When one thinks of a charming, peaceful place of respite, plush exotic gardens, secret passageways, and happy hobbyists, the area formerly known as “No Man’s Land,” or simply, “Death Strip,” isn’t exactly the first thing that springs to mind. Yet, twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dutch landscape architect Joyce van den Berg is hoping to transform this “trauma zone” into a sprawling recreation center.
Van den Berg’s ideas for how to convert this mostly barren and somewhat tabooed strip of land into a green zone are currently on exhibition at the German Center for Architecture (DAZ) in Berlin. Though there are currently no formal plans in place to enact the architect’s proposal, van den Berg remains optimistic, citing a few instances of private ownership as the only foreseeable hindrance.
The proposal is one of the newest, and perhaps most ambitious, of the recent string of attempts to redevelop some of history’s eyesores into sustainable, community-enhancing areas. While many of these projects have aimed to confront and enrich the rusty wreckage of industrial pasts—Germany’s Emscher Park, Seattle’s Gas Works, and, Manhattan’s newly opened High Line—this is one of the first attempts to turn such a deeply political space into a sort of living museum. It is a provocative idea that promising to elicit much debate, something van den Berg welcomes. As she told De Speigel in a recent interview, “I would really just like to start off the debate and get people thinking about how to go about making changes," adding, "I'd like to open people's eyes, I think they could be pleasantly surprised. And I think it's very important not just for Berlin and Brandenburg but for all of Europe because it is part of our history.”
Discuss
tim hall on July 20, 2009, 10:01 PM
I think it is a great thing to improve a strip of land or to create beauty in anyway. However, the idea of creating something to enhance some sort of healing or trying to right a wrong does not improve a society. The quickest way to get over a previous act of ignorance is to completely ignore it. Sell it as an industrial park and forget about it. Move on. If the society has educated itself to never do it again, then why keep looking back at ignorant times?
Accordingly, if a society does something great in the past, they should decorate it and use it as a promotion of future greatness. If one designed it as a pair of ( ) , I might agree. To celebrate united people is always a positive.
Vicki Nikolaidis on July 24, 2009, 2:10 PM
Tim, I don’t agree at all. The commemoration of a bad situation by transforming the site into a place of interest and beauty is wise. Ms Van den Berg’s idea of using some type of light design to highlight the former tunnels is intriguing.
Once an ‘act of ignorance’ has been ‘healed’ or understood, a society has improved itself. Within the U.S.A. there are people still fighting the Civil War and others still fighting the war with Mexican over territory that is now part of the U.S.A.
Another tragic problem tearing the country apart is the type of slavery that occurred until the end of the great cotton plantations. Since the issue of slavery has never resolved the business crime of human trafficking is common and more obviously apartheid still exists in the U.S.A.
I don’t understand how selling the land and building an Industrial Park is good for anything.
Societies repeat the same mistakes until they have faced the painful issues that caused the disruption in the first place. The world is at this time still experiencing Holocausts, racism and intolerance.
Germans in particular are tearing down housing and agonizing on the lack of children while at the same time they have migrants pouring into the city who need housing and could work. They and their own childdren could solve the population problem that Germany is now facing.
If they had learned tolerance from WWII and the Cold War they wouldn’t have so much trouble seeing an answer to their greatest worry . . . right under their noses.
ed hardy on August 28, 2009, 4:33 AM
thanks, the article is very good~~
by ed hardy
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