Plattenbau Berlin: A Photographic Survey of Postwar Residential Architecture

by Jesse Simon

This book takes a fresh look at Plattenbauten, the iconic residential buildings that Berliners love to hate; celebrating the beauty of their textural details and discovering a microcosm of twentieth-century urbanism in the story of their construction.

Made from prefabricated concrete panels, Plattenbauten rose from the ruins of Berlin, providing a quick and inexpensive solution to the severe housing shortage faced by the city after World War II. Although criticized in their day for their sterility and impersonal scale, they nonetheless became an integral part of the city. Drawn from his extensive investigations into Berlin’s urban landscape, Jesse Simon’s texts and photographs offer a convincing argument for the aesthetic and social value of buildings that were once described as “eyesores.” Focused on urban developments constructed between the 1950s and the early 1990s, the book is structured geographically, devoting equal attention to the former East and West. It includes more than 200 images filled with warm light and saturated hues, revealing a diversity of color and detail that may often be lost on the casual observer. It also illustrates how, despite vast differences in political ideologies, both East and West Berlin employed remarkably similar approaches to the creation of new urban spaces. For fans of Brutalism and Modernism, Plattenbau Berlin is both an engaging reconsideration of postwar urbanism, and a unique entry point for exploring Berlin’s history and architecture.

244 pages, Hardcover

Published April 5, 2022

Reviews

[Ilves · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyed this! The text is well-written and -researched, and the photos are spectacular. The author must be applauded for meticulous care taken to capture every building featured in excellent lighting. If I had to give one criticism, I would have loved to see pictures of the buildings as built, alongside the photos taken in the 2020s, to better illustrate how they have changed. However, that would be a very different book, and it is perhaps better that the author stayed true to their own vision.

This book should be mandatory reading to every city planner, property developer and the like who want to tear down modernist buildings – the example of Berlin, exceptionally well illustrated here, teaches us you can do miracles with even mass-produced plattenbau houses.

[Nathaniel Flakin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Berlin's pre-fab concrete housing or "Plattenbau" has a reputation for extreme ugliness. In this coffee table book, based on his Instagram account, Jesse Simon tries to show that the „Platte" is in fact lovely. He looks at post-war housing projects in both the West and the East, highlighting different architectural designs and urban concepts. I had never realized just how beautiful these hyper-efficient construction techniques could be. I am writing about "Plattenbau" for my history column in the next print issue of Exberliner Magazine.

[Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book about “the residential buildings Berliners love to hate” does a wonderful job of challenging the dreary connotations of pre-fabricated housing built before the wall came down. The photos, all with rare yet beautiful blue skies in the background, show these buildings in a rare positive light.

[Jan Schaller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ganz tolles Buch, fantastische Fotos und kurze, aber interessante Kontextualisierungen. Macht Lust, sich damit weitergehend zu beschäftigen.