Building the urban physiognomy of Berlin through the “well-ordered facade” of the Stadtbahn

Filipe Temtem

doi:10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.201782149

Abstract

This article unfolds the analysis of the railway viaduct that crosses the German capital in an eastern-western direction. The aim is to decipher the urban design strategies used in the highly planned Stadtbahn, focusing on the configuration of Berlin’s urban physiognomy through a “well-ordered facade.” Thus exposing the morphologically linear construction associated with transport infrastructure, making clear the railway project design as a building-viaduct, imposing its architectural facade’s scenic effects on the surrounding public space. Through an in situ survey it is left clear that this building-viaduct, has the ability to break the “curse of border vacuums “, counteracting the destruction of neighboring areas that typically converts the segregated path into a physical and social border route. The intention is to clarify the value that architecture adds to these infrastructures originated as an accurate response to specific problems of time and distance, enlightening a multidisciplinary field, which becomes increasingly unavoidable, where the contribution of architects is still very much diffused. KEYWORDS: Transport infrastructure, Railway, Well-ordered facade, Building-viaduct, Urban physiognomy, Berlin.

Highlights

This article unfolds the analysis of the railway viaduct that crosses the German capital in an eastern-western direction
The Berlin Stadtbahn is a railway line that passes through the center of the German capital from East to West, connecting with the Ringbahn1 at the intersecting stations of Ostkreuz and Westkreuz
Designated as “Ost-Westbahn” (East-West Railway), its design was influenced by various authors, such as Otto Busse and Emil Hartwich, even though the implementation of the final project was completed under the ideology of the architect August Orth and the direction of the civil engineer Ernst Dirksen, oberbbaurat 2 of the “Metropolitan Railway Company of Berlin”

Summary

Introduction

This article unfolds the analysis of the railway viaduct that crosses the German capital in an eastern-western direction. That the NeoClassical facade of the Crescents of Bath [fig.4], like the Neo-Romanesque9 arcade of the Stadtbahn [fig.4] structures the urban composition of the center of Berlin, acting as a vertebral axis that joins transportation infrastructure and architecture in a single constructive element.

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Conclusion