Theming Berlin
A planning model used by the city government in Berlin
Old and new on a Berlin street
"Critical reconstruction" [seeks to] recapture the "mythos" of the city at an earlier time. These planners discourage the aggregation of multiple lots into extended developments and require architects to follow strict rules governing the height and shape of the buildings, favoring stone and ceramic exteriors over steel and glass. Where possible, they want to restore prewar street patterns and building lines. Wolf 1998, 150
Fortunately, it has turned out that "Critical reconstruction, with its restrictive regulations and its ideology of building in stone, has never become as Procrustean an architectural bed for the new Berlin as some had feared." (Huyssen 2000, 74)
Still, what should interest us in this is the attempt to make Berlin a themed place.