ASCA CitiesMarch 5, 2026

On Friday 24 April, Alfredo Thiermann will joins us for the 2025-2026 ASCA Cities Seminar to present his research in a talk titled “Radio-Activities: Architecture and Broadcasting in Cold War Berlin”. In his research, Alfredo Thiermann Riesco interrogates the political, technological, and environmental dimensions of architecture at a time when buildings began to interact with the remote transmission of information. By its very nature, the medium of radio promised to evaporate the intrinsic material aspect of architecture; in fact, it did no such thing. By way of transscalar analyses, Thiermann Riesco pays particular attention to Berlin’s buildings, walls, transmission towers, factories, research institutions, and territorial organizations during the Cold War period, which enabled the production, reproduction, and transmission of sonic-based content across the divide of the Iron Curtain. In doing so he reveals underresearched continuities between politics, technology, media, and architecture, in the process reframing notions of national and transnational boundaries. The session takes place from 15.00-17.00 in room 0.16 (E-lab) at the University of Amsterdam, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.

Alfredo Thiermann is an architect and Assistant Professor for History and Theory of Architecture at the école polytechnique fédérale in Lausanne. Through his practice and theoretical research, he explores the intersection between architecture and different media, from sound installations and film scenography to single-family houses, public buildings, and large-scale infrastructures. He has taught and lectured at Harvard University, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, and other institutions. Alfredo’s work has been published in Harvard Design Magazine, A U, Revista ARQ, TRACE magazine, Revue matières, Potlatch, Real Review, Thresholds, Archithese, GTA Papers, and BauNetz, and has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes in Santiago, the Istanbul Design Biennial, gta exhibitions in Zurich, HKW in Berlin, and the Venice Art Biennale among other institutions.

For more information and registration, please contact Linda Kopitz (l.kopitz@vu.nl).

Readings

• Thiermann, Alfredo Riesco. Radio-Activities: Architecture and Broadcasting in Cold-War Berlin (MIT Press, 2024), 1-33, 255-303.

All readings can be accessed via this shared Surfdrive folder as well.

Following Sessions

Fri. 22 May 2026: Sandra Jasper (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) and Jonathan Prior (Cardiff University), “Urban Bioacoustics: Listening to Animal Voices in the GDR”, Time: 3-5pm, Location: room 0.16, Turfdraagsterpad 9, Amsterdam.

The ASCA Cities Seminar is co-organized by Carolyn Birdsall, Linda Kopitz and Alex Gekker.