to po s. no 104
2018
Borders
URBAN POLYMATH – Sociologist Richard Sennett on boundaries as acts of self-wounding 38
CAPTURE THE DIVISION – Artist Thomas Struth releases the shutter in Israel and the Westbank 42
ENTERING EUROPE – The ‘borderization’ of Lampedusa and the Mediterranean island’s role in the refugee crisis
ISBN 978-3-7667-2406-9
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to po s. no 104
2018
T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E V I E W O F L A N D S CA P E A R C H I T E CT U R E A N D URB A N DE S I G N
Borders
Contents
THE BIG PICTURE
CURATED PRODUCTS
Page 8
Page 102
OPINION
REFERENCE
Page 10
Page 106
TALE NT VS. MASTERMIND
E DITOR’S PICK
Page 12
Page 108
METROPOLIS EXPLAINED
Page 14 ENTERING EUROPE
Page 58
BACKFLIP ENTERING EUROPE
Photographer Wei Chang from Taipei captures borders between time, space and object Page 18
How Lampedusa's identity became entangled with migration Page 58
AMBIVALENT BORDERS
URBANISM CROSSING LINES
What if borders were opportunities? Page 26
The last divided capital in Europe: Nikosia Page 64
SMART BARRIERS
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CANVAS
How closed neighborhoods in Chinese cities create identity for their residents Page 32
Visual arts and the Frontera between Mexico and the U.S. Page 70
URBAN POLYMATH
METAMORPHOSIS OF A ZONE
The sociologist Richard Sennett on borders, boundaries, the Brexit and the fear of the unknown Page 38
Interpreting borders as a web of interactions to redefine their purpose Page 74
CAPTURE THE DIVISION
BREAK OUT
A photographic journey to Israel and the West Bank by Thomas Struth Page 42
Incarceration as a violent form of architecture provokes political activism Page 80
VIEWPOINT
DESERT CITIES OF TOMORROW
An opinion on the conflictual relationship between Palestine and Israel Page 48
How planners merge Middle Eastern and European ideas in Saudi-Arabia and Egypt Page 86
Page 110 ESCAPE PLAN
Page 112 FROM THE EDGES
Page 114 IMPRINT
Page 113
LIVING WHERE THE WALL ONCE STOOD
TERRITORIES OF ENTANGLEMENT
Revisiting the Cold War division of Germany in Venice Page 50
On the challenges of the Danish coast Page 92
BORDERS: FACTS AND FIGURES
CONTRIBUTORS
THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CANVAS
Page 56
Page 100
Page 70
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Photos: Chiara Dorbolò, Stefan Falke
INTERPHASE
THE BIG PICTURE
Salty business As if two worlds meet one another – a vastness of brown, soft tones, a surface that is only occasionally traversed by light streaks, meets its counterpart, clear forms, rectangles: a pastel-colored mosaic on a metallic background. What almost looks like abstract art through the lens of the renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky – like the surface of an alien planet – is in fact the image of harsh reality. The scenery depicted is a salt pan in Gujarat, India. Every year, 100,000 Agariya workers toil there, mercilessly watched by a non-blinking sun. Salt for money: that is their business. But because the groundwater level, which is indispensable for the process of salt extraction, sinks year by year, these people are facing an uncertain future. Burtynsky distances us from these problems. From the cockpit of a helicopter, flying 300 feet above ground, all that is left is the image of a divided landscape, of abstract shapes and lines, grounded in an inhospitable and yet mysterious environment. TEXT: David Mellein
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Photo: Edward Burtynsky – SALT PANS #20, Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India 2016
The Big Picture
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Borders
Smart Cities in China are structured by borders in particularly intriguing ways. This circumstance is especially visible within the typical, closed neighborhoods, which have become the smart building blocks of today's Chinese cities. Let us take a look at them from an intercultural perspective.
Barriers 032
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Illustrations: Liis Roden
DIETER HASSENPFLUG
The vertical, high density neighborhood is the most important "building block" of the Chinese city. Here, the creation of borders refers to the historic role of walls for the organization of an urban society into clans and clan-like structures.
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Borders
Capture Israel and the West Bank. Hardly any other land is so complex in terms of its social and political structures. It seems impossible to convey this complexity with the help of images: the network of built and perceived boundaries or the atmosphere, each of which are almost impossible to describe verbally or to process emotionally. And yet the German photographer Thomas Struth shows us how this is possible. Four landscape portraits. THERESA RAMISCH
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Shuafat Refugee Camp, East Jerusalem 2009
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Borders
Living where How is public space influenced by Germany's past division into two separate states? This question is examined by the German contribution to this year's Venice Biennale of Architecture, where Marianne Birthler, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, and Graft Architekten are the curators of the “Unbuilding Walls� project.
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Photo: German Pavilion, Biennale Venice, Jan Bitter
UTE STRIMMER
The "Unbuilding Walls" Biennale project in Venice investigates the empty spaces left behind by the fall of the Berlin Wall.
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The photographer Tochiro Gallegos on the rooftop of his studio in the Mexican city of Reynosa. His artwork is very personal – he often reflects the situation in border communities such as Reynosa that are afflicted by a high level of violence.
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Borders
The World’s When thinking about borders, none of them seem to be as rich in both cultural symbolism and political implications as the frontier between Mexico and the U.S., the Frontera. And no border is as indicative as this one regarding the use of borders as a cultural platform, as an object of mediated strategies and engagements.
Photo: Stefan Falke Photography
ALEXANDER GUTZMER
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Borders
Territories The coast is known as a territory of both continuous change and permanence, a place where the borders of landscapes fluctuate. For the architectural research and photography studio COAST it is also an example of a territory of the Anthropocene that is neither purely natural nor entirely constructed. With its photo project “Borders” the studio reveals how framing the Danish coast makes it possible to identify the challenges that coastal societies and planners are facing in the present. RASMUS HJORTSHØJ
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North Harbour, Copenhagen – Land reclamation.
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