Lehrinhalte
The subject of the seminar Urban Design and Baukultur is the connection between the spatial formulation of city and space as well as the urban co-production processes that shape them. Baukultur is defined as the culture of planning, design, and construction in service of society, which is subject to a permanent process of transformation by social and increasingly also climatic conditions and demands.
In class, we will critically examine these conditions and demands together with questions like what kind of Baukultur is needed in the end and which structural-spatial expressions it finds, on the one hand, in buildings, ensembles, infrastructures and public spaces, and, on the other, in their affordance and appropriation, everyday uses and the meanings assigned by the users. Focus this semester will include housing in relation to public space.
In the debates on Baukultur, questions of urban planning and architectural quality are central, and there are corresponding procedures and instruments for quality assurance. However, not only do the views of experts and laypersons differ, but there are also lively discussions among urban planners themselves about value standards, principles and criteria of "good" urban design and ways to promote a "good" and socially just or socially acceptable Baukultur. Ideally, housing and the design of public spaces and public infrastructure will combine the multi-layered requirements that are then reflected in the design and use (certainly sometimes conflictive). Following on from this, other readings of spaces and their materiality will be addressed in the core seminar on "Urban Design and Baukultur", and realized projects and urban spaces will be visited, discussed, and evaluated. The relationship between the expert view (politicians, planners, etc.) and the lay view (citizens, experts) will be reflected upon.
