Cities are built over the remnants of their past buried beneath their present. We build on what has been built before, whether over foundations formalising previous permanency or over the temporal occupations of ground. But what happens when you shift a city - when you dislodge its occupation of ground towards a new ground, bury it and forget it?
Focusing on Berlins destruction during World War II and its reconstruction after the end of the war, this book offers a rethinking of how the practices of destruction and burial combine to reform the city through geography and how burying a city is intricately tied to forgetting destruction, ruination and trauma. Created from 25 million cubic meters of rubble produced during World War II, Teufelsberg (Devil's Mountain) is the exemplar of the destroyed city. Its critical journey is chronicled in combination with Berlins seven other rubble hills, and their connections to constructing forgetting through burial. Furthermore, the book investigates Berlins sublime relation to Albert Speers urban vision to rival the ancient cities of Rome and Athens through their now shared geographies of seven hills. Finally, there is a central focus on the role of the citizens who cleared Berlins streets of rubble, and the subsequent human relationships between people and ruins.
This book is valuable reading for those interested in Architectural Theory, Urban Geography, Modern History and Urban Design.
Introduction
Chapter
1. Ruins Self-portraiture, Capturing Forgetting
Chapter
2. Forgetting Self-anesthesia, Cultural Forgetting
Chapter
3. Burial Abandoning the City, Physical Forgetting
Chapter
4. Disappearance Planting the Forest, Natural Forgetting
Chapter
5. New Ground Unearthing Teufelsberg, Against Forgetting
Conclusion
Benedict Anderson practices in design, architectural theory and public art. He has worked in many different universities, lectured extensively as an invited speaker and exhibited in major exhibitions. He previously held the position as Professor of Spatial Design, University of Technology Sydney.
