Unbuilt Architecture and City Plans

Mentions of Boullée already. Here's a good accessible article on his work and milieu.

publicdomainreview.org

Designing the Sublime: Boullée and Ledoux’s Architectural Revolution

As dissatisfaction with the old regime fermented into revolutionary upheaval in late-eighteenth century France, two architects cast off the decorative excesses of the Baroque and Rococo styles and sought out bold, new geometries. Hugh Aldersey-Williams tours the sublime and mostly unrealized...
publicdomainreview.org publicdomainreview.org
 
In the spectrum of 'unbuilt,' 'not started' is a lot less embarrassing or downright dangerous than 'unfinished.' Also, google 'tulipmania' and 'South Seas Bubble.' I can't help but think of all the fanciful illustrations of planetary cities and O'Neill colonies that look like they belong in Jehovah's Witnesses' pamphlets.

Cute quotes:

'A megaproject isn't a megaproject without a monorail.'

'Generally, a plague of anything is not considered good.'

'To a pessimist, there are weeds in your gutters, while to an optimist they're hanging gardens.'

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-65bHmC9HY4&ab_channel=PatrickBoyle
 
Last edited:
Interesting, but this video should be taken with a grain of salt, I think. "99% of all Berliners love it !" probably should be given more exactly as, " ... of all former West-Berliners..." (I'm one of them), and even that figure would be grossly exagerated, to my opinion. And many of the former East-Berliners would have rather kept their beloved "Palast der Republik" (mentioned, too, in the video), and understandably not give a damn about it. Yes, it's big, it's futuristic, but to my experience, not "loved". Concerts there were avoided by many, because of the less, than ideal acoustics, and especially because of its lack of, or at least "cold and impersonal" atmosphere. Most of the big fairs and exhibitions were still held in the neighbouring fair halls, and only the "aftershow" meetings of the businessmen there actually were held in the ICC. And to most of them, the locations doesn't matter that much anyway ....
 
I second that. That is one ugly building.
And if I have to chose between "Berlin Palace" and "Palast der Republik", it will always be the "Palast der Republik" even as a Westerner. (Edit: without the parking space)
 
Asbestos, how we hate you... and the miserable SOB related industrial lobbies that lasted way too long. We had one in France, which lasted well into the 1990's.
 
Jemiba said:
Interesting, but this video should be taken with a grain of salt, I think. "99% of all Berliners love it !" probably should be given more exactly as, " ... of all former West-Berliners..." (I'm one of them)
Click to expand...
I remember as little child as that Internationale Congress Centrum Berlin was build (i'm from Berlin (west))
the locals laconically called it: "Die Verpackung für den Langen Lulatsch" in eng "the wrapping for the lanky lad"
how the Berlin Radio Tower is nicknamed, who stand next to ICC
 
Michel Van said:
I remember as little child as that Internationale Congress Centrum Berlin was build (i'm from Berlin (west))
the locals laconically called it: "Die Verpackung für den Langen Lulatsch" in eng "the wrapping for the lanky lad"
how the Berlin Radio Tower is nicknamed, who stand next to ICC
Click to expand...
Rache des Papstes, or the 'Pope's Revenge' I discovered. :D

en.wikipedia.org

Fernsehturm Berlin - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org

Berliner_Fernsehturm_Kugel_cropped.jpg
 
Michel Van said:
I remember as little child as that Internationale Congress Centrum Berlin was build (i'm from Berlin (west))
the locals laconically called it: "Die Verpackung für den Langen Lulatsch" in eng "the wrapping for the lanky lad"
how the Berlin Radio Tower is nicknamed, who stand next to ICC
Click to expand...

Indeed ! And for those, who knew about it, the undeground carpark, with direct access from the (often jammed) city highway, was a good way to circumvent those traffic jams ….

Rhinocrates said:
Rache des Papstes, or the 'Pope's Revenge' I discovered.
Click to expand...

Yes, that really was a laughter back then ! But in an interview after the reunification, one of the architects/engineers, who had participated in designing the cuppola , said, that nobody was punished for that small mishap … maybe.
 
martinbayer said:
Is this about the silly plus sign reflection of the sun on the spherical part of the tower?
Click to expand...
yes it was consider a religious sign in a godless communist State !
i would not be surprised if the STASI made Dossier on this for German Politburo...
 
I get that, but the alternative was to build a fake Baroque Pallace (with awful additions)? That is truly the way to save money and promote democratic values.
It's possible to keep historic buildings, repurpose and therefore cleanse them from their intended purposes.
 
Siberia said:
…Spending money renovating a building built to glorify a highly repressive dictatorship was always going to raise debate.
Click to expand...

Definitely, but with hindsight, this problem could and should have been solved with a bit more delicacy, as the „Palast der Republik“ ( often called „Ballast der Republik“) wasn‘t just the conferrence site for the government of the GDR , but also a public event location, and many people from the former GDR had good memories of it, no matter of their attitude to the regime.
And as had wrote, replacing it with the imitated symbol of another regime, that perhaps not always was really humanitarian (at least not to our nowadays understanding), may not have been the brightest idea ….
 
Speaking of Symbol of another regime
There were proposal to change political enter of Berlin in 1920s
like Hans Poelzig Erweiterung des Reichstag und Neugestaltung des Platzes der Republik Berlin-Tiergarten
Sadly the political chaos of Weimar and rise of little would-be Painter prevented this

hans-poelzig-erweiterung-des-reichstags-und-neugestaltung-des-platzes-der-republik-berlin-tier-jpg.760564
 

Attachments

  • hans-poelzig-erweiterung-des-reichstags-und-neugestaltung-des-platzes-der-republik-berlin-tier...jpg
    hans-poelzig-erweiterung-des-reichstags-und-neugestaltung-des-platzes-der-republik-berlin-tier...jpg
    431.8 KB · Views: 114
Very interesting and good, to be back to the original title of this thread, the unbuild architecture !
… and to follow this line, and perhaps to remember, that though we had the „Palast der Republik“, as well, as its follow-on building, the re-erected „Stadtschloß“, it could have been worse :
The „Volkshalle“ (peoples hall), as the biggest building of the planned „worldcapital Germania“. With a base area of 310 x 310 m, and a height of 290 m, it would have dwarfed all of its surroundings.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/516577019741465541/
View: https://de.pinterest.com/pin/516577019741465541/


Not even started, nor the other planned buildings of the whole ensemble, but you can still find a concrete cylinder with a diameter of 21 m and a height of 14 m, that was built to test the ability of the ground to stand the pressure of such monumental buildings (Schwerbelastungskörper, nickname „Nazizylinder“)
 
it was not only megalomaniacal idea that annoying little Would Painter had !

For Munich he wanted train main Station in similar size as „Volkshalle“...
Yes, he was overcompensated for something...
 
It is beneficial to read the Germania planning in the German zeitgeist of the early 20th century. Buildings like the Tempelhof airport were new and modern approaches and fictional ideas like in the movie Metropolis tried new things as well.

5-Luftaufnahme-Flughafen-Berlin-Tempelhof-Berlin-Tempelhof-Airport-Aerial-Ph.jpg

Obviously had the „Volkshalle“ an idiotic scale, but personally I like the Tempelhof airport very much and am grateful the US/Britain choose not to bomb it to the ground.
 
In 1933, the artist-architect William Walcot drew up a highly ambitious project for the urban development of London, in which he imagined an airport on the roof of a gigantic railway terminus. Unfortunately, this idea was conceived at a time when aircraft were small, which makes this futuristic projection an erroneous vision in relation to the evolution of aircraft. William-Walcot- railway terminus-London.jpg
 

Similar threads

Please donate to support the forum.

Back
Top Bottom