Double Fake - Imitations at Berlin Potsdamer Platz

At times of the Berlinale film festival, one heads out to Berlin Potsdamer Platz quite frequently. I recently took a couple of pictures of the remains of the potemkin village in the heart of Berlin's inner city. 

The building and its fake twin. 2012. (Image by SYNCHRONICITY)

The Detroit-Berlin Connection

Numerous comparisons have been made between Detroit and Berlin. Especially within the fields of electronic music or the thriving art scene. The Detroit-Berlin Connection is a radio series produced by WDET public radio in cooperation with Berlin Stories,  that looks at the futures of these two cities and speculates on the measures being used to reinvent industrial cities for the 21st century. The series goes beyond the common comparisons in the fields of art and music and outlines other connections by covering also comparisons in Land Use, on Mies van der Rohe, or on The Creative Class. A more general overview gives the radio discussion on What can the Detroit Berlin connection teach us?
Also the other media is worth checking out, to give you a summary on the similarities but also discrepancies between these two distinct cities.
For those with a deeper interest in the topic and living in Berlin, there is a disscussion at the US embassy in Berlin tomorrow 4pm (map). 

Ruins of East Berlin 2008 (source)

Ruins of Detroit 2011 (source)

URBAN DEMOLITION

please click the image to activate

Even though we all know it already: Berlin is one of the most interesting and unique sites in terms of history and city development. But still - this animation makes even the most hard-boiled berlin expert realize the bandwidth of berlins urban tragedy (and great opportunity!).

check this out!