Papers by Daniela Sandler
1. Introduction: Architecture, Development, and Identity Part 1: The Will of the Age 2. The Other... more 1. Introduction: Architecture, Development, and Identity Part 1: The Will of the Age 2. The Other Way Around: The Modernist Movement in Brazil 3. Contesting Modernism in Morocco 4. Agrupacion Espacio and the CIAM Peru Group: Architecture and the City in the Peruvian Modern Project Part 2: Building the Nation 5. Campus Architecture as Nation Building: Israeli Architect Arieh Sharon's Obademi Awolowo University Campus, Ile-Ife, Nigeria 6. Modernity and Revolution: The Architecture of Ceylon's 20th Century Exhibitions 7. This Is Not an American House: Good Sense Modernism in 1950s Turkey Part 3: Entangled Modernities 8. Modernity Transfers: The MoMA and Postcolonial India 9. Building a (Post)Colonial Technoscientific Network: Tropical Architecture, Building Science and the Politics of Decolonization 10. Otto Koenigsberger and the Tropicalization of British Architectural Culture 11. Epilogue: Third World Modernism, or Just Modernism: Towards a Cosmopolitan Reading of Modernism
Routledge eBooks, Jul 7, 2023
Cornell University Press
In Berlin, decrepit structures do not always denote urban blight. Decayed buildings are incorpora... more In Berlin, decrepit structures do not always denote urban blight. Decayed buildings are incorporated into everyday life as residences, exhibition spaces, shops, offices, and as leisure space. As nodes of public dialogue, they serve as platforms for dissenting views about the future and past of Berlin. This book introduces the concept of counter-preservation as a way to understand this intentional appropriation of decrepitude. The embrace of decay is a sign of Berlin's iconoclastic rebelliousness, but it has also been incorporated into the mainstream economy of tourism and development as part of the city's countercultural cachet. It presents the possibilities and shortcomings of counter-preservation as a dynamic force in Berlin and as a potential concept for other cities. Counter-preservation is part of Berlin's fabric: in the city's famed Hausprojekte (living projects) such as the Køpi, Tuntenhaus, and KA 86; in cultural centers such as the Haus Schwarzenberg, the Sc...
Cornell University Press
This chapter is a conceptual discussion of counterpreservation. It defines the term in more detai... more This chapter is a conceptual discussion of counterpreservation. It defines the term in more detail and explores its connections with relevant theoretical and critical works. The word “counterpreservation” here serves to identify, analyze, and aggregate tendencies present in a range of examples, indicating coincident social processes and convergent cultural meanings. Thus, the chapter first focuses on Berlin and its particular attitudes toward the decay and repurposing of old buildings, examining how these architectural practices echo three issues that have defined the city since 1989: gentrification, historical memory, and unification. The chapter then moves beyond the city of Berlin to describe how counterpreservation functions in myriad forms through other urban settings and landscapes.
Cornell University Press
This chapter focuses on independent, nonprofit cultural and art centers. Cultural centers such as... more This chapter focuses on independent, nonprofit cultural and art centers. Cultural centers such as the Haus Schwarzenberg—the primary focus of this chapter—as well as Schokoladen and the defunct Tacheles may look similar to Hausprojekte at first glance, with a juxtaposition of graffiti and posters over eroded walls, odd sculptures, architectural fragments, grime, and overgrown ivy. However, these spaces are composed with more forethought and coordination, and undergo significant (but selective) repairs, refurbishment, and even preservation measures. These cultural centers also articulate the meaning of their dilapidation clearly and self-consciously in pamphlets, websites, and interviews. They demonstrate that counterpreservation can be premeditated and self-reflective, and not just an ad hoc, opportunistic tactic.
Cornell University Press
This chapter examines the Topography of Terror, an open-air exhibition and documentation center a... more This chapter examines the Topography of Terror, an open-air exhibition and documentation center at the heart of Berlin where archaeological excavations of Gestapo structures once mingled with postwar ruins and debris. The site began as a temporary, guerrilla exhibition, and its helter-skelter quality earned it the nickname “open wound.” It proved to be charismatic enough for the temporary, grassroots exhibition to be made permanent and official; and it also inspired a trove of academic publications. Initially an exemplary of counterpreservation, the Topography of Terror was eventually redesigned in 2005 according to a more definitive and all-encompassing plan. This chapter looks at the new configuration of the site, and probes whether it might be considered an example of counterpreservation—and conversely, whether counterpreservation is the most appropriate response for the site.
Cornell University Press
This chapter turns to Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt proposal for the site of former SS barracks ... more This chapter turns to Daniel Libeskind's unbuilt proposal for the site of former SS barracks next to the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp Memorial. This plan was commissioned by the local city government in the early 1990s. Unlike the piecemeal and localized character of the first two types of counterpreservation, the scale of this plan was very large both in size and in its potential socioeconomic impact. Moreover, the Oranienburg plan was designed by an architect who was, by then, already a rising star. On the one hand, this means that the open-ended and participatory nature of Hausprojekte and alternative cultural centers is missing. On the other hand, the poetics of counterpreservation was articulated more sharply through the architect's authorial presence. The political commitments so visible in the Hausprojekte and cultural centers were thus also present in Libeskind's socially minded program.
Cornell University Press
This chapter tests the concept of counterpreservation against two ruins of a more recent past: st... more This chapter tests the concept of counterpreservation against two ruins of a more recent past: structures built by the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and called into question after unification. One of them, the now-demolished Palace of the Republic, exemplifies counterpreservation in a different form—not as the display of picturesquely crumbling façades, but as new interventions and installations set into the gutted shell of a former Socialist civic center. The second structure is the Berlin Wall as it is preserved and memorialized in the Berlin Wall Memorial Grounds on Bernauer Straẞe, built between 2007 and 2014. The centerpiece of the memorial grounds (and the reason for their being there) is a long, decaying section of the Wall, complemented by a constellation of remains and archaeological findings related to the border fortifications.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2017
The Routledge Handbook on the Reception of Classical Architecture
This article develops the idea of a “territorial dimension of culture” (proposed by Raquel Rolnik... more This article develops the idea of a “territorial dimension of culture” (proposed by Raquel Rolnik) in the context of contemporary grassroots urbanism in Sao Paulo, in particular in the peripheries of the city. The central argument of the article is the value of culture as an integral element in urbanism, and not as a separate area that is occasionally brought to bear on it. The article examines the use of culture in the construction of public spaces in the periphery—spaces defined not by their formal aspects, but for sustaining a diverse and inclusive public sphere. Culture is understood as urbanism both because it helps in critically understanding urbanization processes, and also because it aids in intervening in these processes concretely. The article also suggests a broadening of the epistemological assumptions of urbanism, so as to include practices and bodies of knowledge by diverse communities and groups, which are not necessarily recognized by official educational and profess...
URBAN DESIGN International, 2020
This article was erroneously published in Volume 25, Issue 1 (2020) https://link.springer.com/art... more This article was erroneously published in Volume 25, Issue 1 (2020) https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41289-020-00108-8. The article will be included in the special issue “Guerrilla Urbanism” once the issue is published. In the last decade, manifestations of grassroots urbanism have transformed São Paulo into a playfield for creative interventions. Initiatives focus on art, culture, and education; greenery and open spaces; public equipment; water and environmental resources; and gender, race, and class justice. I argue that these initiatives are more than the sum of their parts; they influence social imaginaries, expectations, and urban policies beyond the scope of each case. My research tries to understand crucial differences among initiatives—while some open up spaces for the emancipation of disenfranchised groups, others inadvertently engage in processes of gentrification and exclusion despite claims to representing a diverse public. These differences in goals and outcom...
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Papers by Daniela Sandler