GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

HISTORY OF CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURE

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Tong Li 10628396 tong.li@mail.polimi.it MASTER DEGREE OF URBAN DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL OF URBAN ARCHITECTURE CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING

ABSTRACT

The relationship between city and nature is always at the center of the discourse in the urban design and planning. In 1977, Ungers and Koolhaas published the manifesto 'the city in the city' in which an alternative approach was proposed. The term 'green archipelago' was used to compare the city as an interactive organic system where the 'urban islands' were surrounded by in-between green spaces. By analyzing the historical background and theoretical correspondences, the article reevaluated the impacts of this model on the interdisciplinary debates of the time. In particular, in this method, the attention to the benefits of green space and its individualization of the society are still valuable even for today.

POLITECNICO DI MILANO Academic year 2020/2021 KEYWORDS

Urban approach, green archipelago, implications

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

INTRODUCTION: DISCONTINUITY OF THE 70S The years around the middle of the 70s had been intended by many scholars dealing with very different fields as a moment of a deep innovation. We could say even of revolution. Many factors contributed to the complexity in this period. The political situations changed rapidly in many European countries.

The industry began to decline and many industries were closed or relocated to small cities. Accompanying these events was the demand of an alternative model of urban design.

This stage, as often defined as stage of 'pluralism' or 'liberalism' can differentiate itself from the previous one in that the authority of traditional models was questioned, and a series of discontinuous movements began to bloom in different areas. «by 1960 or thereabouts, we confronted a severe crisis of confidence and competence. We knew that our beautiful diagrams have failed us, our clients, our art and our time. But we are not as yet come with any persuasive alternatives.»1 This is the declaration of a deep crisis, as the tools and the ideas we have been trained with up to a certain moment seemed not working. So the debate of this stage revolved around «a long series of ideas and also of questions on how the city should revolved model, urban transformation should follow.»2

Fig. 1: The cover of Form follows fiasco: why modern architecture hasn't worked.

The cover of Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form.

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1. Blake P., 1977, Form follows fiasco: why modern architecture hasn't worked. Little Brown & Co

2. Venturi R., Denise S.B., 1977, Le arning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Revised Edition

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

THE GENESIS OF THE MODEL In such a historical period characterized by liberalism and pluralism, one urban model was proposed in the manifesto 'die Stadt in der Stadt' (the city in the city), which compared the city to green archipelago. The manifesto was published in 1977 by Ungers, Koolhaas and their group. This publication put forward a proposal of an alternative approach of urban planning. Contrary to traditional overall strategy, it gave opposite directions to different areas: selective areas which deserved to be preserved and intensified, and in-between areas to be left to deteriorate into nature. It can be seen that the areas of the city were treated very differently, giving priority to specific spaces. This approach of selective design divided the whole city into a 'collage' of clusters with centers of its own, divided from each other by strips of green. It utilized the metaphor of the city as a green archipelago.

Fig. 2: Pictures at an exhibition, Analytical maps: decomposition and recomposition of West-Berlin, source: Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city.

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

It was not a case that this idea came out in the 70s of Berlin. «Berlin, in fact had been struggling with the effects of deindustrialization since the building of the wall. Industry, present in abundance prior to the war, had relocated to the Federal Republic's other major cities, and the resulting scarcity of employment prospects, together with the city's isolated situation, created a state of economic and demographic decline in West Berlin that was especially pronounced in the 1970s.» 3 These events had brought considerable changes to the appearance of the city, leaving behind many empty spaces without functions. These areas, until the union of East and West Berlin in ten years, became a thorny issue for planners and architects. New construction was, according to Ungers and Koolhaas, out of place, and would carry with a fundamental contradiction since «within the context of demographic decline there is no demand for new living space.

On the contrary, future plan for Berlin ' has to be a plan for a city in retrenchment.»4 This hypothesis of this alternative approach, which is still be of value today, can be seen as forward-looking at the time. It was based on a future shrinkage of the city, a phenomenon that began to emerge especially from the 70s. What is interesting in Unger's and Koolhaas's model is the reaction to the shrinkage. Instead of introducing new functions and construction in the voids to alleviate the shrinkage, which were advocated by proponents of the method 'urban repair', they accepted the retrenchment model turning it into an opportunity to «identity and 'weed out' those parts of the city that are now substandard, for architectural or other reasons, and to intensify and even complete the fragments that would be preserved.» 5 During this process, Ungers presumed minimal architectural expenditure to generate maximum social benefits.

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3. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green a rc h i p e l a g o – t h e c i t y i n t h e city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P56

4. ibd. P12

5. ibd.

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig.3: finn geipel, giulia andi, grand paris, Metro pole douce, 2010, Drawing on the idea of the urban archipelago, Geipel interprets the Paris metropolitan area as a sustainably interconnected cluster of gray and green islands. Source: Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city.

BERLIN: A MAP OF PALIMPSEST What Ungers and Koolhaas defined in the manifesto 'urban islands' was in fact some areas that have «a strong existing entity». These urban Islands «have an identity in keeping with their history, social structure, and environmental characteristics»6 Since the city of Berlin as a whole is formed of districts from many different places, the map of the city is like a collage of enclaves with various forms, density and dimensions as if they are independent cities. Actually «many literary voices attest to the fact that Berlin is 'an extensive, multipolar city landscape.»7 «The difference and variety that manifesto themselves (urban islands) in its historic quarters are what constitute Berlin's identity and urbanistic quality.»8 This identity of Berlin is related to the development of the city. Before the ascendency of Prussia in the territory, the area was subjected to widely divergent forms of government and social models. In 1920, with the administrative reform known as 'Greater Berlin' plan (Fig.4), many independent towns and municipalities were incorporated and the city was expanded in a drastic way. It was by then officially declared a polycentral-

6. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green a rc h i p e l a g o – t h e c i t y i n t h e city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P94

7. ibd. P94 8. ibd. P120

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

metropolis. In spite of the incorporation, the districts still had great autonomy and still retained economic and cultural identities (Fig. 5). This can partially explain the genesis of the 'urban islands' mentioned in the manifesto of Unger's and Koolhaas.

Fig. 4: Great Berlin Plan 1920, administrative plan of incorporation of different towns and municipalities. Source: https://www.mapsland.com/europe/germany/berlin/largescale-detailed-old-map-of-berlin-city-1920

Fig. 5: Berlin: distric t boundaris in 1938. Source: https://4.bp.blogspot. com/-PJ8wwJtcLTk/WFmKZg8fakI/AAAAAAAAD0E/Atg-uSAlcC4RIYtZJ9rAIDw9qP4R7c2gCLcB/s1600/img002.jpg 6

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

The city underwent another huge transformation during World War Ⅱ . After the war, the city was in a bad condition: transportation hubs were destroyed and buildings were razed to the ground. This made the palimpsest of the city even more incomprehensive to read. If we compare the map of Berlin with that before the war, we can easily recognize some voids in urban fabric. These empty spaces without distinctive features, were named as 'in-between areas' in the model of Unger and Koolhaas which were proposed thirty years later.

We can speculate that these voids between the 'urban islands', were at least partially caused by World War Ⅱ . Not included in the planning area they will consequently, according to the manifesto, they would end up turning into green areas only to be used for temporary functions.

Fig. 6: rob krier, ideal plan for friedrichstadt, 1977. The urban condition before and after the destruction during World War II. Source: Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city.

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

DEFINING IDENTIFIABLE ENCLAVES To build up the 'urban islands', the first operation to be taken in project of green archipelago is to «select areas that possess clearly identifiable feature» 9. These areas in the following steps will receive operations to preserve and strengthen their identities that reflected partly in architectural and urbanistic form, as well as in social and political aspects. By refining specific urban fabrics, what they wished to do was to «seek out the original urban fragment structures»10, making the physiognomy of the city easier to interpret.

Some critics think that this approach is not so much an urban plan to be implemented as a utopian vision. In addition to the complexity of urban structures, the selection of identifiable enclaves is to some extent stamped with personal touch of the architect, and thus has certain degree of subjectivity and randomness. Ungers himself, was probably aware of the limits when he reproposed the model to the committee in the 90s.

Instead of adopting this method in the city he adopted it in in a local scale for the design of blocks.

Infact, Ungers is not the only one that introduced the 'urban fragments' idea into the design process of the city. Another initiative can be found in the book 'The naked city' by Guy Debord published in 1957 (Fig. 7). In this book, he removed the structures of cartography and manipulated his 'psychogeographic' map made of 19 sections of Paris demonstrating a 'subjective and temporal experience of the city as opposed to the seemingly omnipotent perspective of the planimetric map ' Both of the concepts were beyond the physical definition of the city searching for a new interpretation that can be viewed as collage of patterns. The differences are, in the model of Ungers, the selected areas were due to their historical values while the fragments were to be chosen in a total subjective way.

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9. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green a rc h i p e l a g o – t h e c i t y i n t h e city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P14

10. ibid. P61

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 7: Cover of The naked city. Psycho-geographic map. Source: https:// informaldotblog.files.wordpress.com/2017/05/guy-debord-naked-city.png?w=736

W h a t t h i s c o n c e p t s t i l l p rove s r i g h t t o d ay i s t h e individualization of the city and identification of the areas. It is embodied in respecting local differences, based on which we will adopt different approaches. This idea is different from that of functional zoning popular in the 50s (Fig. 8), since the last one was based on the city as a whole, whereas in the theory of green archipelago the city disappeared, replaced by 'urban islands' with great autonomy. These islands are at distance from each other, and are linked only by 'modern infrastructure', so they are very independent.

Fig. 8: Portion of DC comprehensive plan, 1950. Image f ro m Wa s h i n g t o n , P a s t a n d F u t u re s c a n n e d by R ay M o n ShawNeighborhood. Click for full version. Source: https://ggwash. org/view/28313/1950-plan-showsnever-built-freeways

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

In addition to the fact that «the small entity always provides a much better better operations than the city as a whole»11, it is also worth noting that identification of the space gives sense of safety and belonging to the citizens. This will contribute to the bond between the city and its residents, in a stronger way than that of an anonymous city – «With the Individualization of the city, the Issue of citizens identifying with the city is also addressed. While an anonymous city composed along a unifying principle provokes a loss of identity and a loss of personality, the city dweller in an open system may choose the identity-space that corresponds to his desires and expectations.»12

11. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research.

12. ibid. P96

RETROACTIVE ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN BLOCKS In the selection of the selected 'islands' for preservation and fortification, what Ungers and Koolhaas adopted was an « an open-minded, unprejudiced way» 13 – they didn't seek out the buildings in preference to certain periods or styles of the buildings, they were actually opened to architectures of all historical periods. This method was, at the time, highly liberating if compared with the dogma of urban repair and the attitude of Post Modernist: «in the Archipelago manifesto, premodern period models and classic Modernism are treated equally.»14 «If the proponents of urban repair ultimately aimed to reconstruct premodem urban spaces, and possibly also to reverse the effects of modern urban and traffic planning, Koolhaas's and Ungers's contribution was to significantly expand the resources available for contemporary urban planning to draw on. Just as Goethe searched for the Urpjlanze (primordial plant), what they wished to do was to seek out the original urban fragment»15-the named 'retroactive architecture'-that represents most the original physiognomy of the city. These architectures thus should be exemplary of their structure and their relationship with the history should be clear: 'A decisive criterion for the selection of these islands ought to be the degree of clarity and legibility of their underling ideas and concepts'

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13. ibid. P60

14. ibid. P60

15. ibid. P60

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

To make the list of the retroactive architecture, Koolhaas citated some reference projects that could be 'realized' or 'transplanted' such as Leonidov's Palace of Culture (in Kreuzberg), Mies's rectangular skyscrapers and Taut's domes of Olympic Stadium (Fig. 9). These projects, mainly built in the early 90s were related to historical events like Olympic Games or possessed particular aesthetic values. Besides the projects mentioned above, Ungers added architectures with much older development like Central Park, Royal Crescent in Bath (Fig. 13), even contemporary undertakings like the twin towers of the World Trade Center (Fig. 14). These buildings, part of which were aborted or destroyed, deserved to be implemented, as Ungers thought, in order to pick up and recover the 'omissions' of history. It is seemly bizarre that many projects listed-which were to realize in Berlin were in fact located or design in other areas other than Berlin. But what Ungers really tried to convey was that «to establish the chracteristics of the city, one could take into consideration a number of typical cases that were designed at other times for other situations and may have comparable typological features.» 16 To explained this typological comparison, he referred the transfer of the project for Manhattan's Central Park just as it is into the Görlitz station zone.

16. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research.

Fig. 9: Berlin Olympiastadion, Photo by Flickr/Javier DeMartin. Source: http:// fraeuleinjulia.de/berlin-1936-sechzehn-tage-im-august

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 10: Hannes Meyer palace of the nations sketch axonometric, 1926-27. Source: https://www.pinterest.it/pin/552957660472668019

Fig. 11: Lissitzky, Wolkenbügel, Moscow, 1924. Source: https://thecharnelhouse. org/2014/03/07/lissitzky-wolkenbugel-1924/ 12

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 12: Le Corbusier, Plan Obus, Algiers, 193. Source: https://www.pinterest.it/ pin/527765650052321797/

Fig. 13: Royal Crescent, Bath, England - The Royal Crescent, http://media7.trover. com/T/54c82c61d6bdd40ea80002a4/fixedw_large_4x.jpg 13

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 14: The twin towers of the World Trade Center, 1973-2001. Source: https:// www.bing.com/images/

Even though we can hardly surgically remove the architecture out of its surroundings and replace it into another condition, we can still agree with Ungers that, Berlin at the moment, as an experimental field waiting for alternative approach of urban planning, could provide opportunity for typologies at different times and even in other conditions.

In addition to the operation towards 'retroactive architecture' or landmarks, another very important element addressed in the manifesto 'the city in the city' was the urban block because «The block became established as a functionally and aesthetically differentiated urban form-like Ungers's concept of the Urban Block-and as the preeminent urban planning instrument in Berlin's civic development.»17 In Berlin, the housing issue is always the center of discourse in urban planning and architectural design.

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17. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research.

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 15: Oswald Mathias Ungers, Wohnanlage am Lützowplatz Berlin-Tiergarten, 1979-83. Source: http://www.capitalieuropee.altervista.org/3/303.html

The development of the area Tiergarten (Fig. 15) can serve as an example for this typology. In this project, Ungers combined two typologies of housing: urban block and urban villa. The blocks in simple shape were in parallel and were linked with each other by internal courtyard. Not every building faced the streets. The green areas of the ground floor, in addition to providing space for activities, Ungers assumed, should «improve ventilation and to compensate for the unhygienic qualities of basement and backyard apartments» 18. In this project, the relationship between architecture and greenery is interactive, forming together a system of archipelago in the city.

18. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P65

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INHABITING THE NATURE GRID In forming the organic system of the 'green archipelago', the green space played an important role. It has rather a simple formation process since it would be resulting space once the 'urban islands' were selected: «Around the 'turned-up' and 'completed' enclaves, the remaining fabric of the city would be allowed to deteriorate and turn slowly into nature.»19Hence in these areas, there would be no 'identifiable enclaves' likely to be preserved, minimum operations would be made, and they would return back to natural condition with few interventions: «the structures, by now valueless, ought to be allowed to gradually retrains form into natural zones and pastures, without any rebuilding»20 The linkage of the in-between areas would at last converge into a nature grid, or a green ocean that isolates the 'urban islands'.

The utilization of the in-between areas, actually went beyond that of ordinary green areas: it can contain series of landscape architectonic typologies-«from park landscapes to dense woods to agricultural production areas»21 and new forms of activities would be simulated such as hunting safaris. The Nature Grid would also accommodate the 'infrastructure of the Modern Age'- extended highway systems or other mobility that cannot be easily inserted in the city.

It is worth noticing that these zones would invite new 'inhabitants': «urban 'tribes' of Metropolitan gypsies: those categories of inhabitants-pensioneers for instance-who do not benefit from a fixed location in the city and whose existence would be stimulated by a more roving lifestyle.»22 Ungers and koolhaas were not the only ones addressing the issue of providing spaces for the gypsies if we looked back at the series of project by Costant Nieuwenhuys in the 50s and 60s (Fig. 16). In the model of archipelago, the in-between areas could be a suitable place for them. Not only the green belt and the modern infrastructure, the nature grid can also be used to 'contain mobile services-«with mobile homes, Airflows, Fairs, Markets, Circuses, that could travel for years on the coordinates of the nature grid, without ever entering the city.»23 16

19. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P16

20. ibid. P106

21. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P66

22. ibid. P18

23. ibid. P19

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 16: Constant Nieuwenhuys, Ambience de Jeu, maquette, 1955.

Developed from the model of 'Garden City', the theory of green archipelago also expressed people's increased interest in health and open space. The open spaces and green areas, thus should not only appear accidentally among the buildings to fill in the gaps, but should interact with buildings, even to be «projected to dovetail closely with the predominating construction style.»24 In 1915, Martin Wagner in his dissertation refined the concept of 'healthy green space' which was opposed to the 'decorative green' of preindustrial city. While the second one would more be used for adornment of the city, 'healthy green space' aims to improve the quality of urban lives and to prove the inhabitants «the opportunity to amuse themselves and to engage in sport in the open air.»25

24. ibid. P19

25. ibid. P19

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CONCLUSION The urban model of 'green archipelago' is an alternative approach to envisage the shrinkage of Berlin. In this concept, a new relationship between nature and city was proposed, in which nature not only appears «in the form of avenues or clearly delineated parks» 26, but the two elements city and nature interact to form an organic system of natural metropolis. Although this idea of Ungers and Koolhaas was not passed at the time it is still thought-provoking and valuable for reference today. Not only did it implicate the future shrinkage of the city which actually showed up in other metropolis like Paris, Shanghai and Tokyo, but also emphasized on the green space and respect for regional differences.

The idea of this model continued a series projects that explored the role of green spaces in urban development. It originally derived from the English garden and Karl Friedrich Schinkel constituted their first point of reference. In the 20th century, these principles of green urban landscape were taken further on a regional level included in parallel designs and plans such as Hermann Jansen's winning design for the GrossBerlin (1910) (Fig. 16), Ernst May's plan to expand Breslau (1920) (Fig. 17), Hans Scharoun's collective plan (1946) (Fig. 18).

The concept of the city as palimpsest composed of small districts of entity, in particular, corresponds to the increasing individualization of society of today, and what we perceive to be vastly more fruitful is the 'mnemotechnical aspect of this thought model: «not only does it make architectural history available to architects in all its multiplicity, it also allows the city to be perceived by all as the bricks-and-mortar result of a complex and sometimes very painful history.»27

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26. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research.

27. Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research. P65

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Fig. 17: Hermann Jansen, project for greater Berlin: green space plan, 1909-1910.

Source: Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. In the early 20th century, Hermann Jansen developed a plan for a massive, branching system of green space for Berlin's expanded urban territory that would have created a great number of urban islands. The perspective drawing of his proposal for the Tempelhof district illustrates the scale of the projected green area, which here has the appearance of a river.

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GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

Fig. 18: Ernst May, plan for the capital city of breslau, 1920. Source: Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. Ernst May's project for Breslau also consists of an urban archipelago with various islands separated by a branching green belt.

Fig. 19: Hans Scharoun et al., Collective plan, 1946. Source: Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city. The "Collectlve Plan• of 1946 calls for a decentralized, green urban landscape made up of islands that are connected with one another via a 20

GREEN ARCHIPELAGO: AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH IN BERLIN 70S

REFERENCES Blake P., 1977, Form follows fiasco: why modern architecture hasn't worked. Little Brown & Co Venturi R., Denise S.B., 1977, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of Architectural Form. Revised Edition Rowe C., Koetter F., 1983, Collage city. Cambridge: MIT Press Marot S., 1977, Berlin: a green archipelago – the city in the city.

UAA Ungers Archives for Architectural Research G. Feuerstein, New Directions in German Architecture, New York: Braziller, 1969 The History of Berlin's Urban Green Space. The Municipal Development of Urban Green Space, 1870 to 1920. https:// www.berlin.de/senuvk/umwelt/stadtgruen/geschichte/en/ stadtgruen/1870_1920/index.shtml

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