Counterpreservation : architectural decay in Berlin since 1989 /

A scholar of architectural and urban history, Sandler (School of Architecture, Univ. of Minnesota) defines "counterpreservation" as "the intentional use of architectural decay" in "response to three issues that have defined [Berlin] since 1989: gentrification, historical memory, and unification." In chapter 1 she explores the concept of counterpreservation at length and in depth, and she devotes the remaining chapters to case studies of five sites (representing ten years of field research). Examined are a group of "living projects," i.e., alternative societies such as collective housing; "cultural centers," arts and culture, gentrified away; the Sachsenhausen Memorial, developed around an abandoned concentration camp; the Topography of Terror museum (the Nazi documentation center and gestapo headquarters in the heart of Berlin), a site where the idea of counterpreservation is reversed in favor of evocative modernist voids; and the Palace of the Republic, the site of the East German parliament, and its temporary uses. Sandler concludes with a brilliantly argued case for the worldwide significance of counterpreservation as a conceptual force that challenges the fundamental tenets of historic preservation as it is practiced in the West today. Unfortunately the quality of the images does not measure up to that of the text. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty, and professionals; general readers. --Jack Quinan, independent scholar