In the design project "designing for the more than human" we look at the Floating University as a case study. We aim at designing support structures for other ways of being together on a damaged planet. Within the design project we will familiarize with theories about the feminist city, the anthropocene and Bruno Latour's ideas about the "critical zone" - describing the thin layer of life between dead rock deep down under us and dead outer space high above us as the critical zone. Here we cohabitate with all other living beings on earth. 

Floating University will act as a lens and condenser for these conversations and as a projection surface for design ideas looking for possible futures. The project is structured in three phases.

In phase one we familiarize ourselves with the context of floating. We learn about the stakeholders,  power structures, dynamics and processes. We also learn about the five year history of floating University, how it´s Association grew and is organised and how floating is made from day to day. We learn about amphibiae and other endangered species. With this broad reading of floating contexts, we learn how to situate ourselves in contested grounds.

In phase two. We will be designing and potentially implementing interventions in one to one scale within floating, that propose spatial situaitons of cohabitation and inter-species dialogue.

In phase three we look out towards the future and produce explorative imaginaries and speculative designs for a floating University where humans, animals, plants and other living beings live together in mutual support. 

We are going on an excursion to Taranto in the south of Italy. Taranto is a special place. Like the Floating, it is a kind of "contaminated paradise". The small town, idyllically situated by the sea, is surrounded by a gigantic raw material and industrial area for ore and iron processing on the one hand and a large NATO base on the other. We connect with the group "Post Desaster" on site, which opens up the roofscape of Taranto as concrete spaces of action for cultural and civil, common agency.

We will network with local experts who will show us how is possible to change a situation that at first glance seems hopeless - ecologically, socially, economically - with different, creative approaches.

A search for agency in a dystopian environment.

https://www.tarantobuonasera.it/cultura/725837/post-disaster-rooftops-il-progetto-che-si-sviluppa-sui-tetti-della-citta-vecchia-di-taranto/

links:

https://www.e-flux.com/architecture/accumulation/345107/production-or-engendering/

https://feralatlas.supdigital.org/world/acceleration

https://zkm.de/de/ausstellung/2020/05/critical-zones

https://archplus.net/de/cohabitation/

https://www.e-flux.com/education/features/532877/creating-common-ground-klasse-fr-alle

https://floating-berlin.org

https://floating-berlin.org/de/programme/learnscapes/

participants: 15
studio day: Tuesday 
place: FLOATING UNIVERSITY
study trip: Taranto (post desaster) 30.04-06.05.23
first meeting: 19.04.23 - 17.00h in 401