Berlin: The Guilt Environment

Global Urban Humanities Graduate Interdisciplinary Research Studio Spring 2020

Architecture 209 / History of Art 290
4 units
Th 9-12
705 Wurster

Instructors: Lauren Kroiz (History of Art) and Andrew Shanken (Architecture)

Since the city’s reunification in 1989, Berlin has intertwined its urban renewal with landscapes of reconciliation and commemoration. The “New Berlin” that politicians and city authorities imagined in the 1990s, after the Wende (or Fall of the Berlin Wall), was to be forged by international investment, materialized in high-profile commissions to “starchitects,” alongside preservation and memorialization of the city’s past, often seen through the seemingly inevitable lens of the Holocaust, and more recently Colonialism. Yet the relationship between developing a European metropolis and preserving sites of memory is troubled: projects throughout the city reveal how these ideas are reshuffled under the pressures of tourism, apology, foreign investment, and local activism. This makes Berlin the archetype of the contemporary guilt environment. This studio invites students to analyze, criticize, represent, and reimagine the form that memory and commemoration take in Berlin by asking how existing landscapes work and what new commemorative interventions might be necessary.

Fulfills the studio requirement for the Graduate Certificate in Global Urban Humanities. Priority enrollment to students pursuing the Certificate.

Application required and can be downloaded as a Word doc. APPLICATION DEADLINE HAS PASSED. WE ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR THIS COURSE.

Info sessions for this studio are scheduled for Thursday, October 3 10a and 1p in 305 Wurster. Students interested in applying to the Berlin course are encouraged to attend. See News + Events for details about the info sessions.

Questions about the course may be directed to Profs. Kroiz (kroiz@berkeley.edu) and Shanken (ashanken@berkeley.edu).