For years following reunification, Berlin was the largest construction
site in Europe, with striking new architecture proliferating throughout
the city in the 1990s and early 2000s. Among the most visible and the
most contested of the new projects were those designed for the national
government and its related functions.
Berlin Contemporary explores these buildings and plans, tracing their
antecedents while also situating their iconic forms and influential
designers within the spectacular world of global contemporary
architecture. Close studies of these sites, including the Reichstag, the
Chancellery, and the reconstruction of the Berlin Stadtschloss (now
known as the Humboldt Forum), demonstrate the complexity of Berlin's
political and architectural "rebuilding"-and reveal the intricate
historical negotiations that architecture was summoned to perform.