The idea of opening up alternative possibilities of participation in the city and society through design is the focus of the research cooperation »The Invisible City« with the City of Cologne.
The joint research project focuses on the interim use of Cologne’s Ebertplatz. With the aim of uncovering and developing the hidden potentials of this controversial place, the informal appropriations, the social and atmospheric milieus, the invisible infrastructures and spatio-temporal orders of the square will be examined. Political and spatial questions are the subject of design interventions as well as public exhibitions and conferences at the square. Project work will be carried out in direct encounter with the local actors on the square. Through the works, space users were invited to engage with the use and possibilities of Ebertplatz and to participate in the production of the space.
Professors
Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler
Collaborators
Mario Frank with Christina Radermacher and Julian Hoffmann
Other Involved Scientists
Johannes Geyer and David Morsi, City of Cologne
Project Partners
City of Cologne – City Planning Department, Urban Space Management; Art Space »Tiefgarage«; Art Space »Gemeinde Köln« and the Research Cluster »Echtzeitstadt | Real-Time City« at TH Köln
Funded by
City of Cologne
Duration
15.08.2019 – 15.04.2023
Activities
Subproject 1 & Exhibition »The Invisible City« in the art space »Tiefgarage«, Cologne on the occasion of the design festival PASSAGEN 2019.
Subproject 2 & Exhibition »Gleisland – Straßenland« in the art space “Gemeinde Köln” and in the rooms of the Kooperative Westspitze e.V., Cologne and JACK IN THE BOX e.V. at the Alter Güterbahnhof Ehrenfeld on the occasion of the design festival PASSAGEN 2020.
Accompanying the exhibitions, the KISDconference »The Invisible City« took place on January 17, 2020 in the »Alte Feuerwache Köln – Sozial. Political, Cultural«.
Subproject 3 & exhibition »Assemble | Disassemble« at Ebertplatz and in the project space of the City of Cologne, Ebertplatzpassage, summer 2020.
Subproject 4 & exhibition »Acting in Public« on the occasion of the CityLeaks Urban Art Festival, Bahnbögen in der Hüttenstraße, Cologne, summer 2021
Subproject 5 & exhibition »How to slow down@ebertplatz« at Ebertplatz and in the project space of the city of Cologne, Ebertplatzpassage, Cologne, summer 2021
Subproject 6 & Prototyping »Building, Sitting, Thinking« at Ebertplatz, Cologne, summer 2023
Image: »Point Cloud Ebertplatz« by Tamara Bertran, Marco Bodenstein and Claus Daniel Herrmann