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Revisited.
Visiting Apartment Buildings
of the 1980s

Wohnhof LiMa

LiMa residential court, Guerilla Architects, Revisited. Visiting Apartment Buildings of the 1980s

© Phil Dera

As part of the exhibition "Anyting Goes? Berlin Architecture in the 1980s" Guerilla Architects invite you to rediscover Berlin architecture from the 1980s. This architects’ collective has visited the current residents and conducted interviews with them.

In West Berlin, the possibilities of environmentally friendly construction were to be explored with lowenergy houses on the Landwehr Canal. The finishing work for the LiMa residential court at the corner of Lindenstrasse and Markgrafenstrasse in Kreuzberg was done by the residents themselves as part of a build-it-yourself community, and for many years was self-managed by a cooperative. The state-subsidized apartments on Fraenkelufer were intended to offer a green city and high quality of life despite increased density. In the eastern part of the city, the Ernst-Thälmann-Park housing development in Prenzlauer Berg was conceived as a high-density, inner-city housing project in the park. The local commercial infrastructure was part of the planning. The striking new building of the Spitteleck in the Mitte district filled vacant lots in the center of the city and created new housing. Its ground floor offered plenty of room for community services such as a daycare center and common spaces.

Audio recordings, photography, and video of the visits by Guerilla Architects offer insights into personal living spaces and experiences. Reports on the changes, positive qualities, and weaknesses of the buildings form a dialogue with the original planning intentions. What is it like living in buildings conceived four decades ago?

An interactive program in the city will be offered as part of this project: Calendar

 

Concept and Execution: Guerilla Architects
Artistic Assistance: Dominik Berton
Photography and Video: Phil Dera
Sound Design: Gabor Csongradi
Video Editing: Mike Daly

Thanks to:
G. Lehr, A. Mbiya Katshunga and family, D. McMenamin and family, W. Neumann, M. Nixdorf, A. Pachego, R. Sappok, G. Sarges, J. Schulz, V. Schulz and family, A. Sturm, A. Szallies, A. Uhlig, M. Vogel, W. Walter, M. Weber, N. Wenzel and family