Thursday July 1st

Today is about the Berlin Wall, and the Checkpoint Charlie area.

For the morning, we went to the Mauer Museum (Wall Museum), a private museum of anything and everything relating to the wall.  It started in an apartment not long after the first wall went up, and has just kept going and growing.  Now it is about 20,000 sq. ft.  no pictures allowed.

Afternoon, a walking tour of the area, seeing some notable buildings of the IBA (International Building Association), a 1987 attempt at housing in the spirit of the Hansaviertel we saw a few days ago.  Several noteworthy architects had early buildings done for this: Rem Koolhaas, Peter Eisenman, Daniel Libeskind (unbuilt), Zaha Hadid, John Hejduk, Aldo Rossi, etc.)

Also, saw the GSW Building by Sauerbruch + Hutton.  (see the fire/police station from early in our trip)

Berlin Wall Memorial:

This is a preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall, showing the two walls with the no-man's land in-between.  This memorial area cannot be entered, only viewed from a tower across the street.

Reconciliation Chapel:
Just down from the memorial is this chapel. 

The original church stood behind the wall for many years...

Until the communist government finally blew it up in 1985.

The church has an egg-shaped, rammed-earth sanctuary surrounded by an oval of wooden slats.  Inside, there are views down into the original basement.  Quite a nice response to the issue of destroyed history.  I am glad they did not rebuild the old church and pretend.

Wednesday June 30th

For the morning, we had to split into two groups to take a tour of the Dutch Embassy, by one of the world's leading architects = Rem Koolhaas.

This was, at least for me, a really engaging building, one of the highlights of our time in Berlin.  Unfortunately, no pictures allowed inside (security), but they have some on their website.
embassy slideshow
Embassy interiors

After lunch, we all met back up to visit the Karl-Marx Allee (formerly Stalin Allee).  This was conceived as an example of the perfect communist workers dream.  Nice housing above shops, well planned and nothing standing out from the rest.  Propaganda, 50's style.

Surprisingly, the statue still stands of the namesake.

The faint red and green splotches tell me they have to remove graffiti from time to time.

Finally, we went out to Treptow Park, home of the big Soviet War Memorial.

Tuesday in Dresden

We went on another day trip, this one a little farther, all the way to Dresden.  There are some noted pieces of contemporary architecture, as well as more "historical" buildings.

First seen, since it is near the train station, is the UFA Cinema Center by Coop Himmelb(l)au.  This is an older work, about 15 years ago, and is more of the angular, Deconstructivist style, instead of their current fluid language (see BMW Welt, Munich).

This was an important stop, as the building is often used as precedent in architectural classes, and was cited as one of the most important buildings of the last 30 years by several architects in the recent Vanity Fair magazine poll of architects. (as were several others we have or will see on this study program, including the BMW Welt, Jewish Museum, and Dutch Embassy Berlin)

Another stop was St. Benno's Catholic School by Gunter Behnisch.

Our German Contact, Dr. Sigrun Prahl, was along for this trip, and was able to wrangle us an impromptu tour of the school.

The atrium breaks up on the green garden roof.

Since we were all hungry, and the tour had delayed our lunch, we ran to a recommended little schnitzel place across the street, and everyone ate schnitzel, because that is all they served, with various sauces and sides.


On to the old city center, and our next stop, the Semper Opera House.

Designed by Gottfried Semper in the mid-1800's, the opera, like everything else in Dresden, was destroyed in WWII.  But like many historic buildings damaged in the war, they built a duplicate and seem to pretend it is still the original.  This goes for the rest of the "historic" buildings coming up in this post as well.

The voluminous interior with four levels of balcony.

And the chandelier hanging in the main opera hall.  This is the source of my new favorite quote ever.  When pointing the chandelier out to us, the tour guide said "see the chandelier, it's plastic.  But the gold on top is real!" 

After our Opera tour, we still had several hours until the train left to return to Berlin, so we gave everyone time to do as they wanted.  Some went to the Zwinger, a small palace turned museum with an impressive art collection.  Raphael's famous cherubs are here.  Others went to the castle, home of the largest blue-green diamond.  Others wandered over to the churches, or possibly to stroll along the Elb river.

Sigrun and I went first to some churches...

The Catholic Church

And the restored Frauenkirche

And then along the river, to see some newer buildings.

This is the Sachsischer Landtag, which is essentially the state capital building, where this state's politicians sit in session.

What was amazing was how open it was.  We could walk right in and look around (nothing in session).  Also, as maybe you can tell in this photo, the cylinder at the end where they meet is completely glass.  Anyone walking along the river would be able to see their representatives in session, even make ugly faces at them if they chose.

Right behind this government building is a new conference center, quite nice.

The entire thing sits on a large plinth which slopes up from front to back, right through the building, like one big ramp.  Who says floors have to be level!  (well, American building codes generally do, as someone in a wheelchair who rested would roll back to the beginning.  Codes are not the same everywhere)

Our train was a little late, but we all arrived back in Berlin safe and sound.  Ready for a good night's rest.

Monday June 28th

Today we started our last full week in Germany.  Today's focus was on the city's position as a cold-war battleground, from the West's perspective.  Dr. Etheridge discussed how the western half of the city, like a little island of capitalism in the middle of the Soviet-occupied East Germany, was always trying to prove the value of capitalism over communism, the individual over the collective.

Architecturally, this plays out in the housing developments built.  In 1957 there was the IBE (international Building Exhibition), where architects from around West Germany and leading architects from around the world were commissioned to build apartment blocks of various sizes.  there was no master plan dictating the organization or specific stylistic features (in contrast to the StalinAllee, which we go to in a few days).

First and foremost on our list was a Unite de Habitation by LeCorbusier.  The father of Modern architecture, he only built one building in the USA, so this is a rare opportunity for the students.  It is located farther out from the rest of the development, due to its large size.

The Unite floats up on angled legs, supporting a variety of studio through 3-bedroom units.  It is still considered a prestige address in to live.

He based much of the dimensioning of his works on a proportional system de extracted from the ideal man, called le Modulor.  Here he inscribes the system into the concrete wall.

We determined Trey is the "ideal man."  I am sure his wife agrees.

We went into several apartments.  2 were under remodel, but the last one belonged to a little old lady who had lived there since the beginning, moving in with her family in 1959.  No remodeling, still original built-ins.  Great views from both sides of the building. (no photos)

The Hansaviertel:
This is the neighborhood where the other architects built.  It is located in the western tip of the Tiergarten.

While there was no urban plan per se, the prevailing architectural style of the time was International Modern, so there is a general continuity to the area.  But the different sizes and orientations were meant to convey the joy of individuality and lack of government oppression and forced conformity.

We saw some great blocks, with three special for their noteworthy architects.

Walter Gropius

Alvar Aalto

Oscar Niemeyer

The Ku-damm:

After lunch, we strolled the Kurfurstendamm, the main shopping promenade of West Berlin.  Designed to be a spectacle of commerce and the free procurement of goods available in the west.  I should point out that all of this is going on PRIOR to the building of the wall, when East Germans can still go over into the west, and be influenced by what they see.

We also see a few more buildings, not of this time discussion, but more recent.

The Kant Triangle by J.P. Kleihues

The chamber of commerce building by Nicholas Grimshaw

And we end our day at the symbol of Berlin I have been using, the Kaiser Wilhelm Kirche.  Known as "the broken tooth," it is one of the few old things that was not rebuilt into a pretend historic building.  Instead, they preserved this fragment, and built a modern church next to it.

3 - Day weekend June 25-27th

The students have three days off now, after so many days together on the bus.  The faculty also went their own ways, getting a little "me" time.

For myself, I spent Friday being domestic. Laundry.  Ironing.  Dishes.  Not as easy when you are not in your home.

Saturday I walked along the river Spree, encountering 2 street markets full of things to pick through.

I found a 20 year old book on the Jewish Museum competition.  Sweet!  This alone made my day, but I also found a metal artist who made some beautiful desk objects.  I bought an amazing little stapler.

Also visited a bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava.  I had dismissed it from a distance, but up close it reveals itself to be nicely fluid and well detailed.

I also did a quick stop at the addition to the German History Museum.  Quite nice.  We are going there as a class next week.

Sunday Some of the students went with me to the Aedes Gallery, an architectural gallery currently with a show on the architects 3XN.