Doing Almost Nothing

W.I.P. by J.Y.Ooi


part i

  1. Preface
  2. Kurfürstendamm
  3. Prehistory
  4. Dichotomy of Ku’damm

part ii

  1. Aggregate and Adler
  2. Crisis
  3. Brief

part iii

  1. Precarity
  2. Emancipation
  3. Plans
  4. Trajectory
  5. Outcome(?)

PART IV

  1. References
  2. Credit

Kurfürstendamm



“They come to see, they come that they themselves may be seen.”

— Ovid

Excerpt from the map “Polizei Revier von Berlin” by F. A. v. Witzleben, from the “Atlas der Provinz Brandenburg” (1833—1839). Berlin.


The Kurfürstendamm, situated in western Berlin within the city’s railway ring, spans the districts of Charlottenburg, Wilmersdorf, and Schöneberg. Since 1920, these areas have functioned as administrative districts under Greater Berlin. The avenue’s topography slopes gently from its highest point at Halensee Bridge (44 meters above sea level) in the west to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church (35 meters) in the east. This gradient, combined with its narrow, winding layout, obscures the Memorial Church as a visual anchor in the western stretch. Kurfürstendamm terminates abruptly, lacking direct connectivity to Grunewald’s forests or the Havel River’s lakes, and is fragmented by congested cross-streets.