Abstract
How can a long undesired piece of architecture all of a sudden become an attractive souvenir for tourists, a talisman, a valuable object? Often relegated to the role of witness most individuals passively watch the large-scale transformation of their built environment. The situation can, however, be totally different with fragments of buildings. In two cases, the demolition of the Berlin Wall and the deserted national-socialist seaside resort of Prora (Germany), alienating associations and large-scale phenomena are concretized and individualized through active personal handling. The circulation of architectural remains from one owner to another is charged with meaning; stories told about these objects are a means to give sense to a more complex history and the ruins themselves function as valuable intermediaries between history and individual experience. The social life of architecture does not always end with its destruction, quite the contrary. Slashed into pieces, recycled, transformed, it continues to live in fragmented form.
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