The city among its rubble. Latent stories in Berlin

Abstract

After Second World War, in some cities in Germany, urban structure was completely dissolved, reaching a high level of desolation, between urbanism and mud. In other cases not so erased, after retirement of waste, they appeared vacant sites available to set spontaneous gardens or orchids, a primary idea of order through that chaos. Then they were plans, urban regulation, and a disappointing trace of convention, following the paradigm of literal rebuild of a wrong past, or decades after, ending up in a pointless city, like some areas of Berlin. The other way round, in that city plenty of latent tales, like a portrait of a century, we would like to highlight other stories hidden under the well known metropolis together with possible alternatives of history that never happened: parallel episodes, analogue cities, other architectures and other cities of Berlin reverberating beside the real one if somebody may listen to them.