Niloufar Tajeri

Speculative architecture at Hermannplatz: The reproduction of intersectional inequality and its resistances

The dissertation project examines the urban political conflict surrounding the demolition of a department store building on Hermannplatz in Berlin-Neukölln and the construction of a new complex by a private real estate corporation. Despite opposition, the project, whose façade replicates a historical architectural reference, was incorporated into a development plan and continued to be pursued even after the company went bankrupt. The analysis focuses on the political and planning processes in the context of neoliberal urban development and on the role of architecture in public discourse. In particular, structural racism in architectural practice is examined in order to explore the nexus between capitalism, architecture and intersectionality.

Examining the discursive and visual dimensions in which the project was publicly debated, as well as the architectural designs within the speculative spatial practices of the real estate corporation and in the framework of architectural history, sheds light on the project’s theses and questions. The dissertation project posits that the replica of the historical building culturalizes the speculative logic of the real estate corporation and urban development policies and obscures the intersecting classist, racist and sexist underpinnings of the project. Against the backdrop of the existing racial and territorial stigmatization of Neukölln and the massive dynamics of displacement, an architectural representation emerges along intersecting axes of inequality, which is referred to in this work as “speculative architecture”.

Building on studies of the relationship between gentrification, race and ethnicity in Neukölln, as well as research on gentrification, territorial stigmatization and moral panic in migrant neighborhoods in German cities, the thesis focuses on the spatial-discursive and narrative influence of architectural styles and renderings in urban transformation processes. It examines the role these narratives played in the case study and how they influenced not only the aesthetic, visual and discursive interpretation, but also the implementation of the project, which evolved over time.

Architecture as a cultural medium is at the center of the investigation, not only because it has a narrative and symbolic impact, but also because this impact is racially structured. The structural racism in 19th century European architectural theory, in which styles and typologies were hierarchically linked to constructed races, is discussed in contemporary architectural theory. The dissertation problematizes the planned facade replica and asks whether an idea of race and/or “Volk” can be found in the replication of the style and in the specific historical framing and argumentative legitimation of the project, and if so, how it can be classified theoretically and how it is interwoven with other forms of inequality. It is primarily concerned with how structural racism manifests itself in contemporary architectural practice and how it produces and reproduces intersectional inequality in speculative urban development.

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Edited Volumes

Nights of the Dispossessed. Riots Unbound Co-edited with Natasha Ginwala und Gal Kirn, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, New York, 2021.

Gemeinwohl entwickeln: Kooperativ und Langfristig! Co-authored with coop.disco, Stadtentwicklungsamt Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg (ed.), Berlin, 2018.

Small Interventions. New Ways of Living in Post-War Modernis Co-edited with Walter Nägeli, Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2016.

Kabul – Secure City, Public City  Co-edited with Archis Foundation, Volume Magazine, Amsterdam, 2008.

Articles

“And We Do Not Inhabit Single-Issue Spaces. Why we need intersectional knowledge production and a culture of memory in architecture“. In: Melissa Makele et al (ed.): Contemporary Feminist Spatial Practices, Berlin, 2023.

„Wir brauchen das Andershaus“, in: BauNetz Campus: Transformation (Kauf)haus. Umnutzung monofunktionaler, konsumorientierter Strukturen, 26. Mai 2023, online: https://www.baunetz-campus.de/focus/transformation-kauf-haus-8247092#artikel-3

„Die räumliche Konstruktion eines rassifizierten Feindbildes: Wie mit der Debatte um die «Clankriminalität» (Verdrängungs)-Politik gemacht wird“. With Jorinde Schulz. In: Mohammed Ali Chahrour, Levi Sauer, Lina Schmid, Jorinde Schulz, Michèle Winker (Hg): Generalverdacht. Wie mit dem Mythos Clankriminalität Politik gemacht wird, Hamburg, 2023.

“And We Do Not Inhabit Single-Issue Spaces. Warum wir eine intersektionale Wissensproduktion und Erinnerungskultur in der Architektur brauchen“. In: ARCH+, Zeitgenössische feministische Raumpraxis, 246, Berlin, 2023.

„Brutality of Poetry. A Reconsideration of the Critical Discourse about the Succes and Failure of Werner Düttmann’s Social Housing” und Misserfolg des sozialen Wohnungsbaus Düttmanns“. In: Werner Düttmann. Berlin.Bau.Werk. Lisa Marei Schmidt und Kerstin Wittmann-Englert (ed.). Wasmuth &Zohlen Verlag, Berlin, 2021. 

“Built to Be Torn Down, Fed to Be Starved, Resurrected to Be Disposed Of: Capitalism Is a Riot, a Riot from Above“. Co-authored with Gal Kirn. In: Nights of the Dispossessed. Riots Unbound. Natasha Ginwala, Gal Kirn, Niloufar Tajeri (ed.). Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, New York, 2021.

„Architektur als ideologische Dienstleistung. Eine Projektentwicklung der besonderen Art am Hermannplatz“. In: ARCH+, Berlin Theorie, 241, Berlin, 2020.

“(K)ein Platz für alle? Wie in Berlin-Neukölln nicht-erwünschte Bewohner*innen durch politische Bevormundung und machtvolle Interessen systematisch verdrängt werden”. In: Commún, 4, Bochum, 2020. 

„Eine Projektentwicklung der besonderen Art“. In: Marlowes, online: https://www.marlowes.de/eine-projektentwicklung-der-besonderen-art/

“The Gecekodu Protest Hut of Kotti&Co. A Space for Housing Rights in Berlin”. In: The Funambulist, 22, Paris, 2019. Online: https://kottiundco.net/2019/06/02/english-the-gecekondu-protest-hut-of-kotti-co-a-space-for-housing-rights-in-berlin/

„Almost invisible. How Post-War Residential Buildings are Renovated is Decisive“. In: Living the Region. Christian Holl, Felix Nowak, Peter Cachola Schmal, Kai Vöckler (ed.). Wasmuth Verlag, Tübingen/Berlin, 2018.

„Subtraction. Instances of Commoning in Housing Estates“. In: ARCH+, An Atlas of Commoning. Places of Collective Production, 232, Berlin, 2018.

„Small Interventions and the Housing Question“. In: Small Interventions. New Ways of Living in Post-War Modernism. Walter Nägeli, Niloufar Tajeri (ed.). Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2016.

„Transformed Modernism, collective Modernism. The Shift from Space-OrientedDesign to Political Design Methods in Dealing with Existing Housing Stock“. In: Small Interventions. New Ways of Living in Post-War Modernism. Walter Nägeli, Niloufar Tajeri (ed.). Birkhäuser Verlag, Basel, 2016.

Lectures

“Architectural knowledge and the avoidance of the racial: A case in Berlin-Neukölln”. Lecture on the annual conference “All stories at least are not the same: dis:connectivities in global knowledge production”, Käte Hamburger Research Center global dis:connect, Munich, 2023.

“Identität und Erbe am Hermannplatz. Architektur zwischen Essentialisierung und Widerstand”, Presentation on the conference “Relikte und Resonanzen. Konferenz gegen identitäre Erinnerungsarchitektur”, Klosterruine Berlin und “Rechte Räume”, Berlin, 2023.

“Surplus heritage in crisis? The continuity of crisis and its aesthetic regimes in Berlin”. Presentation on the panel “Heritage in times of multiple crises”, Austrian Sociological Association, congress, Vienna, 2023.

“Fassadenkopie Kiezutopie. Verteidigung und Aneignung am Hermannplatz”. Lecture in the framework of the series “Protest und Stadt: Ästhetisch-politische Interventionen im öffentlichen Raum”, Universität der Künste Berlin, 2023.

“And we do not inhabit single-issue spaces. On intersectionality and spatial practice”. Presentation in the series “Equity at Bauhaus”, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, 2023.

„The Gradual Production of Nonexistence: A Case Study of Karstadt, Hermannplatz in Berlin“ With Defne Kadioğlu. V Midterm Conference of the European Sociological Association Research Network 37: Urban Sociology, “Seeing Like a City/Seeing the City Through”, Session 16.1: „Margins, Displacement, and struggles in the Urban Arena“. Georg Simmel Center for Metropolitan Research, Humboldt University Berlin, 2022. 

„Wessen Erbe, wessen Identität, wessen Architektur? Oder die notwendige Verkomplizierung von Geschichte, Kultur und Form“ Ringvorlesung DFG-Graduiertenkolleg 2227 “Identität und Erbe”, FH Erfurt, 2022.

„Kleine Eingriffe für ein Wohnen in der Postwachstumsstadt“ Im Rahmen des Veranstaltungsprogramms der Ausstellung “wohnen³ – bezahlbar, besser, bauen”, b.zb Bremer Zentrum für Baukultur, 2021.

„(K)Ein Platz für alle. Der stadtpolitische Konflikt am Hermannplatz“ Input im Rahmen der Konferenz „Place International – 73 Tage der Commune oder der lange Wellenschlag der Revolution“, Forum Freies Theater Düsseldorf, 2021.

„Das Benko Prinzip“ Mit Diana Lucas-DroganGeomedia 2021, Konferenz „Off the Grid“, Session T3S2: „The City is not a Grid?!“ Universität Siegen, 2021.

“Please Update ‘Gestaltung’ to the Latest Version. Zu Transformationskompetenzen und Resilienzen in Architektur und Stadt“ Berufungsvortrag mit Tobias Hoenig (co/now), TU Wien, 2020.

„Koproduktion. (Ver)Lernen von (etablierten) Prozessen und Arbeitsmethoden“ Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Entwerfen und Wohnungsbau, 2018.

„Remembering Riots. Monuments and Archives of Dissent“ Mit Gal Kirn. WWU Münster, Institut für Kunstgeschichte, 2018.

“A renewed Attitude towards Restructuring Post-War Modernist Housing Estates” KTH School of Architecture, Stockholm, 2017.

Exhibitions

All that is Solid Installation and exhibition as part of the seminar “1972 (or thereabouts)” at TU Braunschweig, 2018. The seminar focused on Pruitt-Igoe public housing development in St. Louis, Illinois, and critically dissected public housing myths. In collaboration with Folke Köbberling (Institut für architekturbezogene Kunst, TU Braunschweig).

Thinking a Monument to the Sub/Urban Riot Travelling exhibition, Academy Schloss Solitude Stuttgart, Museum of Contemporary Art Ljubljana, Pixxelpoint Festival, 2016. With Gal Kirn.