On continuity and discontinuity. Interview with Alexander Schwarz

The James Simon Galerie design of Museum Island in Berlin seems to us, one of the few projects that give back unity to a great urban system like that of Berlin, that, after the war, it’s been characterized by a hard and continuous discontinuity in its build ing fabric. We had wanted to meet Schwarz and ask him in depth the reasons for the design choice, if and how this dialogue with urban morphology. We wanted to ask to one of the protagonists of contemporary architectural culture what were the reasons that had guided the intervention, if, as it appeared, there had been an attempt to go beyond the restoration and beyond the temptation to sign, with a strong sculptural gesture, the scene of the historical centre of Berlin.