Evelyn Osvath
a r c h i t e c t u r a l v i o l e n c e Diverse disciplines and research areas have engaged with the tangle of materiality and identity and how places are subjectively understood. The logical proposition is that places are never experienced the same way. This is especially the case when we talk about architecture that follows an intrinsic logic of power and violence, as in the case of borders and checkpoints. How the materiality of a place produces social realities has a rich history of texts. French Marxist philosopher and sociologist Henri Lefebvre, in The Production of Space, argues that each place can be understood in three dimensions: each place is lived, conceived and perceived at the same time. Next to these complex characteristics, any space represents a product of social relations, as it is simultaneously precondition and result of social interaction. Applying these various dimensions Checkpoint Bravo’s character will reveal that it can indeed be conceived as a weapon of control by those who design it for their purpose, and at the same time can be perceived by its surrounding population, or those that wish to exert their freedom of movement, as highly negative and restrictive. One crucial point made by Lefebvre guides this project’s approach, namely, that the constructed meaning of any space can be changed over time by alienating existing structures in different ways. Another important theoretical perspective is offered by Michel Foucault who argues that material in itself can act as a political ‘agent’ because it inevitably stands in relation to, and causes reactions by, humans that encounter it. Taking the bridge house at Checkpoint Bravo as an example, one could argue that it represents and symbolises a gate that marks the only way of entering or leaving a site, therefore triggering existential, political and economic issues. However Checkpoint Bravo manages – due to its unique spatial and structural condition in the ensemble – to avoid further self-acting control, compared to, for instance, watch towers that inherently evoke fear.
The political dimensions of both regimes, GDR and FRD, were activated and unfolded in their built environment. Walls, border crossings, checkpoints, watchtowers along the inner-German border were structures of control. They do not only manifest the presence of separation but also, referring to the public, create a sense of exclusion and inclusion, who is supposed to be, in Leopard Lambert’s terms, ‘inside’ or ‘out’. Checkpoint Bravo on West-Berlin territory and Kontrollpunkt Drewitz on East German territory reveal very different interpretations, ideas and ways of instrumentalising architecture. Drewitz, now demolished, was monumental and brutalist. The massive, wall-like structure was understood as an elongation of the defence system that was only marginally permeable, creating an unease that kept up the system without being questioned by its people. Checkpoint Bravo, in contrast, presented a much different idea of a border crossing — a unique case in German history in its materiality and spatiality of architectural elements. The elements are characterised by its strong shape and colors (pink, yellow, blue). The playfulness of geometry and dynamics produces iconic buildings able to be identity-formative, a symbiotic and strong relationship between materiality, physical space and history. The West-Berlin based architect Rainer Rümmler, known for his diverse metro stations in Berlin, was commissioned at the end of the 1960s to design the buildings that surrounded the checkpoint: a restaurant, two gas stations and other structures such as a pack station and clearance office. His fondness for striking architecture and his passion for details seemed predestined for Checkpoint Bravo, establishing a provocative contrast to the GDR checkpoint. One could argue that the intention to create colourful structures that produce positive associations signalled the freedom of West- Germany in opposition to the dull, plain, monumental architecture of East Germany. The toll station (known as Bridge House) and designed by Hans-Joachim Schröder, spans the highway and symbolises not just the gate to West-Germany but also the gate to freedom and the absence of oppressive control.
on site review 38: borders, lines, breaks and breaches 21
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