Made from prefabricated concrete panels, Plattenbauten rose from the ruins of Berlin, providing a quick and inexpensive solution to the severe housing shortage faced by the city after World War II. Although criticized in their day for their sterility and impersonal scale, they nonetheless became an integral part of the city. Drawn from his extensive investigations into Berlin's urban landscape, Jesse Simon's texts and photographs offer a convincing argument for the aesthetic and social value of buildings that were once described as "eyesores." Focused on urban developments constructed between the 1950s and the early 1990s, the book is structured geographically, devoting equal attention to the former East and West.

It includes more than 200 images filled with warm light and saturated hues, revealing a diversity of color and detail that may often be lost on the casual observer. It also illustrates how, despite vast differences in political ideologies, both East and West Berlin employed remarkably similar approaches to the creation of new urban spaces. For fans of Brutalism and Modernism, Plattenbau Berlin is both an engaging reconsideration of postwar urbanism, and a unique entry point for exploring Berlin's history and architecture.

Plattenbauten由预制混凝土板制成，在柏林的废墟中崛起，为二战后城市面临的严重住房短缺问题提供了快速而廉价的解决方案。尽管在当时这些建筑被批评为不伦不类的规模，但它们还是成为了柏林的一个组成部分。杰西·西蒙（Jesse Simon）的文字和照片来自他对柏林城市景观的广泛调查，为那些曾经被描述为“辣眼睛”建筑的美学和社会价值提供了令人信服的论据。本书以20世纪50年代至90年代初建造的城市发展为重点，在地理结构上，对前东方和西方给予了同样的关注。

本书包括200多张充满温暖光线和饱和色调的图片，揭示了色彩和细节的多样性，而这一点往往会被偶然的观察者所忽略。书中还说明，尽管政治意识形态存在巨大差异，但东柏林和西柏林在创建新的城市空间时采用了非常相似的方法。对于野蛮主义和现代主义的爱好者来说，本书既是对战后城市主义的一次引人入胜的重新思考，也是探索柏林历史和建筑的一个独特的切入点。