Economic and social restructuring in the former East Germany has rendered entire neighborhoods and cities superfluous. A whole way of life created in the sixties, seventies and eighties has been called into question and dismantled piece by piece. After several slab buildings in Hoyerswerda’s Wohnkomplex 8 (Residential Complex 8) had already disappeared, Stadt im Regal became involved in the demolition of one of the complex’s Type P2 buildings, located at Merzdorfer Str. 14–18, Hoyerswerda Neustadt.

A Federal Cultural Foundation project about the deconstruction of modernity, Hoyerswerda Neustadt.

www.stadtimregal.de/wk8p2abbau
www.stadtimregal.de/superumbau-review

Demolition of a Type P2 slab building in Wohnkomplex 8 (Residential Complex 8), Hoyerswerda Neustadt. A camera mounted on the bucket of the excavator films the demolition, moving with the bucket. The bucket swings and gouges. In the film, the rubble seems to defy gravity as it falls out of the frame. The image dissolves in the dust of demolition; the projection goes white. A second camera, mounted in the cab, films the operator’s face as the building is torn down. This is the counterview to the first camera. The operator’s face reveals his intense concentration, each tiny move standing in contrast to the sweeping movements of the demolition. Video projection on two opposing screens.

Deconstruction of a Type P2 slab building in Wohnkomplex 8 (Residential Complex 8), Hoyerswerda Neustadt. A camera mounted on the bucket of the excavator films the demolition, moving with the bucket. The bucket swings and gouges. In the film, the rubble seems to defy gravity as it falls out of the frame. The image dissolves in the dust of demolition; the projection goes white. A second camera, mounted in the cab, films the operator’s face as the building is torn down. This is the counterview to the first camera. The operator’s face reveals his intense concentration, each tiny move standing in contrast to the sweeping movements of the demolition. Video projection on two opposing screens.

Stadt im Regal put up a construction in front of the WK8P2 building at Merzdorfer Str. 14–18, Hoyerswerda Neustadt. It portrays the deconstruction as a construction project: “Green Space Coming Soon.”

The deconstruction of the WK8P2 building was made public in the Lausitzer Rundschau newspaper. In an advertisement published daily, photos and text documented the gradual disappearance of the building and the creation of a green space.

8/13/03: Pre-construction meeting. Put up the construction sign, printed from a design based on concept sketches and paintings and incorporating the WK8P2 project logo. 10 a.m.: Took down a nonworking five-armed streetlight (12 m tall) from Frenzelstraße in the older part of Hoyerswerda. 5 p.m.: Installed and reconnected the streetlight on an already existing green space in front of the condemned building on Merzdorfer Straße. Wed. 8/13–Thu. 8/14/03: Built a 1:10-scale model of a typical WK8 apartment out of MDF, having previously inspected and measured some standard WK8 apartments. Thu. 8/14/03: Construction fence delivered and put up, site secured. Worked on the apartments off Entrance 17, second and third floors. Set up a construction office on the second floor of the former day-care center on Buchwalder Straße, across from the condemned building at Merzdorfer Straße 14-18. Furnishings: twelve desks and twelve chairs. Hung up preliminary construction sign designs in the office and put up a bulletin board for demolition drawings to be created during the demolition process. Started filling it with “before” drawings of the condemned slab (drawn earlier in Berlin) and a painting of a detail: Smurf stickers on a door being used as a barrier. Made rubbings in Merzdorfer Straße 14, in the stairway and two apartments (second floor left and fifth floor left), and put them up in the office. Thu. 8/14–Fri. 8/15/03, 10:50 p.m.–6:50 a.m.: Made minidisc recordings of the sounds inside Merzdorfer Straße 14, fifth floor left. First stage of reproduction: Saved the original noises recorded by the microphone, plus the noises produced by the microphone and minidisc recorder (cable, jacks, ADC) during recording, as lossy-compressed digital audio signals on six minidiscs. Fri. 8/15/03: Temporary current connected. Installed the 1:10 apartment model as a unifying element of the construction office furnishings. Set up a computer running the HÄUSER/hoyerswerda animation on a table in the office. Installed drill cores and pavement chunks used in rutting tests (asphalt surface wear testing) in the office, as well as six planning models of Hoyerswerda Neustadt dating from the 1950s through the 1990s (on loan from the Schlossmuseum): Kühnichter Heide, WK8, City Center, WK2, City Center and Cube Houses. Installed a computer game with steering wheel on a table in the office: driving through a collage of Hoyerswerda’s current state and its demolition. Set up the video presentation WK8P2ABBAU / nasse wiesen und steppen (PAL VHS, sound, 12:49:34, thirteen scenes, brief commentary and interviews with prominent figures in 1960s modernist urban development on the relationship between architecture and landscape) in the office. Installed a metal nameplate (“Herr Strieder/Next Desk Please”) in the office. Fri. 8/15–Sat. 9/27/03: Daily ads in the Lausitzer Rundschau newspaper showing a photo of the condemned building (always taken from the same vantage point, a sixth-story apartment diagonally opposite). Fri. 8/15–Fri. 8/29/03: “Before” paintings depicting the condemned building from two different perspectives. Mon. 8/18/03: Start of scheduled demolition: hazardous materials removed from attic crawlspace; building disconnected from city utilities (power, water, sewer, storm water, gas, heat), telecom and cable; gutting of Building 14 begun (plumbing flushed, gas lines, mains dismantled).

Superconversion, demolition of WK8P2, a Federal Cultural Foundation project about the deconstruction of modernity, Hoyerswerda Neustadt

www.bundeskulturstiftung.com/superumbau