Make way! How do you create beautiful, lively places?

About the architectural tour

The city is a stage on which we play theatre every day, gladly on the street, preferably “auf’m Platz”. Anyone who thought that the significance of public urban space would dwindle with the triumph of virtual data spaces is thoroughly mistaken: even people who are at home in the digital media want to experience something “outside”, seek the hustle and bustle, the face-to-face encounter on the spot, the get-together in the square. But why do architects and urban planners so rarely succeed in creating suitable spaces for this?

Why, for example, does Luisenplatz not work so well? Certainly, it is beautiful, moderate, of classical design; moreover, it is centrally located, easily accessible and spatially cohesive. But it lacks the “strong edges”: the shops and restaurants that bring a square to life. Like Mauritiusplatz, which gives the walker the feeling of being in the middle of the city. Or like the Schlossplatz: the town hall, state parliament and market church demonstrate that a square does not have to be stylistically uniform to function. Despite their differences, the buildings form a vital urban ensemble.

The same cannot be said of the neighbours: Dern’sche Gelände is a bare area that has lost its clear square edges, and Kaiser-Friedrich-Platz (the former theatre square, see cover photo) is a victim of post-war development: on the south side, the “Vier Jahreszeiten” apartment building gives it the cold shoulder, and to the west it lacks the enclosure of façades. But you only have to look at the Bowling Green opposite to know how it works: the Kurhaus and the colonnades surround the square like a forum and give it its unmistakable face.

With Christopher Schwarz, jury member of the German Architecture Prize.

Or come along to our other architecture tour instead: about the architecture of arriving and entering?