City in The City - Berlin A Green Archipelago - O.M. Ungers

THE CITY IN THE CITY – BERLIN: A GREEN ARCHIPELAGO
O.M. Ungers & Rem Koolhaas

(with Peter Riemann, Hans Kollhoff & Arthur Ovaska)
In September of 1977 “The City in the City – Berlin: A Green Archipelago” was published as a 48-page
urban planning booklet by O.M. Ungers, a german architect and urban planner. At the time of making,
Originally the text was developed under Rem Koolhaas, who taught a summer school for Cornell
students in Berlin, which was dedicated to the topic “Urban Villa”. This short six-point version was only
titled “Berlin: A Green Archipelago” and formed the foundation for its reworked and extended version.
Facing a declining city population in Berlin, the full 48-page version was created as an urban
redevelopment proposal and presented to the city administration at the time.
Today it is considered one of the first manifestos to introduce the concept of urban reduction as a form
of urban planning; strongly contrasting the prevalent attitude of historic reconstruction and
densification from the centre to the city boundaries. Despite the radical approach and considerations
of mobility, suburban surroundings, tourism, forestry and agriculture, it did not achieve recognition like
other theories of the time (e.g. Learning from Las Vegas, Delirious New York) and was rarely published.
11 Thesis for a New Berlin
1) Depopulation
With a projected decline in population of 10% in the 1980s, the plan proposes a controlled reduction
of the city of Berlin without any loss of urban qualities.
2) False Nostalgia
Additive measures or measures of city renovation by historic principles are purely based on a false
sense of nostalgia for the sake of reproduction of kitsch. They must be avoided since they would not
achieve the projected future needs of the city. Most parts of the city have fallen into a state of
disorder. The process of reduction must happen in a controlled manner and not by chance.
3) Berlin as a Laboratory for Reduction

Migration to the suburbs is leading to the decay of inner-city life. This is the result of a change in
lifestyle. Suburban life has become more appealing, since improvements in communication and
mobility allow for spatial and intellectual distance, which is a global phenomenon. The future is not in
expansion but rather in reduction. Berlin serves as a laboratory for this approach.
4) Federation of Appropriate Units

The character of a city lies within the plurality of many divergent principles of life, yet large
metropolitan areas fetishize uniform megacities. They lack human qualities and only create technical
and organisational problems. Ideally, the city would be a „federation of appropriatly sized units”.
They should be unified as a city and still show comprehensible atmospheres individually. Selectively,
specific redundant structures should be reduced or even fully removed. Areas worth preserving, must
be identified, confirmed and completed. They would become free islands within an archipelago.
5) Identification and Completion of Identity

Here lies the proposal of “The City in the City”. Antithetically built islands are chosen by their idea and
concept to build island identities based on their history, social structure and qualities. Aesthetics and
personal taste should not be selection criteria. Each island is to be completed to its full urban and
architectural form. Additional institutions can be placed. Where there is high urban density, parks and
open spaces should reduce pressure. Areas with low density should receive centres of intensification.
This is an antithesis to the current urban theory and represents better today’s individualistic society.
It also creates a sense of identification for inhabitants.
6) Global Design References

First proposals for areas are the following, since they represent diverse formal and social conditions:
Südliche Friedrichstadt | Görlitzer Bahnhof | Schlossstraße | Siemensstadt | Spandau | City

Märkisches Viertel | Gropiusstadt | Siedlung Tempelhofer Feld | Hufeisensiedlung
Onkel Tom’s Hütte | Kulturinsel Kemperplatz
Architectural additions do not have to be new. They should rather be taken from global model
references, designed at another time for another place. Examples could be:
Magnitogorsk as a linear city on Straße Unter den Eichen

Mies van de Rohe’s Glass Skyscraper as a social center
Manhatten’s Central Park at Görlitzer Bahnhof
Russian Constructivism for the area around the Olympic Stadium
7) The Green In-Betweens

All redundant structures should be left to return to nature. This will complete the metaphor of an
archipelago – a collage of distinctly different islands. All in-between spaces will become modified and
carefully designed natural spaces, made up of a catalogue of types: suburban areas, parks, forests,
allotment gardens, farming, industry or even safari parks as a new form of tourism. This will increase
the atmosphere of each island being a metropolis. In addition, the green areas hold mobility
dependent infrastructures like highways to connect the islands, supermarkets, drive-in cinemas and
banks. Mobile homes and tents will create a new form of urban inhabitant with a transitory lifestyle.
These additions are also in reference to projects with a suburban nature:
Ludwig Hilbersheimer for Chicago (Single House Type)

Mobile Homes for temporary living
Disney Land as a reference for recreational facilities
Industrial parks with infrastructures for employees (production zones)
8) Urban Villa
Despite higher costs of living, lack of infrastructures and increased time of mobility, there is a clear
preference towards the single house type within the population. The motivation is a heightened
sense of independence and a desire for individualisation and personalisation. The ideal housing type
for this lifestyle is the “Urban Villa”, a type between single house and apartment building.
Units of four to eight allow for individual designs and adaptability. Unlike housing blocks, this type
would not sanitise the city socially and economically. The urban villa is additional and not a
replacement. It is easy to integrate into the historic context.
9) Historic Justification
Berlin’s diverse urban qualities lie in the city’s history. There have always been articulations of
opposing elements and ideas. Berlin has existed in different versions, one after another: Cölln-Berlin
was a city for fishermen and merchants. It became a city of markets, a royal residence, a capital city,
an industrial city, a metropolis, a city of six towns with different uses in the 18th century and a divided
city. Industrial progress and increasing mobility led to an increase of work opportunities and housing
in the periphery, which led to the inclusion of its suburbs into the city administration. Berlin’s variety
of architectural styles from romantic to classical, neoclassical, neogothic or even elements of islamic
architecture can be described as an archipelago of cultural happenings. This is rooted in the cities
humanistic tradition and transferred to its present. Berlin preserves traces of its historic past, like a
living collage of fragments. Critical contradictions are the very concept of Berlin.
10) Planning Goals

The goals of this urban planning proposal are: obligational reduction, improvement of urban quality,
preservation of historic structures, individualisation of architecture, humanisation of urban life and
improvement of the environment. It is not about building new or growing, but rather about the
reconstruction of the existing. It is about the rediscovery of established principles and a restructuring
of the old. There should be divers habitats and activities in a pluralistic system of opposites. The
metropolitan and suburban (culture and nature) should be reconnected, which would strengthen
urban identity. The goal is not to look for a new utopia, but for a better reality. Berlin would serve as a
pioneer example for other cities.
11) Implementation of Planning

This plan is to be implemented in a multi-stage manner over a longer period. Each phase should take
one year, with a total of 5 years for all phases:
1st Description of content and form of urban characteristics

2nd Development of alternative models
3rd Assessment of differing models and the formulation of program
4th Design phase
5th Realisation phase
The results of phase one should be presented and discussed during the IBA (Internationale
Bauausstellung). The second phase serves the deepening of architectural and urban vocabulary by
selected committees and citizens. Results should be published and discussed publicly. The design of
the city islands and green zones is to be done without a preferred or uniform style. Selected
realisations could be goals for the 1980’s and yearly exhibitions should be held. Summer academies
can be used for theoretical work. Famous international personalities should be invited for longer
periods to make contributions, and the planning committee should be independent.

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THE CITY IN THE CITY – BERLIN: A GREEN ARCHIPELAGO

O.M. Ungers & Rem Koolhaas

11 Thesis for a New Berlin

3) Berlin as a Laboratory for Reduction

4) Federation of Appropriate Units

5) Identification and Completion of Identity

6) Global Design References

Südliche Friedrichstadt | Görlitzer Bahnhof | Schlossstraße | Siemensstadt | Spandau | City

Magnitogorsk as a linear city on Straße Unter den Eichen

7) The Green In-Betweens

Ludwig Hilbersheimer for Chicago (Single House Type)

10) Planning Goals

11) Implementation of Planning

1st Description of content and form of urban characteristics

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