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
Christina Radermacher and Julian Hoffmann

Other Involved Scientists
Johannes Geyer and David Morsi, City of Cologne; Mario Frank, TH Köln

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
Exhibition in the Art Space »Tiefgarage«, Cologne and KISDconference in the  Alte Feuerwache Cologne – Social. Political, Culturell, 17.01.2020

Image: »Point Cloud Ebertplatz« by Tamara Bertran, Marco Bodenstein and Claus Daniel Herrmann