ABSTRACT
This chapter presents some of the principal themes, trends, practices, adhesions, representations, and confusions surrounding urban bombsites. It focuses on the individual or bounded bombsite: not the remains of a city flattened by an atomic bomb, artillery barrage, or a firestorm of incendiary bombs, but the ruined building made notable and disturbing by the juxtaposition of surviving buildings nearby. The social construction of a bombsite continues after this point. In many conflict areas such as London during the Blitz or contemporary Syria, dedicated teams of Civil Defence workers will arrive at the site. Urban bombsites are conceptually and culturally rich places that are good to think with. Perhaps the most famous bombsite in Europe was the ruined Frauenkirche in Dresden, shattered by fire in the infamous bombing of the city in February 1945.
