Symposia Spring 2013

Achtung: Berlin

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Berlin’s history as the capital of the Third Reich
and its subsequent precarious status as an enclave
within the Soviet zone of Germany (later, the
German Democratic Republic, GDR) has transformed
every aspect of its cultural, artistic and
architectural life into evidence in the last
century’s key political conflicts. As a result, the
two parts of the city became prime laboratories of
architectural and urbanistic experimentation and
spectacularization at the service of power, either
hard or soft. The three-day conference will reexamine
critical moments of Berlin’s architectural
and urbanistic history since 1945 in the light of
Berlin’s new status as the capital of a re-united
Germany.

Yale School of Architecture
Paul Rudolph Hall
Hastings Hall (basement floor)
180 York Street
New Haven, CT

The J. Irwin Miller Symposium
Achtung: Berlin
Thursday–Saturday, February 14–16, 2013

Thursday, February 14
Evening Session, 6:30 PM

KEYNOTE ADDRESS
George Morris Woodruff, Class of 1857, Memorial Lecture
Kurt W. Forster, Yale University
“‘I still have a suitcase in Berlin…’ The Unending Story of a Tentative Capital”

Friday, February 15
Afternoon Session, 1:30 PM

IMAGES OF THE METROPOLIS
Leon Krier, Yale University
“Albert Speer: An Architecture of Desire”
Katerina Clark, Yale University
“‘The Fourth Rome’: Stalin, Moscow, and the Western Tradition”
Eric Mumford, Washington University in St. Louis
“CIAM, Berlin, and the ‘New Monumentality’”
Ernst Seidl, Universität Tübingen
“Paris-Berlin: The Political Dynamics of ‘Grands Travaux’”
Volker Hassemer, Stiftung Zukunft Berlin
“Why Berlin (Wozu Berlin)?”
Respondent
Adam Tooze, Yale University

THE LIFE AND AFTERLIFE OF RUINS
Stanislaus von Moos, Yale University
“Ruin Joy and Ruin Pain: Modern Architecture and War”
David Chipperfield, Architect
“Ruins and Materiality in Architecture”
Thomas Demand, Artist
“Ruins and Reconstructions”
Jan Liesegang, Architect
“Acting in Public”
Respondent
Andreas Huyssen, Columbia University

Evening Session, 6:30 PM

RE-INVENTING BERLIN
Michael Kimmelman, Architecture Critic
in conversation with
David Chipperfield, Architect
Thomas Demand, Artist
Jan Liesegang, Architect
Regula Lüscher, Architect and Senatsbaudirektorin
Elisabeth Ruge, Writer and Editor

Saturday, February 16
Morning Session, 9:00 AM

POISONED UTOPIAS
Marco De Michelis, Università IUAV di Venezia
“From the ‘Kinbein Competition’ to the Stalinalle as Built”
Katie Trumpener, Yale University
“‘Mediascapes of Cold War Berlin”
Greg Castillo, University of California, Berkeley
“West Berlin and the American Way of Life”
Simone Hain, Universität Graz
“Urbanism Upside Down: The Two Paradigms of Communist City Design in the Planning of East Berlin”
Respondent
Hartmut Frank, Hafen City Universität
DIALECTIC OF THE ARCHIPELAGO
Sébastien Marot, École d’Architecture Marne-la-Vallée
“From O.M.U. to O.M.A. and Beyond”
Ole W. Fischer, University of Utah
“Learning from Berlin? Ungers, the Archipelago City, and Detroit”
Robert Fishman, University of Michigan
“The Linear City and the Future of Detroit”
Regula Lüscher, Architect and Senatsbaudirektorin
“Outer City as Inner City: International Building Exhibition Berlin 2020”
Respondent
Alan Plattus, Yale University

Afternoon Session, 2:30 PM

BUILDING THE CAPITAL CITY: MET CHALLENGES?
Vittorio Magnago-Lampugnani, ETH Zurich
“Germania Anno Zero: Destructions, Reconstructions, and Exhibitions in Berlin 1945-1989”
Hans Stimmann, Architect and former Senatsbaudirektorin
“Critical Reconstruction”
Esra Akcan, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
“We Refugees: IBA’84/87 and Housing in Berlin”
Anthony Vidler, Cooper Union
“Building on the Ruins: Allegories of the Postmodern in IBA”
Respondent
Emmanuel Petit, Yale University

BUILDING THE CAPITAL CITY: MISSED OPPORTUNITIES?
Hans Kollhoff, Architect
“Potsdamer Platz, Alexanderplatz, and the American Model”
Peter Eisenman, Yale University
“Reinhardt’s Tower, 1992, and Other Ideas for Berlin”
Jürgen Mayer H., Architect
“Could, Should, Would”
Respondent
Rem Koolhaas, Architect

CONCLUDING REMARKS
Stanislaus von Moos, Yale University

This symposium is supported by the J. Irwin Miller Endowment Fund. Additional support provided by the Fred and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Fund. It is free, but reservations are required prior to February 1, 2013. You may register online at www.architecture.yale.edu/symposia or by phone at 203.432.8621.

The Yale School of Architecture is a Registered Provider with The American Institute of Architects Continuing Education System. Credit earned by attending this symposium will be reported to CES Records for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for non-AIA members are available upon request.

Hastings Hall is equipped with assistive hearing devices for guests using hearing aids that have a “T” coil.