Nortopia: Nordic Modern Architecture and Postwar Germany in Bloomington, MN

How can “Nordic Modernism” be defined? Did German city planners look to the North for inspiration after the Second World War? In what way did their social model affect architecture and city planning in the Nordic countries? What specific features characterize architecture and town planning in the Nordic countries compared with postwar Germany? The fiftieth anniversary of Interbau 1957 presented a timely opportunity to reappraise the Hansaviertel in Berlin and the entire New Building movement. In this context, Nordic conceptions of architecture and town planning seemed particularly worthy of critical reflection. The “people's home” (
folkhem
), as well as various national strands of modernization, architectural preferences and even geopolitical considerations play a role in the formation of the Nordic model. The contributors to this volume take the example of the Hansaviertel as an opportunity to investigate Nordic-German transfer in modernism—aesthetically, socioculturally and programmatically.