Buildings on Standby describes the vacant high-rise buildings A–E in Halle-Neustadt as places of uncertain future, where the possibilities/impossibilities of urban planning after socialism are being negotiated. For more than 20 years, four of the five tower blocks have been vacant and remain on standby – in a state of future-oriented avail­ability and a contested space between shutdown and reactivation. At the interface of actor-network theory and ethnographic urban research, the study examines this state in its temporal, material and political dimensions. It shows that buildings on standby cost a lot of energy, harbour risks and become a bargaining chip for trust and responsibility. The book opens up new perspectives on shrinking cities, interstitial spaces and urban transformation – in and beyond the post-socialist space.

The text is accompanied by numerous architectural illustrations and a photo essay by Eiko Grimberg.