- URBIQUITY 2018 Since twelve years Re:centering periphery develops a reflection on the relation between centres and peripheries as determined by modernist urbanization. Rebooting the project in 2018, we acknowledge that the modernist urban vision has collapsed into the planetary urbanization process. The spatial distinction between urban centres concentrating wealth and power, and dispersed, underprivileged peripheries is melting […]
- Berlin Mehringplatz Few places in Berlin are more emblematic than Mehringplatz of the concept of “periphery at the center”. Situated in a very central location of the city, only few hundred meters from the foundational nucleus of the city in the Fischerinsel, it is at the crossroads of two main axes of the city, the north- south […]
- Berlin, dream of modernity No city as Berlin, (except Paris, obviously) can be adopted as an epitome of modernity. From here Georg Simmel generated its observations on the mental life of the metropolis, defining the inherently modern figure of the overstimulated man, and the notion of blasè. From here Walter Benjamin began its drift into the modern, plastered of […]
- “Licht, Luft und Sonne”
- Was Für ein schönes schloss… Oh che bel castello Ma che bel castello, marcondirindirondello, ma che bel castello, marcondirondironda’ Il mio è ancor più bello, marcondirondirondello, il mio è ancor più bello, marcondirondironda’ Noi lo bruceremo, marcondirindirondello, noi lo bruceremo, marcondirondironda’ Noi lo rifaremo, marcondirindirondello, noi lo rifaremo, marcondirondironda’ The old Italian nursery rhyme sings “what a beautiful castle – mine […]
- Berlin Mitte
- Nothing is left Nothing is left. We imbued this long take traveling towards Alexanderplatz with the dark mood of Circuit Parallele’s track. It is a study for the in progress film project, an urban symphony following three characters meandering through the psychologic landscape of a relentlessly transforming Berlin… music__nothing is left_circuit parallele_spine 02
- Renaming Hellersdorf Recently we did a survey in the area of Hellersdorf along the last stations of the S-Bahn line 5. One of the most recent big development areas of former East Berlin, one of the last still adopting the prefabricated, high rise building, typical dormitory city approach. A neighbourhood already under observation for the RCP project. This time […]
- East-gate Marzahn is one of the last huge settlements of DDR urbanism. The dormitory city logic is perfectly complementary with the shopping mall logic imported by capitalism. The synthesis of mass housing and mass consumption reinforced by efficient transportation infrastructure pleases the new consumerist citizenship. East-Gate is one of the more than 200 commercial centres owned by ECE, […]
- The power of emptiness The area around Ostbanhof in Berlin is a clear example of how in this city the typical categories of centre / periphery, downtown / suburbia are unable to describe the reality of the urban fabric. Vacant lots, huge plattenbauten settlements, retail chains, warehouses and abandoned industrial buildings: the typical landscape that we are used to associate […]