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Eines der wichtigsten Projekte zum Thema "offene Architektur" fand in den 1980er Jahren in Berlin-Kreuzberg statt: In den etwa zur Hälfte von Einwanderern bewohnten Stadtvierteln nahe der Berliner Mauer wurden rund 10.000 Wohnungen neu gebaut oder mieterfreundlich saniert. Die renommierte Autorin Esra Akcan, der Türkei, Berlin und den USA vielfältig verbunden, rekonstruiert die Geschichte und Wirkung dieses architektur-politischen Experiments.

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The International Building Exhibition 1984/87 in Berlin constitutes one of the most remarkable examples to discuss "open architecture". Almost 10,000 dwellings were constructed or restored in the Kreuzberg districts adjacent to the Berlin Wall, inhabited about halfway by immigrants. The renowned author Esra Akcan, related in many ways to Turkey, Berlin and the USA, narrates the history and reverberations of this architectural-political event.

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"Open Architecture is a tremendous accomplishment that invites the reader to act as a kind of postcolonial fläneur, a non-gendered figure who strolls Kreuzberg´s streets, peering- at times voyeuristically-into the open doors, hallways, courtyards, and stairwells of its trademark buildings and the intimate places that inhabitants call home. [...] Open Architecture is much more than a city tour or a history of buildings and their visionaries. It is a somber reminder of the human stakes involved in a participatory urbanism that privileges rights-bearing citzens. Akcan´s call for an attention in urban planning to migrants, exiles, refugees, and other stateless persons who lack the legal and social protections of citizenship could not be more prescient at this moment."Christina Schenkel in: The Berlin Journal 32 (2018), 102-103

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Esra Akcan, Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Cornell University, USA

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