Stella – Constellation Berlin Brandenburg 2070 – Ideography of a Constellation – A Contribution to Fictional Science
I/III Metropolis. It is the year 2070.
The old city no longer had any borders, only peripheries. The peripheries increasingly took over the landscapes. The old city lost its equilibrium. A new phenomenon emerges: a city with borders. The city grows within these borders. The city of cities grows within its cities: metropolis. The metropolis knows only the borders of its cities. Nature separates the cities: landscape. Landscapes connect the cities. The cities regain their closed form. A city has a form. A city is predominately shaped by its interior space. The urban landscape is overwhelmed, because it has become an undifferentiated and un-designed mixture of city and countryside.
We have restored the separation of city and countryside. We have found a way to divide the city and countryside: by separating and connecting the landscapes. Landscapes are characterised externally. Within cities, landscapes appear as city-bound outside spaces. Beyond and between cities, landscapes appear as landscape-bound outside spaces. The borders of the cities have been redrawn. Cities do not stop at their borders; their essence begins there. The borders of the landscapes have been redrawn. The landscapes do not stop at the borders; their essence begins there.
A city consists of neighbourhoods. These are are mixed, independent areas predominantly shaped by interior spaces, and are appropriately scaled. Neighbourhoods also have borders. City-bound outside spaces can appear within neighbourhoods or as borders between them. Several neighbourhoods form a district, several districts a city, and several cities a metropolis. Cities are red; landscapes are blue. The metropolis is a constellation of cities.
The old city no longer knew any transitions between city and countryside. The landscapes were increasingly usurped. The old city had lost its structure. A new phenomenon emerges: nature connects the cities – landscape. Landscapes separate the cities and towns. The periphery has become a city, the ‘intermediate city’ a landscape, the urban landscape a city or a landscape. The areas characterised by trade, industry, and suchlike have disappeared. These districts have become landscapes or neighbourhoods; they have become a city, the city as an amalgamation. The cities are increasing located within the newly drawn borders. They keep their distance from one another. The landscapes move in and through them. The cities are becoming denser so that the landscapes can grow. The landscapes increase within the new borders: more landscape, more city! A city reveals the shape of its landscape, the districts the characters of their city, the neighbourhoods the atmospheres of their districts. The district has an appropriate scale. The districts are manageable. The city is liveable.
I/VIII Metropolis and II/VIII Cities and Landscapes
The red and blue plan presents a phenomenological mapping of spaces. It shows the spatial differentiation as well as the connection between architecture, city, and countryside. By showing topological and typological foundations that subsequently determine the analytical and conceptual prerequisites for the design, the process can be described and understood as a method and as an instrument. This is where the design of the landscapes and the cities with their districts, neighbourhoods, squares and streets, courtyards, rooms and paths, and apertures, begins…
The red and blue plan presents a phenomenological mapping of spaces. It shows the spatial differentiation as well as the connection between architecture, city, and countryside. By showing topological and typological foundations that subsequently determine the analytical and conceptual prerequisites for the design, the process can be described and understood as a method and as an instrument. This is where the design of the landscapes and the cities with their districts, neighbourhoods, squares and streets, courtyards, rooms and paths, and apertures, begins…
Architectural spaces, or interiors, defined by the structural boundaries of walls – for example, apertures, rooms, courtyards, streets and squares – are classified as ‘warm’ spaces and are generally shown in red. Landscape- and city-bound exterior spaces – areas marked by their vastness, openness, and ‘emptiness’ – are not architectural spaces. They appear on the map in blue as ‘cold’ spaces. Examples include landscapes, parks, settlements, streets, railway lines, and brownfield sites. They are generally categorised as ‘cold’ spaces and represented in blue.
Red signifies city-bound interior spaces. The different tones of red reflect the degree of enclosure (dark and medium red) and possible extensions (light red). Blue: Landscape and city-bound outside spaces are represented by shades of blue. Areas that can no longer be expanded or eliminated are represented in dark blue. Lines represent ‘passive’ borders, such as infrastructures, bodies of water, and so on.
III/III Metropolitan Typology
Although the ideography of Stella (I and II) is characterised by the romantic (i.e. fantastical) idea of a ‘city of cities’, its exemplary elaborations (III to VIII) follow the rational (i.e. reasonable) idea of a metropolitan typology that accounts for the new scale of the future metropolis with a generic character.
We can only counter the argument that this ideography is much too optimistic in an idealistic manner. And we can only counter the argument that this typology is too pessimistic in realistic manner. Yet it is precisely this ambivalence between fantasy and reason that defines the idea, programme, and concept of Stella. Therefore, from the outset we did not to look for the three locations for possible interventions, but first devised three metropolitan typologies and only then looked for the appropriate locations for their implementation…
III.I. The Porous Monolith as a Vertical Neighbourhood: Kreuzberg
The density in the city of cities steadily increases, even in the older neighbourhoods. For the few districts that remained open, laws were overridden, dimensions increased, and new plans drawn up. The initial resistance to this was gradually dissipated and settled through politically initiated participatory processes. According to the Metropolitan typology, monolithic buildings [about 211 metres tall] appear as standalone hybrid structures. General facilities related to housing, care, employment, education, culture, sport, mobility, etc. were inscribed in the functional disposition of the typology. Seen in relation to the ‘urban capacity’ of a smaller district, the further consumption of land was deemed justifiable. Such monoliths are part of the public and private spaces of the city, the city of spaces. In the red and blue maps of Stella, their forms appear in red, as they are generally defined by their interiors. Monolithic structures embody the new scale of the metropolis.
III.II. The Assembled Towers and the Open Field: Tempelhof
The fragmented and discontinuous peripheral areas of the old city were gradually reigned in and given form – internally through streets and squares internally, and externally as fields. Many different ‘urban cultural landscapes’ were seen as these fields. The peripheries were urbanised, and the peripheries became cities. According to the Metropolitan typology, towers appear together with fields. The towers outline the fields and refer back to the city with their plinth bases and block structure. The height of the towers [about 211 metres] is determined by the size of the fields. Fields are always outdoor spaces that appear as cultivated urban landscapes. Fields belong to the public, towers to the public and private space of the city, the city of spaces. In the red-blue mapping, the towers appear in red, since they are generally constituted by their interior spaces, and the fields in blue, as their design is generally constituted by their exterior spaces. Towers and fields embody the new scale of the metropolis.
III.III. The Blue Block or Urban Nature: Wartenberg
Stella could gradually overcome the apparent contrast between two traditional ideas: between a more ‘rustic’ way of life alongside and within the natural world and a more ‘urban’ lifestyle with its public streets and squares. We gave up on urban landscapes, instead separating the city and the landscape and re-joining them so they complement one another: this is the urban nature of Stella. Reflecting the Metropolitan typology, the large blocks incorporate outdoor spaces. Tall buildings define the city-bound outside spaces. The height of the buildings [around 42–84 metres] is determined by the width of the enclosed areas. Here, the enclosed ‘interior’ areas are exterior spaces and function as ‘urban cultural landscapes’. Examples of uses include cemeteries, allotment gardens, parks, forests, pastures, and meadows. Between the blocks, streets and squares seem like interior spaces. The buildings border streets and squares as well as the landscapes. The ‘interior’ enclosed spaces are public, while the blocks – made up of the buildings on the borders – are the private spaces of the city, the city of spaces. In the red-blue maps of Stella, the houses on the edges of the blocks and the streets and squares between the blocks appear in red, since they are generally constituted by their interior spaces, and the fields in blue, as their design is generally constituted by their exterior spaces. Blue blocks embody the new scale of the metropolis.
