“On a bridge in Berlin”: A self-reflective case study on a work in progress

This is a self-reflective case study based on the development of the Graphic Novel: “On a bridge in Berlin.” The GN will be used as an introduction to the history of architecture as a part of the curriculum in Architecture and Design at Aalborg University, and as a more broadly introduction to an understanding of Europe’s architectural history. It will also expand my artistic research on how this GN can reach a specific target group as architecture and design students.

The structure of the GN is a narrative which is comparative across the chronological time and style history. It is a science fiction that jumps in time and place: it begins with Martin Heidegger´s quotation “The Bridge gathers to itself in its own way earth and sky, divinities and mortals”, and the bridge is a state of mind, a chronotope, a portal in time between past, present, and future.

The methodological approach is based on the French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, which states that poetry appears as a phenomenon of freedom, and poets, painters and artists are born as “phenomenologists.”

It is the story of the researcher’s and artist’s own reflective and interpretive strategies for authentic, first-person research based on Bachelard and Heidegger. This GN investigates how architecture changes our cities and cultural identity. It merges different narrative time layers as: childhood memories, dreams, hallucinations, fiction, past, present, and future.

The findings of this paper explains why a cross disciplinary approach is necessary to show that architecture, art, poetry, culture, technology and personal experience create an understanding of the zeitgeist of a specific time period and architectural style, and why the GN is a perfect medium for this investigation.