A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
A platform for research: civil engineering, architecture and urbanism
The division of Berlin’s infrastructure systems following the blockade of 1948/49 posed an enormous challenge to the city’s infrastructure planners on both sides of the political divide. This paper is a study of the destabilisation of apparently highly durable technical systems precipitated by the Berlin blockade and the subsequent efforts of those responsible to re-stabilise the systems. It investigates the different experiences of division in the electricity, gas, water and wastewater sectors with a view to raising our understanding of the durability and adaptability of urban technical networks in the face of major upheaval. In the immediate aftermath of the blockade, the paper argues, the prime concern of network managers in both West and East Berlin was to maintain essential services in the face of interventions and reprisals from the other side. As prospects for re-unification diminished, the strategy shifted towards reducing the vulnerability and advancing the territorial cohesion of each side by re-ordering their technical networks physically, spatially and organisationally. ; Peer Reviewed
The division of Berlin’s infrastructure systems following the blockade of 1948/49 posed an enormous challenge to the city’s infrastructure planners on both sides of the political divide. This paper is a study of the destabilisation of apparently highly durable technical systems precipitated by the Berlin blockade and the subsequent efforts of those responsible to re-stabilise the systems. It investigates the different experiences of division in the electricity, gas, water and wastewater sectors with a view to raising our understanding of the durability and adaptability of urban technical networks in the face of major upheaval. In the immediate aftermath of the blockade, the paper argues, the prime concern of network managers in both West and East Berlin was to maintain essential services in the face of interventions and reprisals from the other side. As prospects for re-unification diminished, the strategy shifted towards reducing the vulnerability and advancing the territorial cohesion of each side by re-ordering their technical networks physically, spatially and organisationally. ; Peer Reviewed
Divided City, Divided Infrastructures
Moss, Timothy (author)
2009-11-01
1552-6771
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
Divided City, Divided Infrastructures: Securing Energy and Water Services in Postwar Berlin
| Online Contents | 2009
| Wiley | 2011
| British Library Online Contents | 2013