"People who live at the same time are not actually contemporaries owing to their different ages, origins, education and socialisation. This always leads to overlapping of different systems of perception […]", says Alain Corbin, with whom we talked in Paris recently (see p. XY). This statement is not new, but it is informative and well worth thinking about if we consider it in the context of our everyday experiences in environments that are not possessed of definite and sustainable dimensions. Our ambience changes, we change it, and we change ourselves. Young people live at the same time as the elderly, the early work of the former appears parallel to the late work of the latter, as Wilhelm Pinder formulated it for the history of art in his book „Das Problem der Generation“ (1926). This cultural and historical phenomenon is full of tensions. It is the breeding ground for all kinds of discussions that arise when different experiences and judgements clash.

Three contributions in this issue are concerned with buildings in the new German states. The former GDR, virtually a symbol of the non-permanent greatness of living spaces, has merged with the Federal Republic, and the working class and farming state is now no more than an historical episode. What remains are people, with their experiences and memories, in a changed political, economic and social environment, and the landscape, towns and buildings in varying states of repair or disrepair, second-hand and obsolete phenomena, loved and hated at one and the same time. Is this, too, a piece of homeland? Seen from outside, this would appear to be inevitable.

As we lived through the poignant fall of the Wall, we did not yet suspect that its disappearance in Germany, and above all in „old-new“ Berlin, would in many ways prove to be a breeding ground for ideological behaviour that aimed at the brash and impatient eradication of recent history. The fact that such conduct applies not only to the self-image of two generations, but also to their architectural legacy, is obvious enough. The Palast der Republik in Berlin is emblematic of this. As a disembowelled ruin now purged of asbestos, it is endowed with a multi-facetted symbolism: some people wish to dispose of it with once and for all, and others wish to see it looked upon unsentimentally as an historical witness. A new generation is using the palace for many different functions, thereby setting an example that will be understood well beyond the borders of Berlin. What is needed is composure and open-mindedness. The primary protagonists are the so-called „interim users“. Corbin's overlapping of systems of perception is more than a theory, and the planned demolition of the Berlin palace is more than a metaphor for an indecorous way of dealing with history.

The editors

Editorial

H&deM et cetera (d) | H&deM et cetera (f) | H&deM et cetera (e)


Thema

Sabine von Fischer
Lesewolke | Informations-, Kommunikations- und Medienzentrum in Cottbus, von Herzog & de Meuron

Sylvain Malfroy
Zwischen Natur und Kunst | Das Heinzkraftwerk Salzburg Mitte von Bétrix & Consolascio + Eric Maier
Texte original français

Andreas Ruby
Möglichkeitsräume der Kunst | Zwei Ausstellungsbauten in Leipzig: das Museum der Bildenden Künste, von Hufnagel Pütz Rafaelian, Berlin und die Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, von AS-IF, Berlin-Wien

Wolfgang Kil
Chronik eines angekündigten Todes | ...Berlin, Palast der Republik

Alain Corbin, Philippe Rahm
Sinnlichkeit, Geschichte, Architektur | Notate eines Gespräches vom 11.1.2005 in Paris

Johannes Stoffler
Grüne Gegenwelten | Natur als Zivilisationskritik im Werk Gustav Ammanns und Richard Neutras


Forum

Kolumne: Wolfgang Ullrich
EFH: Einfamilienhaus in Neuchâtel, von Frund Gallina Rey Architekten
Bücher: Deutschlandschaft
Wettbewerb: Studienauftrag Neues Stadt-Casino Basel
Innenarchitektur: Die Erneuerung des Gemeinderatssaals von Lugano, von Gianfranco Rossi und Claudio Cavadini
Testo originale italiano
Bauten: Büro 3/Cuttat, Hafen, Loretz: Wellnessanlage als Hallenbaderweiterung, Sedrun
Bauten: Fournier-Maccagnan Architekten: Hallenbad in Bassins
Bauten: Robert Maillart in St. Petersburg
Bauten: Glasfassaden in der rumänischen Architektur
bauen + rechten: Grenzen des Sonderrechts im Stockwerkeigentum
Ausstellungen Veranstaltungen Wettbewerbe Neuerscheinungen Produkte

werk-Material

Büro 3/Cuttat, Hafen, Loretz, Zürich: Wellnessanlage als Hallenbaderweiterung, Sedrun GR
Fournier-Maccagnan, Bex: Piscine scolaire et publique,
Bassins VD