Open Architecture - by Esra Akcan (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The International Building Exhibition 1984/87 in Berlin constitutes one of the most remarkable examples to discuss "open architecture". Almost 10,000 dwellings were constructed or restored in the Kreuzberg districts adjacent to the Berlin Wall, inhabited about halfway by immigrants. The renowned author Esra Akcan, related in many ways to Turkey, Berlin and the USA, narrates the history and reverberations of this architectural-political event.

Review Quotes

"Einem derart häufig publizierten Thema wie der West-Berliner IBA 1984/87 noch eine neue Facette zu entlocken, ist kein einfaches Unterfangen. Umso erstaunlicher, mit welch wissenschaftlicher Leichtigkeit das Esra Akcan in ihrem Buch gelingt." (In BauNetz, 02.2020), https: //www.baunetz.de/meldungen/Meldungen-Open_Architecture._Migration_Citizenship_and_Urban_Renewal_of_Berlin-Kreuzberg_7104052.html

"Open Architecture is a tremendous accomplishment that invites the reader to act as a kind of postcolonial fläneur, a non-gendered figure who strolls Kreuzberg's streets, peering-- at times voyeuristically--into the open doors, hallways, courtyards, and stairwells of its trademark buildings and the intimate places that inhabitants call home. [...] Open Architecture is much more than a city tour or a history of buildings and their visionaries. It is a somber reminder of the human stakes involved in a participatory urbanism that privileges rights-bearing citzens. Akcan's call for an attention in urban planning to migrants, exiles, refugees, and other stateless persons who lack the legal and social protections of citizenship could not be more prescient at this moment." (Christina Schenkel in The Berlin Journal 32 (2018), 102-103)

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About the Author

Esra Akcan, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University, NY, USA