With: Poligonal – Agentur für Stadtvermittlung

1968: the year of social upheaval in the midst of productive unrest, with constant tension between reform and revolt. The protests of that time have permanently influenced urban development in Berlin over the following decades. The starting point is the exhibition Diagnose zum Baugeschehen in Westberlin (Diagnosis of construction in West Berlin, 1968), whose legacy we can trace in the International Building Exhibition 84/87 (IBA-Neubau), and the critically-mindful reconstruction in Friedrichstadt South. The critique of the Diagnose exhibition upon modernist urban planning and deterministic master planning resonates in the IBA, where democratisation processes such as participation and self-help appear in planning. This paradigm shift in urban planning still finds its echo today, also affecting the current development area around the wholesale flower market. In this tour through Friedrichstadt South, we trace the influence of ‘1968’ over time, explore the legacy for IBA-Neubau, and discover what these processes have left behind in the contemporary urban development.