Like many other countries, Germany is undergoing a transformation in transportation that requires not only new propulsion technologies, but above all a transformation of the city and its infrastructure. The research project »Urban Intensities: In-Formal Strategies for Postautomobile Spaces« receives start-up funding from the Robert Bosch Foundation, »Spielraum – Urbane Transformationen gestalten« funding initiative.
In cities that followed the model of the »car-friendly« city in the 1960s, open spaces can be created by restructuring and reducing motorized private transport. Based on this scenario, the project examines the potential of selected automotive urban spaces and develops new ideas for their use. Through reappropriation, rededication, densification and greening, these spaces are likely to make a decisive contribution to increasing urban intensity and thus to more sustainable and liveable cities of the future. The project also examines the role played by informal urban groups and committed collectives in these repurposing processes.
The project is being supported by the »Real-Time City« research center at TH Köln
.Professors
Prof. Dr. Carolin Höfler, TH Köln, and Prof. Dr. Thomas Schroepfer, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Architecture and Sustainable
Other Involved Scientists
Julia Gäckle M. Sc. (RWTH Aachen), Ricarda Walter M. A. (TU Kaiserslautern), Simon Meienberg M. A. and Mario Frank B. A. (TH Köln)
Project Partners
Stephan Willinger (Bundesinstitut für Bau-, Stadt- und Raumforschung (BBSR) Bonn), Johannes Geyer (Dezernat für Stadtentwicklung, Planen und Bauen der Stadt Köln), Prof. (em.) Thomas Sieverts (Bonn), Künstlergruppe »Observatorium – Public Art and Place-Making« (Rotterdam), Niehler Freiheit e.V. (Köln), Verein zur Schaffung kulturell-kreativer Freiräume in Köln, Architekturstudio »umschichten« (Stuttgart)
Funded by
Robert Bosch Foundation, »Spielraum – Urbane Transformationen gestalten« funding initiative.
Duration
05/2019 – 08/2019
Image: Exhibition view »Gleisland« im Ausstellungsraum »Kooperative Westspitze e.V.«, 2020.