Archilectures | Annegret Burg. Berlin. The ever changing city

Berlin is “damned to become everlasting and never to be”. This much-cited sentence from the begin of the 20th century stems from an astute and critical observer of modern urban development. It was the art critic Karl Scheffler who concluded his book “Berlin. A city fate ” (1910) with this fundamental statement regarding the “unique individual” Berlin and the “tragedy of its existence”.
For the future, this estimation became prophecy. The lecture deals with the change of urban structure and cityscape across different periods of the 20th century. It raises questions about the loss and recovery of urban identity. But also questions about the paradigm shift in urban planning.

Annegret Burg is Professor of Architecture and Urban History at the FHP University of Applied Science in Potsdam and there, 2011-17, dean of the faculty STADT BAU KULTUR. In 2010/11 she was Visiting Professor in Architectural Composition at the Faculty of Architecture of Cesena “Aldo Rossi” (University of Bologna), and currently in Politecnico di Milano. She studied architecture and urban planning at TU Dortmund (she graduated with Josef Paul Kleihues in 1983) and at Politecnico di Milano, with Giorgio Grassi (1983–84). She also graduated from the ETH Zurich with a doctoral research about Novecento Milanese. She collaborated in the Berlin International Building Exhibition and in the editorial staff of the architecture review ZODIAC at Milan. She also worked with James Stirling and Josef Paul Kleihues,. She lives and works since 1991 (year of German reunification) in Berlin.