10 - Peter Géza Sigmond

Peter Géza Sigmond (Budapest 1932 – 2015 Weert), “Capital Berlin,” 1958, pen-and-ink drawing on yellowish vélin, titled, signed, and dated in pencil in the lower right-hand corner, 21.7 x 27.7 cm, mounted under glass in a simple black frame, overall dimensions: 22.7 x 28.7 cm. Limit 270,- In 1957, the government of the Federal Republic of Germany decided to launch an architectural competition for the reconstruction of Berlin’s city center, which was also to include areas of the GDR in order to advance the reunification of the divided city. The British architects Alison and Peter Smithson, together with their colleague Peter Sigmond, shared the general view that the future belonged to private car traffic and thus wanted to tunnel the entire city center with intersection-free highways to create what was then often referred to as a “speed demon’s paradise.” However, they wanted to strictly separate pedestrians and car traffic. Their visionary design envisaged two superimposed networks: An elevated pedestrian network that extended the existing public space (the “City of Pleasure”)—open, largely empty, and offering sweeping views of the city—while traffic moved at 120 km/h in the network below. By the time the Berlin Wall was built in 1961, however, all such plans had become nothing more than a utopian fantasy.