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.