Building the urban physiognomy of Berlin through the “well-ordered facade” of the Stadtbahn

Authors

  • Filipe Temtem Escuela de Arquitectura, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.201782149

Abstract

This article unfolds the analysis of the railway viaduct that crosses the German capital in an eastern-western direction. The aim is to decipher the urban design strategies used in the highly planned Stadtbahn, focusing on the configuration of Berlin’s urban physiognomy through a “well-ordered facade.” Thus exposing the morphologically linear construction associated with transport infrastructure, making clear the railway project design as a building-viaduct, imposing its architectural façade’s scenic effects on the surrounding public space. Through an in situ survey it is left clear that this building-viaduct, has the ability to break the “curse of border vacuums “, counteracting the destruction of neighboring areas that typically converts the segregated path into a physical and social border route. The intention is to clarify the value that architecture adds to these infrastructures originated as an accurate response to specific problems of time and distance, enlightening a multidisciplinary field, which becomes increasingly unavoidable, where the contribution of architects is still very much diffused.
KEYWORDS: Transport infrastructure, Railway, Well-ordered facade, Building-viaduct, Urban physiognomy, Berlin.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Filipe Temtem, Escuela de Arquitectura, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

Filipe Temtem.FADEU, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Architect, FA Universidade Técnica de Lisboa; Master in Theory and Practice of Architectural Project, ESTSAB Universidad Politécnica de Catalunya; and PhD(c) in Architecture and Urban Studies, FADEU Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Currently, is an effective member of the OASRS and co-founder of the “FTTA: Architecture &Design” studio. Served as director of the Design Department and Representation of Architecture Projects (DDRAP) in the housing cooperative “A Nossa Casa”. His work at “PR Arquitectura Global” is highlighted by the first prize on the National Contest of Architecture and Public Space “Fundação António Manuel Sardinha”, won by the studio. Parallelly, Temtem works as teacher and researcher. In this context, his collaboration with “ International Research Group of Architecture & Society” (GIRAS) of the ETSAB is underlined as well as his most recent experience at the Technische Universität Berlin, where was invited to integrate the “Urban Research and Design Laboratory” as international partner. Presently he works at FADEU of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, integrating the “City & Mobility Laboratory” as well as the “Elemental Chair” co-directed by Fernando Pérez Oyarzún and Alejandro Aravena.

References

Alfaro d’Alençon, Paola (2103). The production of urban space through mobility: The Case of the Stadtbahn in Berlin. Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

Allen, Stan (1999). Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City. New York: Princeton Architectural Press.

Ascher, François (2005). “Arquitectura de infraestructura: Ciudades con velocidades múltiples, un desafío para arquitectos, urbanistas y políticos”, ARQ, No. 60. jul.

Bazant, Jan (2010). Espacios urbanos, historia, teoría y diseño. México: Limusa.

Boberg, Jochen; Fichter, Tilman; Gillen, Eckhart (1984). Exerzierfeld der Moderne: Industriekultur in Berlin im 19. Jahrhundert. München: C.H. Beck Verlag.

Clemente Marroquin, Beatriz (2007). Espacios Públicos de Hermosillo de 1997 al 2007. Director,
Dr. José Luis Moreno Vázquez (Tesis Maestría). Colegio de Sonora. Estudios urbanos ambientales.

Curl, James Stevens. Georgian Architecture. England Newton Abbot [England]: David & Charles, 2002.

Comas, Carlos Eduardo. Monumentalizing Modern Mobility in LC2015 - Le Corbusier, 50 years later, 2015. Available at: http://ocs.editorial.upv.es/index.php/LC2015/LC2015/paper/view/949.

Frampton, K. (1995). Estudios de una cultura tectónica. Cambridge: MIT Press, MA.

Gottwaldt, Alfred B.; Handke, Stefan. Berliner Historische Ansichten. Band 3. Berlin Stadtbahn. Berlin: Marion Hildebrand Verlag, 1998.

Hegemann, Werner (1988). Das steinerne Berlin. 1930, Geschichte der größten Mietkasernenstadt der Welt. Frankfurt a. M.: Vieweg-Verlag.

Hoffmann-Axthelm, Dieter (1984). Arbeitsgruppe Berliner S-Bahn (Edit.) (1984), Die Berliner S-Bahn. Berlin: Ästhetik und Kommunikation Verlag.

Heine, Heinrich (1866). De lÁllemagne Volume: 1. Paris: Michel Lévy Frères.

Jacobs, Jane (1961). Vida y Muerte de las grandes ciudades. Madrid: Ediciones Península.

Lamas, José Manuel. Ressano Garcia (1992). Morfologia urbana e desenho da cidade. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian.

Lemus, Carlos Bell (2005). El movimiento moderno en Barranquilla: muestra de arquitectura 1946- 1964. Univ. Nacional de Colombia.

Lynch, Kevin (1960). The Image of the City. Boston: Mass, EE.UU. MIT Press.

Mallagrave, H. F. (1993). Otto Wagner. Reflections on the Raiment of modernity. Santa Mónica: Getty Center.

Miralles-Guasch, C. (2002). Ciudad y transporte. El binomio imperfecto. Barcelona: Ariel.

Orth, August (1871). Berliner Centralbahn. Eisenbahnproject zur Verbindung der Berliner Bahnhöfe nach der innern Stadt. Berlin, Verlag von Ernst & Korn.

Parcerisa, Josep (2000). La ciudad no es una hoja en blanco. Chile: Ediciones ARQ.

Petti Pinheiro, Eloísa. “Modernas formas Modernas y sus reflejos en Brasil 1920-1960”. Revista Perspectiva Urbanas nº 9 [online], 2008. Disponible en: https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?-codigo=4038291.

Potrykowski, M., Taylor, Z. (1984). Geografía del transporte, Barcelona: Editorial Ariel.

Pizza, A., Pla, M. Viena_Berlín. Teoría, arte y arquitectura entre los siglos XIX y XX. Barcelona: Etsab, Edicions de la UPC, 2002.

Rapoport, Amos. “Pedestrian Street Use: Culture and Perception.” In Moudon, A.V, Public Streets for

Public Use. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold Company Inc, 1987.

Schachinger, Erika (1984), in: Arbeitsgruppe Berliner S-Bahn (Edit.) (1984), Die Berliner S-Bahn, Berlin, Ästhetik und Kommunikation Verlag.

Smets, Marcel (2006). Conceiving Infrastructure as a mode of Urbanism, canalizing and colonizing the Campine. Leuven: Research Report Catholic University of Leuven, Research Group Urbanism and Architecture (OSA).

Schievelbusch, Wolfang (1986). The Railway Journey – The Industrialization of time and Space in the 19th Century. Berkeley, Los Angeles, California: The University of California Press.

Sky, Allison & Stone, Michelle. “Unbuilt America: Forgotten Architecture in the United States from Thomas Jefferson to the Space Age”. ARLIS/NA Newsletter 5, no. 1, December 1976.

Von Der Leyen, Alfred (1982). Berlin und seine Eisenbahnen 1846-1896. Berlin: Ästhetik und Kommunikation Verlag.

Velasquez de Gonzalez, C. y Melendez Urdaneta, L.A. (2003). “La morfología y los usos de las plazas urbanas y parroquiales de la ciudad de Maracaibo”. Revista de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales [online], vol.19, n.40

Wagner, Otto (1993). La arquitectura de nuestro tiempo. Una guía para los jóvenes arquitectos. Madrid: El Croquis Editorial.

Published

2017-10-02

How to Cite

Temtem, F. (2017). Building the urban physiognomy of Berlin through the “well-ordered facade” of the Stadtbahn. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, (8), 104–117. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.201782149

Issue

Section

Topic papers