New Architecture Berlin 1990-2000

No other city in Europe will change its appearance in the course of the present decade as much as Berlin. This architectural guide is the first book to document the more than 200 significant building projects which will, for the most part, be completed by the turn of the millenium. Surveying the abundant field of architectural experimentation characterizing modern Berlin, this book is a critical record of the development of Germany's intellectual, cultural, and political center. New Architecture Berlin 1990-2000 is a must for anyone with an interest in current building trends and post-Wall urban planning, and includes an extensive appendix of details for other building projects as well as an index of architects and locations.

This bilingual guide to the astonishing building phenomenon in post-wall Berlin begins with a cogent but modest introduction by the president of the Association of German Architects in which he attributes the potential success of Berlin as a restored capital city not so much to its architecture but to its spiritual and political values. Grouped geographically into seven districts, hundreds of buildings are described soberly but thoroughly, one to a page, in a text that addresses function, dimensions, materials, and color. A black-and-white photograph illustrates each. Additionally, each entry contains standardized information: address, public transportation connections, names of architects and investors, use, gross floor area, and construction period. Additional buildings of each area are listed at the end of each chapter, without textual descriptions or illustrations but with the standardized information. There are also three sections of color illustrations. The two indexes, one of architects and the other of streets, are useful, but a third by building name would have been considerably more helpful. Perhaps most sorely missed will be guide maps by district. Nonetheless, this is a monumental achievement and a fine complement to Michael A. Wise's Capital Dilemma: Germany's Search for a New Architecture of Democracy (LJ 4/15/98). Recommended for all larger collections on modern architecture and for all travel collections.--Paul Glassman, New York Sch. of Interior Design Lib. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.