Spaces of Uncertainty Berlin Revisited

Book published by Birkhäuser (2018)

How has Berlin's urban landscape changed in its remarkable transformation from divided city to creative capital? Despite the monumental heritage and grand development projects, Berlin still conjures up ... [more ▼]

How has Berlin's urban landscape changed in its remarkable transformation from divided city to creative capital? Despite the monumental heritage and grand development projects, Berlin still conjures up images of urban fragmentation and vacant inner-city land. The book reveals the changing nature and complex politics of this open space. A rephotographing of sites between 2001 and 2016 shows how no man's land has made way for new apartments and underground hangouts have changed into commercial hubs, but it also transports us to remaining pockets of urban wilderness and unexpected freedom right next to the city's most iconic squares. The accompanying essays by noted urban thinkers explore this little-known but vital reserve--forcing us to reflect on our unrelenting efforts to chart the future of the city at large. [less ▲]

Spaces of Uncertainty

Book published by Müller und Busmann (2002)

Spaces of Uncertainty is a collaborative of two architects, Kenny Cupers and Markus Miessen, working at different institutions and locations. They do not form an office, but present a collection of ideas ... [more ▼]

Spaces of Uncertainty is a collaborative of two architects, Kenny Cupers and Markus Miessen, working at different institutions and locations. They do not form an office, but present a collection of ideas about architecture and spatial practice. Their collaborative work started off in Berlin in 2002, where they worked on a publication, Spaces of Uncertainty. Moving between urbanism, sociology and the visual arts, this project presented urban research and a photographic essay on the life of leftover spaces in Berlin. By documenting activities such as leisure, temporary living, urban agriculture, informal trade, and social encounters, the research addressed the micro-politics of public space, thereby adding energetic realism to the overwhelming rhetoric of loss that dominates the current discourse. An international exhibition continued this investigation with three case studies in Berlin, Brussels and London. Their recent ongoing work attempts to rethink the position from which to intervene in the spatial practices that make up urban societies today. Leaving the vertical position of the architect to roam the network of urban situations, it aims to develop research strategies geared towards spatial practice. The exploration of urban culture as a process unfolding in a multiplicity of spaces, allows the terrain of action to shift towards the multifaceted dynamics of the contemporary city. With contributions by Margaret Crawford, Hilde Heynen, Paul Davies, Paul Halliday et al. [less ▲]