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Berlin
This is a horizontal city whose cultural institutions—probably more per capita than in any other major metropolis—enjoy lots of floor space. That is especially true of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (the “House of the World’s Cultures”), whose building was a gift from the U.S. Opened in 1957 and designed by Hugh Stubbins—an Alabama-born architect who taught at Harvard and would go on to design the slant-roofed Citicorp Center in New York—the edifice is known by locals as “the pregnant oyster.” To this writer,…