Dieter Wieland: Grün kaputt. In the eighties there was an apocalyptic mood in Germany. Whether or not the environment was treated better of worse than today is hard to say, but certainly the take on the situation was much less optimistic then now. The world was seen as being kaputt. Hence the title of a book that I remember from my teens: Grün kaputt – Landschaft und Gärten der Deutschen (The German’s Landscapes and Garden), written by Dieter Wieland together with Peter M. Bode, and Rüdiger Disko.
Grün kaputt was an alarm bell ringing about the society’s loss of a sense of place. The loss of being able to simply and appropriately accommodate people in everyday environments. The loss of creating a comfortable garden, a lively street, a respectful cemetery, a stimulating playground. All of that – one would imagine – should go without saying. Apparently it was not. And in Grün kaputt put it in your face with powerful images and sarcastic texts.
And it was not only the landscape that was perceived as kaputt, the cities, too, were described as dead. I remember other such books lying around at home, e.g. Mitscherlich: Die Unwirtlichkeit unserer Städte (The Unhomeliness of Our Cities). Brolin : Das Versagen der Modernen Architektur (The Failure of Modern Architecture). Siedler/Niggemeyer: Die gemordete Stadt (The Assasined City). Being an architect at that time must have felt like being a public enemy.Dieter Wieland: Grün kaputt. In the eighties there was an apocalyptic mood in Germany. Whether or not the environment was treated better of worse than today is hard to say, but certainly the take on the situation was much less optimistic then now. The world was seen as being kaputt. Hence the title of a book that I remember from my teens: Grün kaputt – Landschaft und Gärten der Deutschen (The German’s Landscapes and Garden), written by Dieter Wieland together with Peter M. Bode, and Rüdiger Disko.
Grün kaputt was an alarm bell ringing about the society’s loss of a sense of place. The loss of being able to simply and appropriately accommodate people in everyday environments. The loss of creating a comfortable garden, a lively street, a respectful cemetery, a stimulating playground. All of that – one would imagine – should go without saying. Apparently it was not. And in Grün kaputt put it in your face with powerful images and sarcastic texts.
And it was not only the landscape that was perceived as kaputt, the cities, too, were described as dead. I remember other such books lying around at home, e.g. Mitscherlich: Die Unwirtlichkeit unserer Städte (The Unhomeliness of Our Cities). Brolin : Das Versagen der Modernen Architektur (The Failure of Modern Architecture). Siedler/Niggemeyer: Die gemordete Stadt (The Assasined City). Being an architect at that time must have felt like being a public enemy.