Postmodern Non-Residential Berlin

Anyone who prefers to view postmodernism – with reference to architecture – as an epoch, looks with enthusiasm to Berlin…

30 buildings from the 1970s and 80s, 30 built manifestos, densely gathered in two halves of a divided city: transformer station, hotel and airport terminal, diving tower, school, and animal laboratory. Not only do their functions and purposes differ fundamentally, but their forms and architectural means of expression are even more diverse.

What distinguishes the architecture of these years is the search for a visualization of content beyond function: of fictions, themes and narratives, of history, typological continuities, and contradictions. While postmodern is the underlying formula, it does not result in a uniform “style”. The building forms are emblematic or rational, familiar or absolutely new. Claudia Kromrei presents these 30 buildings and describes them in their concrete form, their genesis, and against the background of the theoretical imaginary worlds of their designers.