An old woman in Shanghai goes to sleep. When she wakes up, she finds that all the houses of her neighbours have been bulldozed to the ground. Hers is the last house left in the middle of a wasteland. This wasteland is in its turn the last one in a neighbourhood of newly built skyscrapers. Some believe urban infrastructure is changing too fast. It happens to such a degree that sometimes it is difficult to recognize the familiar features, which allowed you to differentiate a place as your home.
In Berlin, however things are different. In 1910 Karl Scheffler wrote: “The tragedy of a fate… condemns Berlin forever to become and never to be.”
In Berlin, an old woman is shocked when she wakes up and finds that nothing has changed. She worries when she discovers that buildings are made of inflexible materials.
What will happen when people have to adapt to yet another economic or political change?