The title of the project is actually the question. Are cities inclusive? How can this entity, this plurality, built on diversity, simultaneity and co-existence be more open for all? How does a responsible ethics and practice of spatial production look like? And what does that imply if we project it onto a very concrete site in Berlin? How can we act as spatial practitioners, as architects?

In this project we continue our collaboration with lokalbau, develop a deeper understanding of urban transformation processes and how to place ourselves within those as spatial practitioners. We do this by analysing, discussing, intervening, designing, proposing, testing, strategizing, presenting, reflecting.

In Winter term we focus on understanding a place and the dynamics around. We develop tools to read and represent these dynamics. We engage with a series of stakeholders around this place – both locally and from the planning and investing perspective. Based on this multi layered reading, we develop design and transformation strategies.

We zoom in and out, link practical study work on site with discoursive and reflective moments and use the tools of abstraction and representation in discussing possible futures and ways to get there. We spend time on site(s) and out in the city, engaging with our questions in immediacy. The term ist structured in the working phases 01 building a discourse, 02 exploring a place, 03 actors and dynamics, 04 questions and readings, 05 projecting and strategizing.

We start from  Floating University and become part of it for a short time. This is the staring point to open the discourse around the questions of public, private and common – as a basis to reflect how spaces and the city are produced, owned, decided about and accessed.

Zooming in and out helps us on this way to build relations to the place we work on and feedback our ideas with the situation and stakeholders around. Working in this way, we aim at developing grounded projects, that embrace the difficulty of working in a complex field. At the end of winter term stands an urban vision as a proposal. We will have suggestions for the questions: how can the site be transformed? What could be future programs and how could an urbanism look like.

The site for the project is the former Container Terminal in Berlin-Friedrichshain.

In summer term, we continue into the design-proposal level. If in winter term your work proposed a 1:500 urban plan, we work on the design of a segment of that. If in winter term your project proposed a strategy, we work on designing the transformation process, dispersing the ideas in the city and further resonating with stakeholders. We look for direct actions on and around the site, building on the network of collaborators and partners from the winter term.

The project is understood as a collaborative form between all participants, working on their individual perspectives and questions and at the same time as a group. It is offered as a „Vertieferprojekt“, running over 2 Semesters. Each semester can be attended separately.

>> Registration via Moodle until Monday, 18.10. 16h
>> participants max. 12 
>> Tuesdays, first meeting 19.10. 10h in floating university

further information:
>> LokalBau
>> LokalBau Strategie
>> LokalBau Karte Potenziale
>> Baustelle Gemeinwohl

>> from the archive