Ciutat industrial versus ciutat burguesa: el cas de l'"Eixample" berlinès, 1815-1896

This article analyzes the process of planning and execution of the Bebauungsplan or Berliner city expansion between 181 5 and 1896. This process differed from the majority of great city-planning projects of that period applied to European capitals such as London, Paris and Vienna, in that it was based on the large-scale introduction of big industrial and  railroad buildings, without taking into consideration the design of spaces representativeof new middle-class power, as had happened in other cities. Thus, in the projects that were successively designed by Joseph Schmidt, Josef Lenné and James Hobrecht, priority was given to the location of canals, factories, warehouses and housing for the working classes rather than to long wide avenues, town squares dedicated to public buildings, ornamental gardens and the middle-class housing, which became concentrated, until the beginning of the 20th Century, in the historic city centre, built under the absolutist monarchy in the 18th Century. Besides, we will see how the constructive force of the city itself, rather than planning, forced the city-planning experts to restate their projects time and again.