A couple of decades before Prince Charles started to build his hameau at Poundbury (p51), a quite different approach to urban planning was being explored in Berlin. West Berlin was still run down and isolated, while the eastern half of the city (the capital of the communist German Democratic Republic, the DDR) was in some ways comparatively flourishing. The federal government in Bonn was determined to make its half of the city (an island in the middle of the DDR) into a showcase for Western values, to sweep away the remains of war damage and give the outlying enclave a vigorous economic and cultural life. Much of the fabric had to be rebuilt or renewed, and the federal authorities poured billions into the task. West Berlin became a forcing house for new ideas about urban architecture and planning.
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