A speculation on the future of Berlin, presented before the fall of the Wall in 1989. We envisioned the use of development corridor cities, with the Alexanderplatz deliberately left free of homogeneous commercial developments. In this reimagined Berlin, the wall-zone became a linear park lined with challenging new geometries.
In 1988, we were invited to speculate on the city’s future – to envisage Berlin 2000.
We imagined a ‘post-wall’ city, creating an overall scheme between the axes formed by Mehringplatz to Bahnhof Friedrichstrasse and Brandenburger Tor to Alexanderplatz. Central to this scheme as the concept of ‘regeneration’ through both expansion and repair of the city.
Our overall vision focused on the Alexanderplatz – one of the few existing attempts to move beyond typical 19th century urbanism in Berlin at the time. Our Alexanderplatz 2000 was imagined as a space left free of homogeneous commercial development, a poignant contrast to the ideological ‘front line’ which in 1988 still divided the city.
We created a series of visuals to articulate new possibilities for these liberated territories: corridor cities projecting into the landscape; new geometries standing slightly out of synch with the existing order in the former ‘dead zone’ – the path of the wall itself, reinvented as a linear part bringing the city together as a unified whole.
ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
Zaha Hadid with Patrik Schumacher
