Presenting difficult pasts through architecture : converting Nazi perpetrators' sites to documentation centers / Rumiko Handa

List of FiguresAcknowledgementsIntroduction1. Postwar Rebuilding and Coping with the Past2. Four Documentation Centers - Histories 3. In the Shadow of Propaganda Architecture4. Presenting Pasts through Architecture - Intellectual Framework5. Formal Characteristics6. Physical Traces7. Designation8. MementoConclusionBibliographyIndex

Architectural design can play a role in helping make the past present in meaningful ways when applied to preexisting buildings and places that carry notable and troubling pasts. In this comparative analysis, Rumiko Handa establishes the critical role architectural designs play in presenting difficult pasts by examining documentation centers on National Socialism in Germany. Presenting Difficult Pasts Through Architecture analyzes four centers - Cologne, Nuremberg, Berlin, and Munich - from the point of view of their shared intent to make the past present at National Socialists' perpetrator sites. Applying original frameworks, Handa considers what more architectural design could do toward meaningful representations and interpretations of difficult pasts. This book is a must-read for students, practitioners, and academics interested in how architectural design can participate in presenting the difficult pasts of historical places in meaningful ways.