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As the first part of my self-residency, I created an architectural walk down Berlin's most iconic boulevard: the Karl-Marx-Allee. Through archival research at the Bundesarchiv and stories of architectural ideology and social history, I try to shed more light on the urban spaces we inhabit and often take for granted.

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The walk begins at Frankfurter Tor, where two monumental towers frame the boulevard, and where the first question already presents itself: why did a socialist state build in the style of German classicism?  Over 2.3 kilometres, we pass a workers' palace built at nine times the normal cost, a rose garden where an uprising began, and a cinema that serves as both entertainment and a propaganda measure. We stop where the boulevard's architectural style abruptly changes, on orders from Moscow. We end at 'Allesanderplatz,' to answer the question: What should we do with contested heritage?

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Along the way, five postcards serve as prompts for looking more closely. In these five postcards, inspired by vintage vacation postcards and modernist architecture magazines (which, funnily enough, look more alike than you'd think), we discuss how the Karl-Marx-Allee, in its past and present, is one of the most interesting examples of urban design in Europe. 

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The postcards come in a repurposed envelope made from leftover posters of cultural events that I hunt down around the city. Take them home or send them to tell the world about this corner of Berlin.

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