SYMPOSIUM «THE CITY AS A SPHERE FOR ACTION»

JULY 24 – 25, 2014

As a deepened reflection a two-day conference on the topics experimental, participatory building and new public spaces, takes place in the third week of the Summer School. Focus is the search for new open, social spaces and an alternative planning and building practice. We want to engage in the discourse on new public spaces and debate the question of implementation: How can this emancipatory movement in the future generate lasting changes for our cities? How can we establish connections to formal planning levels and develop a process orientated understanding of planning? Invited are the participants of the Summer School and several relevant local and international positions.

The event is open to the public with advance registration requested.

Registration
» info@osthang-project.org
» Tel. +49 (0) 6151 787 61 80

Program

Symposium 1/2
» Thursday, July 24 (detailed information)

The first day of the Symposium focuses on new emancipatory urban practices in relation to city planning. Central questions for the days’ discussions include: are we still able to imagine a better future society, better places and better cities? What is the meaning of public space for our imagination of how we want to live together in our societies? Which are the methods to generate real participation and include different user groups into development of our common spaces. How can we plan in open processes? How can we integrate bottom up strategies into the administrative and political realities of our cities?

Symposium 2/2
» Friday, July 25 (detailed information)

How do we see the Osthang Project in relation to the historical “Mathildenhöhe Artist Colony”? What are the objectives and methods of the build and design movement? Is it essential for these socially engaged projects that the architects are present on site? Does the involvement of the user and the architect in the active building process lead to a new architecture? How can we incorporate the experience made in this processes into the everyday planning practice? How can we negotiate clashing needs and interests in this participatory processes? How can this kind of open building processes be applied to more long term and large-scale projects?