International Bauausstellung Berlin 1987: Spatial and Temporal Context

Abstract

Berlin plans an International Architecture Exhibition about the topic: “The urban centre as a place to live”. The centre of the city was going to be preserved as a suitable place to live, renovated and revived. This was the fourth architecture exhibition in Berlin focused on contemporary problems from the perspective of architecture and urbanism. This research analyses and describes the spatial and temporal context of the International Bauausstellung Berlin. It presents the geographical, political and social background that made this exhibition possible and fundamental in West Berlin. It involves the understanding of the urban scope in which IBA´s activity develops: devoted to contemporary architectural and urban problems defined by History. Berlin has always been and still is an exceptional scene of the international architecture, a modern version of locus amoenus. But today it is necessary to discover this beauty among the traces of its destruction and the interventions carried out by an almost complete generation of architects to create the image of a city that was frantically seeking a promising reconstruction. Berlin offers itself to be the spatial framework for IBA. It is a place with a great number of pragmatic variations for the architectural study and the urban development. It is part of Berlin´s tradition to have considerably influenced the changes of urban planning through International Architecture Exhibitions. The idea behind IBA, its program and the results achieved must be seen as a cultural manifestation incorporated in a city that acted as the centre of theoretical controversy regarding the urban issues and the construction according to man and changes in society.