Center or Nexus

Based on the concept of cognitive mapping, the article addresses the issues of the production, representation, and conceptualization of space. Focusing on emerging concepts of urban space in turn-of-the-century and Weimar Berlin as developed by the sociologist Georg Simmel, the architectural historian Adolf Behne, and the urban designer Martin Wagner, it is shown to what extent these concepts are bound to technological modes of representation like photography and film. Based on these concepts, it is proposed to extend the concept of cognitive mapping, emphasizing that it not just examines but also produces images of the urban. Thus, cognitive mapping is not just analytical but also constructive.