Context and continuity. Shifting paradigms in East German urban planning and architecture in the city of Halle (Saale)

Abstract

The paper gives an insight into the change of urban planning paradigms in the late GDR. In 1982, the "Principles for the Socialist Development of Urban Development and Architecture in the German Democratic Republic" formed a long-awaited update of the "Sixteen Principles of Urban Design" dated 1950. Taking the developments in the city of Halle (Saale) as a case study, the inner-city renewal areas are explored. It is argued that the urban design and the architecture of the projects of the 1980-s can best be explained with the two concepts of context and continuity. Thus, the new structures are linked to the past but constructed and designed with contemporary means.