contextual convergence
An observatory critiquing its surrounding urban fabric and context
Berlin exists as a complicated network of systems with remnants of a tumultuous past that obscures the landscape. The residents and visitors encounter the city through a series of situations that influence these systems of the city – infrastructure, historical monuments, and the generic. The generic city was introduced after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 which included the rebuild of Potsdamer Platz and Leipziger Platz. In this expeditious redevelopment, the city has become devalued of the destruction and history Berlin has experienced.
In response to the rapid change, surrounding key sites were observed through three different aspects: speed (fast, slow, or medium); artificiality; and attachment/detachment. The three systems observed within this project are Eisenman’s Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Tiergarten, and Potzdamer/Leipziger Platz. By blending the fabrics of these systems together, a field of undulating pillars is created with nodes of open spaces. These open spaces would take on the aspects of an allotment garden to allow growing of crops. The pillars would be residential towers that begin to reveal the artificiality behind facades with scaffolding structures. As the path progresses, the pillars begin to accumulate and form a tower that allows reach a higher disconnect from the city and its history. At the top of the tower would be a platform for blimp rides which would disconnect the visitor even more. This separation and observation reveals the city by breaking through the façade and providing clarity of the history behind the city.
