building lines.
The total amount invested in the reconstruction of the capital between 1990 and 2000 amounted to a sum equivalent to 150,000 million euros.
Leipzig and Potsdam Squares
This sector was the most fashionable and international scene during the 1920s. Potsdamer Platz – never exactly a square, nor is it now – was completely destroyed during World War II, it finished its revival in 2004. It was there that the redesign of Berlin began, in an area that was divided into five districts named after a brand or multinational business group. The first stone of this critical reconstruction was laid in the Daimler district, a company that shortly before the fall of the Wall had acquired a plot of land from the city hall on Potsdamerplatz.
Renzo Piano, Rafael Moneo and Arata Isozaki participated in the reconstruction. The Beisheim Center, an office and apartment complex named after Otto Beisheim, has been built. The inauguration of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel (2004) -one of its central pieces- concluded the total recovery of Potsdamer Platz, once again converted into one of the nerve centers of Berlin.
Government District
Following the decision to move the federal capital from Bonn to Berlin, various projects began to build new buildings to house the headquarters of the country's main institutions. The most emblematic work was the complete remodeling of the interior of the historic Reichstag building, as well as the restoration of its façade and the construction of a dome with a new modern design, markedly different from the original. The building has a main hall that is 30m high, transparent and functional. From the Plaza de la República, you can see the west door of the building that operates as a reception for visitors, who, if they are not registered, go directly to the terrace, which offers a panoramic view of the neighboring buildings and access to the dome. Sensitivities about the history of the Reichstag have been taken into account in the critical reconstruction of the building. Architect Norman Foster's new Reichstag dome is intended to embody the idea of a transparent democracy as behind the glass walls is the west hall, from where you can see the hemicycle.
- Band des Bundes (federation link)
Nearby, on the north side, three additional buildings were erected, completing what is known as the parliamentary complex. Among them, the Paul Löbe building houses the deliberation rooms and the offices of the deputies. The other building, the Jakob Kaiser, houses the historic palace of the President of the Reichstag, the parliamentary services and the office of the Bundestag. Finally, there is the Marie-Elisabeth Lüders building that stands on the east bank of the Spree, aligned with the Paul Löbe building, to which it is linked by a pedestrian bridge. Its rotunda houses the room of the commission for affairs relating to the European Union (EU). This building houses the Bundestag Library, which has a bibliographic collection of 1.5 million volumes.
Opposite the Paul Löbe building, the architect Axel Schultes designed the seven-story building of the Federal Chancellery opened in 2001. The office of the head of the 140 m² government span> has a direct view of the Parliament. On a plot of 70,000 m² it houses 400 offices and green spaces. An underground corridor links the Paul Löbe, the Reichstag and the Jakob Kaiser.
- The Central Station
The train and metro stations have been remodeled, and in May 2006 the Central Station of Berlin was inaugurated, which will be the motor of development of this area, with an urbanization plan that maintains a balance between offices, hotels, shops, homes and green areas. Along with this station, four others were inaugurated on the north-south and east-west axis of Berlin, to complete the largest transport node in Europe. The building does not correspond to the principles of critical reconstruction, so the architect Daniel Libeskind he claimed in an interview that Stimmann had told him: "If I had been in power only a month earlier, the building would never have received the building permit."
From the Brandenburg Gate to Old Berlin
A few meters southeast of the Reichstag is the Brandenburg Gate with its quadriga, an icon of the city. From there, an axis is marked that extends between the Plaza de Paris and the Alexanderplatz, where several outstanding buildings have been built.
Paris Square
In the Plaza de París, an emblematic place in Berlin's history, stands out the embassy of France, rebuilt on the same lot (extended) that it has occupied since in 1860, when Napoleon III bought a building that would house the diplomatic representation of France. The building was destroyed during the Second World War and the land was unoccupied until the 1990s when France began construction of its new embassy, the work of Christian de Portzamparc, and inaugurated in 2003 on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. On the same side of the square is the Max Liebermann house, which was rebuilt in the sense of critical reconstruction on the basis of the historical model.
Across the square is the Berlin Academy of Arts, which opened in May 2005. The institution thus returned to its historic location. After years of controversy, the headquarters reopened faithful to the principles of critical reconstruction. At an approximate cost of 60 million euros, the design of the building was carried out by the architect Günter Behnisch. Right next to the Academy is the Hotel Adlon, originally opened in 1904. This hotel became one of the most reputable in the city. Although it survived World War II in good condition, it was demolished in 1984. The new building was completed in 1997, preserving the original design of the façades.
Under the Linden Trees
Continuing along Bajo los Tilos avenue (Unter den Linden), there are important buildings that have been restored, such as the Museum of German History, where the Declaration of Berlin was proclaimed in 2007, and other buildings that have been reconstructed by complete, such as the Kommandantenhaus (Alte Kommandantur), which despite having suffered minor war damage, was demolished in the 1960s and the GDR Ministry of Foreign Affairs was built on its land, which in turn was also demolished in 1995. In February 1999 Chancellor Gerhard Schröder ordered to find an investor for the reconstruction of the building. Thus, after having rebuilt three sides of its façade in 2005, the building is the non-main headquarters of the Bertelsmann group. In front of this building is planned to rebuild the Berlin Academy of Architecture, masterpiece of Friedrich Schinkel, who designed almost all important buildings of the first half of the century XIX in Berlin.
Island of the Spree
On the other side of the river, the avenue is renamed Karl-Liebknecht-Straße and leads to the Isle of the Spree on whose southern bank the Royal Palace of Berlin of the Hohenzollern Dynasty that stood in this city is currently being rebuilt. It was destroyed in 1950, being replaced in the 1970s by the Palace of the Republic (the building where the GDR voted to join the Federal Republic) which was itself demolished in 2008. The German parliament then decided to rebuild the palace in its former location under the Critical Reconstruction policy, as a symbol of unity for the nation.
This project contemplates the creation of the "Humboldt Forum", rooms for temporary exhibitions of the Berlin museums and a metro station inside the new building, in the that three of its facades will be an exact copy of the originals. The total cost of the work is estimated between 500 and 800 million euros. Of this figure, 80 million correspond to the cost of the façade, which will be financed through donations from individuals. Each donor will acquire the right to have a building stone inscribed with his name. This part of the work will be carried out using the same techniques that were used in the original construction.
On the north side of the island, German reunification opened up an opportunity to unite collections that had been divided between east and west. Thus, the master plan for the redevelopment of the Island of the Museums (Museumsinsel) influenced its inclusion in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1999. The plan treats the five historic buildings as a single unit and respects its architectural autonomy. The Museumsinsel has an area of nearly one square kilometer, and the archaeological museums are connected to each other underground. Each building, which also has its own entrance, offers visitors a direct encounter with its collections. The James-Simon-Galerie has been the main entrance to the museums since 2019, welcoming visitors as well as the main circuit and offering core service functions such as cafes, museum shop, media room, auditorium and rooms for temporary exhibitions.
Several buildings on the island were rebuilt by the communist government beginning in the 1950s. Within this group of museums, the Old National Gallery in Berlin reopened in 2001 after a renovation begun in 1997, at a cost of more than of 50 million euros. For its part, the Bode Museum reopened its doors after years of restoration, showing its sculpture collections and its numismatics cabinet. The cost of the operation and restoration of the collections amounted to more than 160 million euros. As a result of the redevelopment, no other building in the world has as much space to display its sculptural collection.
Old Berlin
Leaving the island in an easterly direction is Old Berlin (Alt-Berlin). The AquaDom was built there, inaugurated in 2004, which is an aquarium integrated into a hotel and constitutes a coral reef. It is a 25 m high transparent glass cylinder that dominates the entire interior of the building with its large volume. Inside, 2,500 tropical fish swim in a million liters of salt water. It is possible to ascend to the top of the cyclopean aquarium through an elevator installed in the center of the cylinder.
A few meters from there is Alexanderplatz, which is undergoing extensive remodeling aimed at reducing its area. One of the most relevant works is the construction of the Alexa shopping center, the largest shopping center in the country, inaugurated in September 2007. In accordance with the development concept established by its architect, Hans Kollhoff, this center is intended to establish a link, in terms of build quality, to the Berlin of the pre-war era. In this context, critical reconstruction aims to create a connection between traditional building forms and contemporary design.
Other works
Built to host the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games and immortalized by the images of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, the Berlin Olympic Stadium was spared any major damage during World War II. However, it was completely restored and remodeled to host the 2006 Soccer World Cup. A roof was added and the facilities were equipped with modern accessories, after four years of work at a cost of more than 200 million euros. The idea was to incorporate the building's past into the project to promote Germany today while remembering history, according to authorities.
In Berlin-Mitte, Bernauer Straße houses the Chapel of Reconciliation (Kapelle der Versöhnung), on the site of the old Church of Reconciliation, demolished in 1985 because of its proximity to the Wall and the separation of his parish. Further west stands the Berlin Jewish Museum whose design was approved before the fall of the Berlin Wall. On the other side of the Soree, at the corner of Friedrich Strasse and Franzosische Strasse, the Galeries Lafayette with a glass façade was built.
In terms of business infrastructure, the Berlin-Adlershof, a technology park created in 1991, has more than 600 new companies, which use &&&&&&&&&&010000.&&&&&0approximately 10,000 people.
Acknowledgments
In its first edition, the CEU "Urban Development Achievement" award was given to Hans Stimmann, Director of Urban Development in Berlin since 1992, creator of the Master Plan for the Inner City (Planwerk Innenstadt), staunch defender of the principles of "critical reconstruction" and a key figure in the urban transformation of the reunified Berlin. The awarding of this prize not only implies a positive assessment of the transformations in Berlin, but above all distinguishing them as an example of and for European urbanism.
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