Alexander Eisenschmidt Stadtbilder — memory, place, wall
w e as architects are used to the glossy, beautiful images of buildings and houses that are supposedly representative of the discipline; and maybe it is true that architecture must define itself through these pictures that stand for something extraordinary, something that is particular and new. But there is also the other side of architecture, the already there, the not looked at, the avoided.These images are still part of our cities, but not of the architectural discourse. One might ask: is it possible that architecture overlooks the potential of these places and propagates, or at least facilitates, the smoothing-out of the discontinuities in the architectural ‘façade’?
Looking at places that have survived the acts of renovation and cleansing in our cities, one can detect moments that relate to a very different mood than the one which is usually presented to us. I am referring to scenes in which the building block spontaneously breaks off and reveals its interior, moments of rupture, and moments that give insight into the matter of the city. Could it be that the place reveals itself through these voids in the city- fabric, the so-called blind spots, with their dark brick walls and faded murals? These morbid surfaces that stand in contrast to the finished and smooth pictures of the cityscape can then be understood in terms of their distinct value of having a direct textural relation to the memory of the place. Here the relationship between void and wall-surface moves from a merely spatial to a historical condition..This open-ended character that conflicts with the, more or less, homogeneous cities invites the new through a dynamism that confronts stagnation.
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O n S ite review
S urface
I ssue 9 2003
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