Terrain I+II – Planning in exploited Landscapes

The exhibition at the University of the Arts is dedicated to the planning challenges of post-industrial landscapes in the Lausitz region, with particular consideration given to water management processes, which are understood as design-relevant instruments applied on a large spatial scale.

The increasing needs of a consumer society demand ever-greater logistical, energy, and infrastructure measures, which map out new areas of responsibility for architecture, landscape, and regional planning. Lignite mining significantly alters the landscape and requires sensible and appropriate reclamation of nature and wildlife after the mining has ceased, as well as a new cultural understanding of landscape iconography derived from it. Morphologically, these landscapes are characterized by artificial topography and desert-like features. A central mechanism of the long development processes of these landscape forms—both during and after the mining process is the control of water management and pumping within the mining areas, which structurally models the conditions of the ecology. The unusual connection of individual perception, landscape, and movement in both above-ground and underground spaces can transform these post-industrial areas into a unique laboratory for architecture and landscape planning.

In the winter semester, the course focused on developing an appropriate concept of landscape, which draws from perspectives of art (particularly American Land Art of the 1960s), cultural history, and known strategies from landscape planning and architecture. In addition to a field trip through the southwestern United States, the stay at the IBA Study House in the Lusatian Lake District was important for learning about these existing strategies (such as those practiced in the International Building Exhibition Fürst-Pückler-Land from 2000 to 2010).

Students were also instructed in the use of modern computer-aided modeling programs. These increasingly feature generative, time-based structures, which describe a spatial or structural design process through the design determination of content-related and geometric relationships. Many of these processes, in their evolutionary thinking or the morphology that develops from them, form an analogy to natural processes.

In the summer semester, the knowledge acquired was applied to specific plots of land at the lignite mining site in Welzow, near Cottbus. Another stay at the IBA Study House and on-site discussions with representatives of the operating energy companies completed the students' existing knowledge from the winter semester. In their design work, students were supervised by an interdisciplinary team from various fields.

The multimedia presentation of the resulting annual projects was shown in the exhibition Terrain I + II as part of the 2014 Open house at the University of the Arts Berlin.

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The design and final exhibition were conducted as an interdisciplinary project between the departments of

Digital and Experimental Design Prof. Dr. Norbert Palz

Garden Culture and Open Space Development Prof. Dr. Gabriele Schultheiß

Art and Cultural History Prof. Dr. Susanne Hauser

Plastic Spatial Representation Prof. Alexandra Ranner