Within this project we want to deal with the utopia of a city in which the bike, in the context of the city, is celebrated as a social invention.

The humanism of cycling is a real utopia states Marc Augé in “Eloge de la bicyclette”. Nowadays the bike is more loved and used than it was in the past years. But can a mean of transport, which seems to be caught in ecological, resource-conserving, reasonable and modest pragmatism be the starting point for a new idea of the city?

What could a bike city Berlin look like? We try to find answers to these questions in this semester.

We want to look at urban and social utopias from the past. Those who left real traces in Berlin (Scharouns “Kollektivplan”)as well as more fictitious constructions, which had other rules to think about cityscapes, just like Koolhaas' “Exodus” or Archigrams “Walking City”.

We want to put a spot on current discourses and the rhetoric circling the bike in the Berlin society. Which goals do initiatives as the “Radbahn unter der U1” or “Netzwerk Fahrradfreundliches Neukölln”, political demonstrations as the “Critical Mass” or the “Volksentscheid Fahrrad” pursue?

At the end of the semester we want to present an utopia. By overlapping independent ideas a common narrative within a defined area of investigation shall be developed. This can consist of large scale city utopias, architectural drafts for the future, an odd vehicle built as a 1:1 prototype or an artistic performance.

Tuesdays 14.00-18.00h Atelier 401

max. 15 Participants