Berlin Free University is an imagination of what a building might be - a building designed to function as a piece of the city, adapting to the needs of its users while generating opportunities for social interaction. The university offers a window onto the politicized and optimistic discourse of the Sixties and Seventies, but at the same time illuminates contemporary debates around large projects of infrastructure and public space. This extensive study of the building combines texts with a visual survey containing specifically commissioned photographs as well as archive material, plans and construction details.
Mohsen Mostafavi (1954) is an Iranian-American architect and educator. He is the Dean and Alexander and Victoria Wiley Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He has been the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University, and the Chairman of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London.