Amsterdam, International
There are maps, plans, diagrams, lists of articles and books, buildings to photograph, streets to explore, biographies to read and historical timelines. And yet sometimes the occasion is just to drift, pulled by the hidden psychic energy of what lies beneath the city streets. And unplanned, into Amsterdam East. It feels more anarchic than the…
In Amsterdam
In a bookshop is discovered ‘Brandscape’ by Anna Klingmann, published by MIT Press. It is an American book, published in the United States, and has the paper quality and object-weight that suggests something worth reading. Brandscape will be added to the catalogue of keywords that are being put together as a guide to the city…
To Europe
Billions of pounds have been spent on networks, servers, databases, computer equipment, satellites, cloud storage, web services and labour power. And yet due to a fire at Rotterdam station, no-one at the Eurostar check-in can tell me if there are any trains going to Amsterdam. I am presented with a vague, semi-apocalyptic vision which suggests…
Goodge Street
A politics of formulas, reading from the same script, here and there a word has faded, or been erased and a new one fitted in; but it’s a schema. Faces are airbrushed from the record. There is a sub-text of the embrace of loneliness, the strange day dreams that so many conjure up but express…
Take to the Streets
There are three themes to this walk, housing, labour and capital. They will be interwoven into the fabric of the streets. We will visit four housing estates built by the London County Council and so we will start with a little history. 1 The London County Council A number of key determinants combined to facilitate…
London Belongs to Me – or does it?
London Belongs to Me is the name of a rather good book by Norman Collins. It’s a rambling novel about London life before, during and after the Blitz with a cast of strong and intriguing characters. Who could write a book today with such a name? The film of the book is much chopped and…
Notes on Hamburg and its Housing
One of the pleasures of arriving at a port-city is the first impression, the immediate surfaces, the familiar-strangeness. The roll of the train into the station; cinematic movement, office blocks, bridges, viaducts the electrical infrastructure of the inter-city and suburban railways, glimpses of an earlier time, when capital took different forms, red brick buildings with…
Hufeisensiedlung, Berlin
Berlin is waking up. In every house and apartment bells are ringing, chiming, clanging. The sleepy population rises from their beds; big comfy doubles with another human close beside (some loved, others not so much, if at all), single beds, bunk beds, sofa beds, mattresses on the floor, piles of rags in unusual corners. The…
A Walk Through Berlin
To arrive at Berlin Hauptbanhof on a train that started in London is to enter the epicentre of the 20th century. In the imagination can be conjured up the Kaiser and his entourage on horseback, decorated like Christmas trees, intrigue noted in scraps of paper that the courtiers hold. Cheering crowds wave fragments of silk…
Wohnstadt Carl Legien, Berlin
The Carl Legien estate was built between 1928 to 1930 with originally 1149 flats. The two architects were Bruno Taut and Franz Hillinger and the project manager was Martin Wagner. Some brief biographical details: Bruno Taut (* 4 May 1880 Königsberg – † 24 December 1938 Istanbul) Taut was an artist and architect and influenced…
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