Cary Siress Hard Plan | Soft City by Cary Siress

ISBN 978-3-00-039747-9

HARD PLAN

SOFT CITY Cary Siress

HARD PLAN

SOFT CITY

Prof. Dr. Cary Siress

Assistent: Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Matthias Stippich

Martin Barner

Phillipp Boshart

Gilda BĂŠlorgy

Kevin Fournelle

David Frauenkron

Stefan Glueder Lena Keilhofer Vicky Klieber

Marina Kolb Lion Krauss

Franziska Mueller

Yan Pechatscheck Andreas Plaianu

Magdalena Stadler

Jenny Tran

Julia Vetter

Franziska Vogl

Marcus Wallbaum Yuichiro Yamada

Anna Yeboah

Laura Zalenga

© 2012 TUM Agenda Lehre Gastprofessur 2011/12 Prof. Dr. Cary Siress Urban Design Studio Munich-South 2012 TUM Technische Universität München B.A. Architektur – Integriertes Projekt Städtebau und Landschaftarchitektur TUM Technische Universität München Arcisstrasse 21 D-80333 München Deutschland ISBN 978-3-00-039747-9 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the Technical University of Munich, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the TUM Technical University of Munich at the address above. Limited Edition of 100 copies – printing and binding by Grafik Druck, GmbH – Peter Pölinger, Munich, Germany Cover image: Lu-Xinjian, City DNA Series, Munich, 2011, 140 x 220 cm, acrylic on canvas

Contents

MOOD

Soft City: An Opening In_Sight

Cary Siress

Bitte Beruhigen Sie Sich Nicht

Matthias Stippich

Stefan Hofer & Andreas N端tten

Moves: Out of Place, In Place, Taking Place

Cary Siress

DITOPIA

student work

TRAVOLUTION

student work

EQUALcITY

student work

IDENCITY

student work

FLEXITY

student work

Abschliessende Bemerkungen

MODE MADE

Succesful environments are always adapting. Agility of use The city as we imagine it, then, the soft city and occupation are to of illusion, myth, aspiration, and essential nightmare, the vitality a place. is asongoing real, maybe more real, than of the hard city oneforms can locate of on maps in statistics, in Agile local and loose monographs on urban sociology and planning stand in stark contrast and architecture... For better or todemography a deterministic universality of worse, the city invites you to remake it, to the master plan so heavily relied consolidate it into a shape you can live in. upon inDecide utopian visions of the You, too. who you are, and the city will again assumeforms a form around past. Agile of you. planning are Decide what it is, and own identity will responsive to your particular spatial be revealed, like a map charted by conditions on the ground at a triangulation. Cities, unlike villages and small given time, but are also flexible towns, are plastic by nature. We mould them enough tothey, accommodate in our images: in their turn, shape us change inbythat they they areoffer mindful the resistance when we tryof to always impose our ownurban personal form on themâ&#x20AC;Ś emergent orders and the At moments like this, the city goes soft; it temporary circumstances that awaits the imprint of an identity. arise or disappear with them. Agile forms of planning are opportunistic because they remain adaptive in their siteaware approach to city-making. Jonathan Raban, Soft City: A Documentary Exploration of Metropolitan Life, 1974

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Hall of Fameâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; near Tumblingerstrasse, Munich-Sendling one of the few sites in the city where graffiti artists can express themselves legally

1974

Soft City: An Opening In_Sight

Cary Siress

The novel by Jonathan Raban, Soft City, records one person’s attempt to plot a narrative course through the urban labyrinth. Holding up a revealing mirror to the modern built environment and its often conflicting dimensions, the city not only provides the setting for an expressive, personal drama about life in a thoroughly designed world, but also features as main protagonist of the story. Although written nearly 40 years ago, Raban’s book is perhaps even more relevant today in light of the exponential urbanization of the world, prompting us to ask what constitutes the ‘Soft City’ in our time? Is it something still so soft and intangible that escapes the hard facts of direct experience altogether? Or, is it something that becomes softer over time through everyday habit, something once new, but now too familiar and thus hidden from direct scrutiny by hardened urban routines? And if so, is urban softening also something overlooked by the directed, hard logic of the master plan, something too fast, too slow, or simply too unpredictable for a deterministic view of the city? We might well wonder whether the ‘Soft City’ can indeed be addressed at all by architects given that our conventional repertoire of tools is usually used to delineate the hard form and tight-fit function of fixed structures. How then can we as architects engage the ‘Soft City’ of today? With such questions in mind, the TUM Studio Munich-South focuses on tensions between architecture as ‘designed’ and the city as ‘used’, looking for openings in design thinking there where we usually only seek closure. We should recall that even though the ‘Hard City’ of built form might still be conceivable as a partially planned condition, the ‘Soft City’ of lived experience and use seldom plays out according to plan, so to speak. Rather, the ‘Soft City’ is made and remade continually by its users. It has both consistency and fuzzy borders, shaped as it is by need and desire. The ‘Soft City’ is thus always in the making: it can only be highly specific in its localized situations, extremely flexible in its modes of expression, and uniquely adaptive in its responses to change. Here, the designed ‘fit’ of the hard city loosens. Parts of urban space are softened to become less fixed and more open to fluid interpretation and use in contrast to the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach of hardcore, generic master planning. The unstable dialectic of hard and soft suggests that while architecture and the city are inseparable, they nevertheless belong to different orders. The city is by now THE condition of the ‘possible’, establishing what can happen both before, and often despite any architectural act of local determination. Moreover, architecture itself is only ONE possibility of the city among countless others. If the city constitutes the realm of the possible, this is because the city manifests an ‘agency’ in its own right, where the playing field, the terms of the game, and the players alike are ceaselessly recomposed. Consequently, architecture can only ever realize particular cases of urban possibility, but not without the city having first actualized the very horizon upon which architecture operates and toward which it is oriented. The generative genius of the city challenges the determinant logic of architectural design, openly substituting the elasticity of (soft) activities and uses for the premeditated immobility of architecture’s functional logics and (hard) forms.

Banksy, ‘Parking’, Los Angeles, 2012

Bitte Beruhigen Sie Sich Nicht warum es in der Architekturausbildung Positionen und nicht nur Ideen braucht

Matthias Stippich

Erfüllungsgehilfen Jaques Herzog sagte einst gege nur Ideenüber einer renomierten Architekturzeitschrift, dass es in Zukunft nur noch Stararchitekten und Erfüllungsgehilfen der Auftraggeber geben würde. Folgt man dieser Logik, dann müsste die Ausbildung junger ArchitektInnen und StadtplanerInnen auf das räumliche Erfüllen von definierten Vorgaben ausgerichtet sein. Wenn man sich den allgemeinen Hochschulbetrieb genauer betrachtet, scheint sie auch genau das zu sein. Hatte Jaques Herzog also recht? Warum sind die Ergebnisse, die dieser so motivierte, intelligente und talentierte Nachwuchs produziert einerseits so schön in ihrer Form, so perfekt dargestellt und inszeniert, andererseits dann doch so langweilig, austauschbar und wenig relevant in Ihrem Ergebnis? Hard City: das Primat der Form Die ureigenste Motivation und damit die Grundlage der Architektur-ausbildung ist nach wie vor die Produktion von Raum. Als Konsequenz dieser Grundlage ist die Generierung von Form das Ziel der Ausbildung. Maßgeblich für Generierung von Form sind aber die Vorgaben, die sowohl in der Ausbildung, als auch im Arbeitsalltag gemacht werden. Diese Formen werden schließlich danach bewertet, wie stringent, elegant oder außergewöhnlich sie die Vorgaben erfüllen. So sind die Ergebnisse, so funktional, poetisch und schön sie auch sein mögen, stets mehr oder weniger das Abbild des Partikularinteresses des Vorgebenden. Das scheint natürlich konsequent, schließlich ist der Vorgebende in der Machtposition, Vorgaben zu geben, sei es aufgrund der Hierarchie des Professoren-Studenten-Verhältnisses, sei es in der Hierarchie des Auftraggeber-Auftragnehmer-Verhältnisses im Arbeitsalltag. Das macht uns also zu Erfüllungsgehilfen. Darum bilden wir also Erfüllungsgehilfen aus. Wie konnte es soweit kommen? War das schon immer so? Haftet Architekten nicht auch immer der Ruf an, Idealisten und notorische Weltverbesserer zu sein? Doch das tut er. Und zwar zu Recht. Die Lösung einer Aufgabe kann auch in der Nichterfüllung der Vorgaben liegen. Manchmal werden auch Lösungen entwickelt, für 1 die noch gar keine Aufgaben gestellt wurden. Und manchmal tragen auch stringente, elegante und außergewöhnliche Lösungen dazu bei, Falsches zu 2 schaffen. Wollen wir uns also zukünftig aus der Position des Erfüllungsgehilfen emanzipieren, müssen wir junge ArchitektInnen dazu ermutigen, sich mit komplexen und schwierigen Realitäten jenseits der Form auseinanderzusetzten. Sie auffordern, nachzudenken statt zu folgen. Widerstand zu leisten. Position zu beziehen. Soft City: das komplexe Undefinierte An diesem Punkt startet unser Soft-City-Entwurfsansatz. Es geht um die Entwicklung einer Stadt, die mehr als nur die Summe ihrer Gebäude ist, ebenso wie die Gesellschaft mehr als die Summe ihrer Partikularinteressen ist. Wenn man so will 3 ist die Soft City das, was übrig bleibt wenn man das Gebaute von der Stadt abzieht. Die Soft City in Ihrer Komplexität umfassend zu begreifen, ist weder möglich, noch nötig. Wir versuchen, sie in ihren Teilaspekten zu begreifen und uns ihr anzunähern.

Bei diesem Annäherungsversuch stoßen wir sehr schnell an die Grenzen unserer Profession. Das ist unangenehm. Das macht angreifbar. Das tut weh. Doch ist es nicht gerade eine der Schlüsselqualifikationen eines Architekten, jenseits dieser Grenzen das Große und Ganze im Auge zu behalten und zielgerichtet verfolgen zu können? Es ist unsere Aufgabe, jenseits der Einzelinteressen von Investoren oder Consultants unsere Funktion als Sachwalter gesellschaftlicher Interessen wahrzunehmen. Das ist es auch, was eine Utopie von einer architektonischen Idee unterscheidet: Sie umfasst weit mehr als nur das Gebaute. Vor allem in den Auf4 bruchbuchzeiten nach durchstandenen Krisen hatten die Utopien von Thomas Morus 5 6 7 über Tommaso Campanella, von Ebenezer Howard bis LeCorbusier und von Frank 8 9 Llyod Wright bis hin zu Archigram eine enorme Bedeutung für die Entwicklungen der Stadt und der Gesellschaft. Die Utopien lösen in ihrem ursprünglichen Wortsinn (dem „Nicht-Ort“) die Vorstellung von Stadt und Raum von den jeweils herrschenden Machtverhältnissen. Sie lösen die Stadt von ihren Einzelformen. 10

Das Entwickeln von Utopien ist heute ungleich schwerer, als es zu Zeiten von Thomas Morus war. Die Realitäten sind desillusionierend und ungeheuer komplex. Das Spartenwissen ist zwar enorm, die Bildung einer übergeordneten Idee jedoch schwierig. Dennoch war es selten wichtiger als heute, in den Zeiten ökologischer (Klimawandel), ökonomischer (Finanz- & Schuldenkrise) und politischer (Occupy & arabischer Frühling) Systemkrisen, die Komplexitäten zu vereinen und den Versuch zu wagen, eine Utopie für die Stadt von morgen zu entwickeln. Es geht darum, sich angreifbar zu machen und eine Position zu beziehen. Die Form wird dabei letztendlich sekundär. Sie wird zum Medium, über das man Kritik oder Unterstützung formulieren kann. Man kann die Form bewusst für oder gegen eine existierende Situation formulieren. Dieses Experiment haben wir mit den Studenten der Soft-CityDesignclass der TU München 2012 gewagt. Position beziehen Um eine Position zu beziehen brauchen Studenten etwas, woraus sie ihre eigene Haltung entwickeln können, für oder gegen das sie kämpfen können. Aus einer Reihe zeitgenössischer Highlights der Stadtplanung wie OMA’s Melun Senart, dem Parc de la Vilette, der New Yorker Highline, Masdar oder Bilbao entwickelten sie dann streitbare Positionen, die sie für oder gegen die Projekte bezogen. Diese Standpunkte wurden dann in Form von Manifesten komprimiert. Die ganz starke plakative Verkürzung, wie auch die politischen Implikationen, die dieses Format beinhaltet, qualifizierten es als ideales Medium für die Darstellung der Positionen. Aus diesen sehr durchdachten und kontrovers diskutierten Manifesten entwickelten sich spektakuläre, polarisierende und teilweise auch provokante Vorstellungen, wie die Stadt der Zukunft aussehen kann und was für wechselseitige Auswirkungen Stadt und Gesellschaft zukünftig haben werden. Die diagrammetrische Ausformulierung in Gebäudekörper, die für gewöhnlich ganze Semester belegt, fand letztendlich beinahe beiläufig und selbstverständlich statt. Die Form wird zum Werkzeug der Utopie. Das Soft-City-Studio TUM 2012 will Provokation, Experiment und Prototyp sein. Emanzipiert Architekturstudenten von der Form, dann emanzipiert ihr die Stadt der Zukunft vom Formalismus.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

vgl. Arbeitsweise Studio Urban Kataylst vgl. Gazprom / St. Petersburg; Stadtschloss / Berlin vgl. Build Magzin “Emergenz” (April 2009). Thomas Morus, Utopia, (Paris: Löwen), (Basel: 1518). Tommaso Campanella, Sonnenstaat, (Frankfurt: 1623).

Ebenezer Howard, Tomorrow, a peaceful path to social reform, (London: 1880). Le Corbusier, La Ville radieuse, “Editions de l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui”, (Bologne-sur-Seine: 1935). Frank Lloyd Wright, The Living City, (New York: Horizon Press, 1958). Peter Cook, Archigram, (Basel: Birkhäuser Verlag, 1991). Winfried Nerdinger mit Hilde Strobl und Markus Eisen, “L’architecture engagée – Manifeste zur Veränderung der Gesellschaft”, Edition Detail, (München, 2012).

‘The Holstee Manifesto’, Mike and Dave Radparvar, Fabian Pfortmüller, New York, 2009 just-do-it activist manifesto that has received 80,000,000 ‘hits’ worldwide on the internet in the 3 years since its inception

Andreas Gursky, Presto F-1 Team Boxenstopp, 2007

Abschliessende Bemerkungen Ein mutiger und wichtiger Ansatz, welcher dem gestellten Thema ‘Soft city’ gerecht wird und aufzeigt, dass es sich bei der Stadtplanung immer um dynamische Prozesse handelt. Während der Abschlusspräsentation war deutlich spürbar, dass im Verlauf der Semesterarbeit ein komplexer Lernprozess in Gang gesetzt worden war, der alle Beteiligten in einen spannenden Diskurs um zeitaktuelle Positionen, Programme und Inhalte eingebunden hatte.

Stefan Hofer & Andreas Nütten

Die zu Beginn programmatisch formulierten Manifeste mit allen ihren Potentialen und Konsequenzen wurden durch den städtebaulichen Entwurf sehr anschaulich ‘verräumlicht’ und lieferten damit einen sichtbaren und prüfbaren morphologischen Abdruck der vorangestellten Theorie. So wird der städtebauliche Entwurf Teil eines neugierig umherschweifenden Suchprozesses, der den spannungsvollen Spagat schlägt zwischen programmatischen Zielsetzung einerseits und der ‘Inwertsetzung’ konkreter ortsspezifischer Qualitäten andererseits. In der Diskussion um Chancen und Risiken liefert der Entwurf konsequent übersetzte und sehr konkret bildhafte Argumente. Am Beispiel dieser Semesterarbeiten zeigt sich, wie das Entwerfen als ‘reflexive Praxis’ in einen wissenschaftlichen Kontext gestellt werden kann, wie Erkenntnis gewonnen, aktiv und differenziert geformt werden kann. Es zeigt sich, wie zwischen Lehrenden und Studierenden, auch zwischen verschiedenen Fachdisziplinen, Verwaltungen und Baupraktikern und der Bevölkerung ein Dialog etabliert werden könnte, dessen geeignete Kommunikationsformate noch zu erkunden wären. Das Formulieren von Positionen und deren geschickte Einbindung in Kommunikationsprozesse ist bedeutsam und wird es künftig noch stärker werden. Von Übungen dieser Art können Studierende und Lehrende gleichermaßen profitieren. Gruppenarbeiten

Ditopia Die vorhandenen örtlichen Qualitäten weiterentwickeln: Von allen Beiträgen greift diese Gruppe am konsequentesten konkrete Ortsbeziehungen auf. Die Inwertsetzung vorhandener kleinräumlicher Teilidentitäten und die Möglichkeit der Beteiligung möglichst vieler Bewohner an lokalen Aktivitäten schafft als sogenannter ‘Do-It-Yourself-Urbanismus’ eine hohe, authentisch-reale, gleichwohl changierende Quartiersidentität. Eine prägnante öffentliche Grundebene aus vorhandenen und neuen Elementen bestimmt im Wesentlichen den Charakter und die Qualität des neuen Stadtteils. Travolution Neue Mobilitätskonzepte generieren neue Stadt-Landschaft: Von allen Beiträgen entwickelt die Gruppe am konsequentesten eine neue Form der veritablen Stadt-Landschaft. Interessanterweise resultiert diese aus Überlegungen zu zukünftigen Mobilitätskonzepten. Ohne zunächst mit konkreter Gestaltung verknüpft zu sein, werden ansprechende ‘bewegte’ Erlebnisräume vorgeschlagen, die einem Lifestyle des ‘constant flow’ adäquate räumliche Entsprechung geben. In der entwurflichen Ausarbeitung werden spannungsvolle innovative Gebäudetypologien mit ‘mehreren Erdgeschossen’ zwischen wellenförmig oszillierenden Wegebändern vorgeschlagen.

Equal’c’ity Alle sind gleich und verhandeln den Raum: Von allen Beiträgen bietet dieser das konsequenteste politisch-gesellschaftliche Statement. Eine ‘Welt der Gleichheit’ als Ausgangslage wird in ein spannendes und spielerisch vorgetragenes räumliches Konzept übersetzt. Die Möglichkeit der individuellen Selbstverwirklichung der Bewohner ist unmittelbar verknüpft mit grundlegenden Prinzipien von Verantwortung, Partizipation, Engagement und Einigung auf wenige, wesentliche und verbindliche Leitlinien. Idencity Vertraute Form neu kalibriert: Dieser Beitrag besticht durch seine konzeptionelle Stärke. Für vielfältige städtebauliche Kontexte anwendbar, entwickelt die Gruppe eine fein abgestufte analytische Entwurfsmethodik und eine überzeugende stadträumliche Argumentation. Was bei der Auseinandersetzung mit urbanen ‘Stadtvisionen’ im Ergebnis konventionell anmuten mag, schafft sehr ausdifferenzierte Raumfiguren mit klaren Zielstellungen und Interaktionspotenzialen, die eine veritable urbane Aneignungs- und Nutzungsflexibilität erlauben. Eine wohltuende Ruhe geht von diesem Beitrag aus - dass auch in vertrauter Form so viel Differenzierungs- und Transformationspotenzial für die Stadt von morgen enthalten ist. Flexity Programmierung und strategische Vernetzung: Von allen Beiträgen veranschaulicht dieser am konsequentesten die Umsetzung der Soft-City Themen ‘Hardware’, ‘Software’ und ‘Programm’. Über Landmarks und Vernetzungslinien wird das Areal strategisch aufgespannt. Dadurch werden Raumgerüste vorgezeichnet, die eine Bespielung bzw. Choreographie eines zukünftigen Quartiers entstehen lassen, das vielfältige Kontakt- und Begegnungszonen ermöglicht und dessen Zwischenräume flexibel befüllbar sind. Zusammenfassung Die Aufgabenstellung des ‘Soft City’ Entwurfes war sehr anspruchsvoll. Sich im zweiten Studienjahr und als Städtebau-’Novizen’ solchen methodischen und inhaltlichen Anforderungen zu stellen, löste bei uns Gastkritikern großen Respekt aus. Die Studenten erhielten damit jedoch die außergewöhnliche Chance, über ihre gewählten Manifeste und ein primär programmatisches Entwerfen, in einen intensiven Diskussionsprozess um die ‘Welt-in-der-wir-leben’ und die ‘Welt-wie-siesein-könnte’ zu gelangen. ‘Soft City’ war nicht der übliche erste (primär ergebnisorientierte) Städtebauentwurf. Dennoch lässt sich für die Mehrheit der Arbeiten feststellen, dass die in der relativ kurzen Ausarbeitungsphase als ‘Szenarien’ aufgezeigten baulichen Typologien und räumlichen Anordnungen neben dem schon viel diskutierten inhaltlichen Innovationsgehalt grundsätzlich in ihrer Maßstäblichkeit, Struktur und Organisation adäquate und für den Umgebungskontext angemessene Lösungsansätze waren. Somit wurde auch das ‘klassische’, handwerkliche und praxisorientierte Lernergebnis erreicht.

Auf Nachfrage, ob sie die knappe Ausarbeitungszeit beunruhigt hätte, war die überwiegende Einschätzung der Studenten, dass sie die konzeptionelle Klarheit, die sie bis zu Beginn der Ausarbeitungsphase erlangt hatten, positiv empfunden haben. Dies hätte ihnen viel Entscheidungssicherheit bis ins Detail gegeben. Eine gewisse (teilweise gewollte) Unvollendetheit der städtebaulichen Entwürfe stellt somit nur den Anfang einer möglichen Detaillierungsphase auf sehr solider konzeptioneller Basis dar. Erkenntnisgewinn aus dem Entwurf ‘Soft City’ für die Städtebaulehre Jeder Entwurfsbeitrag im Städtebau impliziert prozessorientiertes Denken. Es gibt für die zu beurteilenden Zeitspannen und auch innerhalb der Gesellschaft immer weniger Konstanz. Vielmehr bestimmen Multioptionalität, komplexer werdende Wirkungszusammenhänge und sich ständig erweiternde Aktionsradien die Alltagsrealitäten. Dies ist mit Chancen sowie Unsicherheiten verbunden. Ebenso existiert nicht ‘die eine Wahrheit’, an der man sich orientieren könnte. Es gilt also insbesondere im städtebaulichen Entwurf mit dem Paradoxon operieren zu können, klare Position zu beziehen ohne dogmatisch zu sein, Fixierung zu geben und dennoch Möglichkeiten offen zu halten, sich in gewissen Punkten robust und in vielen anderen flexibel und anpassungsfähig zu zeigen. Dieser schwierige Balanceakt will trainiert und mit jeder Aufgabe aufs Neue getestet werden. Vor diesem Hintergrund lässt sich vom Entwurf ‘Soft City’ lernen: Entwerfen in größeren Maßstäben ist primär ein vielfältiger Kommunikationsprozess, sowohl teamintern wie auch bei der externen Vermittlung. Dabei können räumliche, szenische oder diagrammatische Bilder hohe Überzeugungskraft auslösen. Das Herstellen solcher Bilder ist eine Kernkompetenz von Architekten, was der Berufsstand bewusst und opportunistisch einsetzen kann. Über Bilder lassen sich auf sehr prägnante und kontrollierbare Weise Positionen und Standpunkte vermitteln, was über die Manifeste und den daraus abgeleiteten „urbanen Visionen“ deutlich wurde. Nicht nur die Entwürfe selbst lieferten diese Bilder, sondern auch ‘sprachliche’ Bilder. Durch die Titel der Arbeiten wurden starke Assoziationen hervorgerufen, die die Entwürfe als bestimmende Leitlinie geprägt haben, auch dies eine wesentliche Erkenntnis. Schlüssiges Argumentieren lernen, sprachfähig werden, Unsicherheiten überwinden und letztlich zu überzeugen - dies alles wird in einem programmatisch angelegten Städtebauentwurf trainiert. Es braucht demzufolge beides: einerseits ein solides städtebaulich-entwerferisches Handwerk, so wie es in der Lehre konventionell vermittelt wird, andererseits die programmatische und kommunikative Schulung, wie es im Entwurf ‘Soft City’ antizipiert wurde, um die Unsicherheiten der Gegenwartsrealitäten als Chance zu begreifen und als Architekt und Stadtplaner diesen nicht nur formal, sondern auch inhaltlich begegnen und mit Verantwortung und Argumenten standhalten zu können.

Conceptual Plot orienting

positioning

MOVE 01_EXPOSE

(weeks 01-05_ groups)

out of place

what is it about? meaning

how does it work? application

performance

course introduction, group formation, overview of investigations (analyze + abstract)

flexible manifesto

a) analyzing > how does the case study work? (studying the workings of a case study in terms of influences, assumptions, critique, method, tools, impact, etc.)

from what to how

b) abstracting > what is of use in the case study? (mining the case study for design strategies)

moving from the ‘problem-solving’ fixation of design thinking toward a ‘prospect-finding’ sensibility that avoids the true-false opposition of meaning-making in architecture design by focusing on how the city works instead of asking from the outset what does it mean?

c) appropriating > to which (other) ends can the case study be put to use? (using the case study to formulate a group ‘position’ on the theme of ‘Soft City’)

truth / falsity

‘SOFT CITY’ (DESIRE + THE PLAN): to develop an understanding of the role of theory and technique with respect to the values with which they are invested in design propositions Δ (from WHAT to HOW – product vs. process) ΔT

projecting

MOVE 02_COMPOSE

(weeks 06-10_ groups) finished product

ΔS

in place

‘SOFT CITY’ (PLACE + ENTANGLEMENT): to develop a responsible awareness of the interactions between people, places, things, events, and how they are entangled within multiple relational frameworks Δ (from FORM to SITUATIONS) performing

MOVE 03_PROPOSE FIX solution

actual

problem

possible

MIX

(weeks 11-15_ groups & teams)

tendencies

vital initiative plan

e) translating place > neighborhood scan (devising situational rule sets for programming place on the basis of use analysis)

from design to use moving from a ‘product-driven’ formal obsession of design thinking toward an ‘open-process’ sensibility that draws on contingencies of use in real-time and real-space that occur after the fact, and in spite of willed design intention

d) surveying place > neighborhood life account (activity- and flow-prints of an urban place in use)

opening design to lessons of use

DESIGN

(divert + disclose)

taking place

(test + translate)

design mixes

f) programming > identifying an open set of variables for design mixes g) projecting > mixing the site through scenarios

virtual

from problem to tendencies moving from a ‘remedy-oriented’ complex of design thinking (FIX) toward a ‘catalytic’ sensibility for generating timely and relevant design cultures (MIX) rather than merely servicing well-rehearsed cultural expectations of design

‘SOFT CITY’ (VISION + MESSAGE): to develop communicative skills (verbal, written, mixed media 2-D and 3D) in conveying design propositions in the form of a responsible and relevant vision concerning the Soft City of our time Δ (from FIX TO MIX) curating

guests

Hard Plan-Soft City, Haus der Architektur Bayerische Architektenkammer Dipl.-Ing. Lutz Heese VFA, Präsident der Bayerischen Architektenkammer Dipl.-Ing.(FH) Stefan Hofer, Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Nütten

Moves: Out of Place, In Place, Taking Place

Cary Siress

The aim of the TUM Studio Munich-South is to motivate a design sensibility informed by a critical analysis of the pubic use of urban space, and to develop innovative strategies to regenerate inner-city life by promoting the proactive use of collective places and social interaction among a broad spectrum of citizens. The course is structured by a series of interrelated design ‘moves’ that proceed from off-site analysis, to on-site investigations, to scenario propositions that reconsider what constitutes the operative ‘sites’ for architecture today. The term ‘moves’ is meant to accentuate the mobile series of exploratory acts that constitute design. Focus Students are introduced to subtle, ever-changing relationships between architecture and the city. We aim to discover how the ‘Soft City’ – the complex spatial and temporal networks formed by use, need, and desire – might offer opportunities for innovative design in the built environment. Instead of designing strictly for function and asking what form we might give to the city, we will focus primarily on how the city is used to help us think through current urban issues and make informed design decisions. The city is therefore enlisted as prime ‘catalyst’ for architectural design rather than viewed as a passive, background setting obediently awaiting intervention. Challenge If the days of generic planning are over, we as architects must design more adaptive types of local plans that can address the theme of ‘Soft City’– a realm that that manifests some coherence in what it says and what it does, but which continually dissolves and morphs into something else. This condition calls for daring programmatic collisions, particularly with regard to public space, work, and leisure, as well as to ideas for temporary ‘pop-up’ or ‘flash’ initiatives that might serve to stimulate new communal identities. Also to be considered are more resourceful ways of living in the city, whether in innovative housing arrangements for collectives, families, and individuals, or in some other, as of yet unknown form of inhabiting the urban envrionment. Approach We will initially examine theoretical reflections on the urban realm through a series of case studies taken from other contexts (out of place). We then shift our focus to quotidian realities of urban life through on-site fieldwork to gain firsthand knowledge about a city neighborhood in Munich (in place), without one mode of study taking priority over the other. The findings of these investigations will be used in the studio to devise various re-vitalization scenarios for an industrial site in Munich-Sendling aimed at transforming it into a novel, hybrid quarter of divergent uses and lifestyles (taking place). With this combination of case-study research, fieldwork, and studio testing, the city is approached as an experiment still in the making. We are not interested in imitating any particular architectural style or slavishly adhering to given typologies. Instead, we aim for inventive and unprecedented design propositions. We understand architecture as an unexpected result of experimentation rather than only as a product of anticipated intention. Consequently, the design studio is intended to be speculative and opportunistic, rather than comprehensive or authoritative.

out of place case studies • SPECULATIVE PROCEDURES: Ville Nouvelle for Melun Sénart, OMA, Paris, 1987 • DÉTOURNEMENT: The High Line, Diller-Scofidio + Renfro, New York, 1999-2009 • ONE-OFFs: The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Frank O. Gehry, Bilbao, 1997 • PROGRAMMATIC COLLISION: Parc de la Villette, OMA, Paris, 1982-1983 • UTOPIA UPDATE: Masdar, Foster + Partners, Abu Dhabi, 2007

operations

social content (rhythms, routines, rituals)

material content (innovation, iconicity identity-production)

case study

nature-relevant content (environment & landscape)

01a

from form to formation analysis of social (S), natural (N), technical (T), and material (M) levels of content and how their particular entanglements make up the design position of the case study

technical content (prototypes, processes, production techniques)

M S T M N N T M S T M S T N T S T M N M

01b

from solution to sampling

N M T S T S M T N M

re-aasembly of content in new compounds

break-down of compounds of content of the case study and analysis of their possible re-combination according to different parameters of use

group manifesto p2 plotting design positions

01c

from product to tool appropriation and re-use of case study project as conceptual tool-kit for devising a group position pertaining to architecture design and the ‘Soft City’

MOVE 01_EXPOSE ex•pose [ik-spohz], verb: to lay open to something specified; to present to scrutiny; to display; to make known, disclose, or reveal.

Forming a Position: Vision and its Constructs The first part of the course is focused on how design visions are constructed. In groups, students are asked to analyze a select case study in terms of how it works, that is, how beliefs, theories, and strategies are assembled to project a vision for part of the city. Of particular importance to the analysis are various layers of content that make up a design vision: social, natural, technical, and material levels of content, for example, that are brought together in the project in such a way as to make a case for the specific design proposition. This exercise pertains to a critical assessment of a case study taken from another context. The goal is to use the case study to devise a group position about architecture and the ‘Soft City’. To begin the analysis, each group must consider which strategic questions to ask in order to ‘read through’ the case study and explore its inner workings. For instance, what other works influence the case study? What is at stake in the project? Who benefits as its key stakeholders? Who is marginalized? What is deemed essential in the city in this case study? What is regarded as expendable? Furthermore, does the project place an emphasis on certain aspects of the city at the expense of others? What is ‘hard’ and what is ‘soft’ about the vision? Three interrelated modes of inquiry will serve as guidelines for the group analyses: 01a) How Does It Work? (group presentation: mixed media, 1 week) Each student group will decide on the criteria by which the case study project is examined and will analyze it according to various layers of content as deemed relevant by the group. At issue here is a qualitative, rather than purely quantitative analysis. > This initial part of the analysis should demonstrate a precise understanding of how the case study project works as a design position about the city, 01b) What Is Of Use? (group presentation: mixed media, 1 week) Each student group will abstract specific design principles from the case study analysis that can be used to formulate key points of a group position concerning architecture design and the theme of ‘Soft City’. > This part of the analysis should demonstrate what can be taken from the case study and used conceptually for your own design purposes, 01c) To Which Ends? (group presentation: mixed media, 2 weeks) Each student group will appropriate the findings of the investigation in such a way as to produce a flexible manifesto that expresses the group’s understanding of the theme of ‘Soft City’ and its relevance for architecture design. > This part of the analysis should demonstrate an ability to synthesize the investigation into a coherent series of written and illustrated statements, and to which ends they can be used as a projective design tool for the ‘Soft City’. 1. Testat Success with this part of the course depends on the ability to learn from a case study, and to adapt the lessons into a strategic position that might inform opportunistic thinking about the city’s design potential (what can the city do?). Each student group will produce a flexible manifesto (mixed media) that questions hard-form habits of thinking about the city and presents the city’s more dynamic, soft qualities. The group manifestos will be evaluated with regard to precision of insight into the workings of design vision, effective use of the analysis to formulate responsible design positions about the urban environment, and skill of the flexible manifesto itself in opening up design opportunities in relation to the theme of ‘Soft City’.

v in place field-work The test site for this investigation is the ’Ladebahnhof München Süd’, situated in a culturally-mixed neighborhood of Sendling near Gotzingerplatz. Defined by typological and scale disjunctions, the site is currently occupied by industrial buildings and railway tracks that are to be taken into account as part of the existing urban landscape. A dense neighborhood from the beginning of the last century defines the western edge of the site. The southern edge of the site is bordered by large urban markets. On the northeastern edge of the site, train tracks cut a large canal between Sendling and Isarvorstadt.

group manifesto

operations

° ° + ° °° ° °° ° ° ° ° ° + student observer + °° +

+ ° °

°°

st(w)alking as method +

neighborhood subject

02a

from space to place translation of neighborhood scan into a flexible programming concept for the Sendling site that tests the position of the group manifesto relative to the live attributes of a particular place

neighborhood scan

neighborhood attractors + influences of local agency

space-time matrix of program mixes

360,000m

programmable volume

02b-d

from plan to 3-D zoning 3-dimensional testing of programming concept in various planimetric and sectional distribution schemes according to different scenario settings

vital initiative plan

MOVE 02_COMPOSE com•pose [kuhm-pohz], verb: to make or form by combining things and actions; to gather and assemble in an organizational format; to form the basis of a decision or act.

Programming Place: Sensings, Settings, Situations Whereas the first part of the semester involved formulating a position about the Soft City in the form of a flexible manifesto, the next part of the course pertains to using the manifesto as an analytical framework to study specific qualities of the MunichSendling neighborhood. You are asked to investigate how urban space is actually used on a daily/nightly basis, often contrary to its intended scope or function. We are reminded that even the most carefully planned environment can never really be concluded by design. The goal of this investigation is to get to know lived territories of the Soft City of Munich-Sendling. Where do people feel familiar in this part of the city? What paths do they retrace without thinking? What enables or interferes with their routines? The Soft City is a realm before or beyond official forms of meaning, more like an instinctive sense of place than a bounded field on a map. The Soft City is a living space, a cruising range experienced by moving, by wandering, like a dog in the backyard, like lovers in a bed, like a child exploring patterns on a wall. The Soft City opens up space for choices in ways of being; it provides substance for expression. Instead of either/or, the Soft City follows a logic of and…and…and… Again, a series of related moves will structure the group investigations of this area: 02a) Neighborhood Scan (group presentation: mixed media, 2 weeks) To explore contemporary urban dynamics, we must shift from a ‘bounded field’ conception of the city to a ‘mobile and multiple situations’ approach in order to understand local urban routines and rhythms. Therefore, each student group will employ walking as a tactical form of urban experience ‘down below’ in contrast to the strategic planning view ‘from above’. The criteria for the routes chosen for the place analysis should be based on the points of the group manifesto. > This investigation will be used to produce a group ‘neighborhood scan’ that shows how places in and around the Sendling site are used in real-space and -time. The results from each group should not only provide an analytical portrait of this place, but also should show how the group manifesto was used to orient the analysis. 02b-d) Vital Initiative Plans (group work: mixed media, 3 weeks) On the basis of the neighborhood scans, each group will design a ‘vital initiative plan’ for the Sendling site (scale 1:500 – 1:1000) that shows potential uses. The plan should respond both to the place as analyzed, and to the points of the manifesto. > As a 3D relief model, the vital initiative plan should show possible program combinations – public space, work, housing, leisure, landscape, etc. – in both the xy-axes (plan) and in the z-axis (section). The construct should also indicate zones where programs might occur on the site. Although the program combinations are defined by each group, the coding system for the vital initiative plans will be defined collectively in order to allow for comparative analysis. 2. Testat Success with this part of the course depends on the ability to make insightful readings of an urban place as used, and to use this information to construct a vital initiative plan that demonstrates innovative ways to ‘program’ place. With this, we achieve comparative readings of place and a better understanding of what each group manifesto offers to urban design. The work of each group will be evaluated with respect to how effectively their vital initiative plan responds to both the specific qualities of the neighborhood in Sendling and to the earlier manifesto positions.

v taking place design mixes + scenario storyboard 1) QUESTION: short WHAT IF..? questions and a series of key terms or thematic ‘tags’ that summarize what is considered to be important issues from the group programming concept; 2) PRECEDENT: reference images from relevant sources that offer a possible orientation for responding to each of these WHAT IF..? questions, 3) TRANSLATION: a diagram that translates each WHAT IF..? question and the corresponding reference image into a design scenario strategy; 4) HORIZONTAL + VERTICAL FIELDS: a planimetric and sectional diagram of ALL levels that shows how these individual diagrams might be assembled together as an architectural proposition for the Sendling site in multiple scales

operations 03a-d

from project to scenarios

vital initiative plan

design testing and synthesis of group manifesto and programming concept according to different scenario prospects for the Munich-Sendling site

v plan

section

attractor anything goes

etc.

gallery

closed block

grid

stacked

square / plaza

local market

etc.

living unit

cinema

point / tower

mosaic

interlocked

park / garden

concert

etc.

young singles

living + work

library

lines / bar

patches

blended

sports field

protest

etc.

elderly couples

living + hobby

game room

mat / carpet

cluster

holey

hills / valleys

street art

etc.

students

studio + bar / club big box unit

field

striated

forest

speed date

etc.

group

activity

families

living + work

young couples

etc.

catalyst typology

etc.

mixing board

What if..?

Precedent Orientation

Diagrammatic Translation

Design Diagram

design storyboard

programmatic overlaps

what if the Soft City is served by massive hyper-volumes with interiors hollowed by populations of big public voids that function as spatial

activity nodes

attractors of special collective activities? > key terms • holey space (sponge) • hyper-form (bigness)

conceptual model showing sectional

• porous-scapes

distribution of special programmatic zones

• solid-void assemblages

within hyper-volume

• subtractive urbanism Competition for the Très Grand Bibliothèque, OMA, Paris 1989

hollowings

> Urban Ground Plane perforated base of different activities

what if the Soft City is served by strategically folded surfaces that allow promiscuous encounters of different programs and uses? > key terms • folded space (ribbon) • pliant form (multiplicity) • continuous surface • inside-outside assemblages • fluid urbanism

conceptual models and diagrams showing sectional folding of different programmatic zones within volume Competition for Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology, Diller + Scofidio + Renfro, New York 2002

> Urban Middlescape folded topology of varying densities of program

Horizontal Field programmatic layers in planimetric diagrams

design scenarios

what if the Soft City is formed by a system of endless circulation paths that rise vertically in space, serving not only as a means of movement, but also as the main realm of public life? > key terms • linear and flat spaces (strip) • journey-form (itineraries) • travel-scapes • technological promenade

conceptual model and diagrams showing continuous surface and roofscape for car parking / exploring the relationships between car and city

• horizontal urbanism Proposal for Carstadt, NL Architects, Amsterdam 1995

> Urban Loop interwoven typology of programmatic bands

Vertical Field programmatic layers in sectional diagrams

design scenario choreography

Ladebahnhof München Süd

MOVE 03_PROPOSE pro•pose [pruh-pohz], verb: to offer or suggest (a matter, subject, case, etc.) for consideration or action; to put before oneself as something to be done; design; speculate.

Design Scenarios: Forms of Use and Uses of Form In the first part of the course, design statements were formulated about the city on the basis of a contemporary urban case study. The resulting ‘flexible manifestos’ were put to use as conceptual tools to analyze a Munich neighborhood and to produce a ‘scan’ of its lived qualities. These investigations then formed the basis of a ‘vital initiative plan’ that explores innovative programmatic combinations for the Sendling area. In the remainder of the semester, we will use the vital initiative plans to explore more precise architectural ‘design scenarios’ that show how the site might perform architecturally according to your group programming concept and manifesto position. In teams of 2 students from your respective groups, you are asked to consider a more specific design scenario that tests the programming concept in architectural terms. Each team’s scenario should test different ideas of the group programming concept! The design scenario begins by identifying a set of key focal issues that relate to your group manifesto and to a key idea from the programming concept. Because scenarios deal with the future, they begin with the speculative question: “What if…?” By asking this question in a disciplined and systematic way, you can rehearse concrete possibilities of tomorrow, and then make design decisions in the present on the basis of those provocations and insights. Please keep in mind that we are not designing for an ‘ideal’ world as is often the case with architectural propositions, but rather for a life-world that is remade continuously by collective uses that take place in real-space and -time. In designing for the ‘Soft City’ of MunichSendling, we are reminded that the function of design is not only to make the lived environment more attractive, but to make it more adaptive, more capable of dealing with changing demands and unforeseen circumstances of our time. The goal of this exercise is to use your design scenarios (precise stories, narratives, plots, diagrams, references, etc.) as a means for testing the implications of your program mixes for the Munich-Sendling site in concrete, architectural proposals. Here, the scenario serves as an organizing framework for making precise decisions about your architectural design proposition. What does the Soft City of MunichSendling offer to the surrounding neighborhood and to the greater city region? What new life conditions does your scenario enable? How does your design scenario support and diversify activities in space and time? For whom are you designing? How does your design scenario work to open the space of what is now considered ‘possible’ in the city? What will the Soft City of Munich-Sendling become? With such questions addressed, each team’s storyboard should work to choreograph your design scenario in architectural terms (spaces, volumes, etc.). Consider your work as an experiment in architectural ‘mixing’ for designing spatial prototypes. Each team might consider how a DJ would ‘mix’ the site. The design mixes of each team should reflect the analytical work on the theme of Soft City from the previous group investigations. 3. Testat Success with this part of the course depends on the ability to use the previous investigations to conceive of design variables and rules for their possible combinations. The group work to produce a mixing board and the team design mixes will be evaluated on the basis of their clear relation to the earlier analysis, for spatial and programmatic innovation, and skill in responding to the theme of ‘Soft City’.

Masdar as case study

5776m desert

5329m meadow

8100m forest

2601m meadow

1225m culture

1681m island

‘site’ as a series of relays between ‘virtual’ utopia (no place) of the internet and

‘actual’ world of physical location

pixel island / parcel of territorial desire linked to virtual world of global commodity

virtual field

actual field

Sendling as ‘middle-zone’ between actual and virtual realms (local utopia)

thematic analysis of Masdar

3-D study of synaptic connections across site / information transfer between local situations and globalized incidents

synapse

situated circuits of transfer between the local, regional, and global city

dialogue

DITOPIA Case Study Analysis • Masdar: site (desert) chosen as (empty) stage for technological oasis (Post-Oil Utopia) – background of ‘nothing’ used to highlight the model city; • city of ZERO’s (0 waste, 0 CO2 emissions, 0 = NEW URBAN PROMISE OF TECHNOLOGY) – emblematic project of country (UAE) • targets of sustainability: SOCIETY, ENVIRONMENT, ECONOMY (3 ecologies); • university as cultural ‘hub’ of Masdar (education as cultural icon for new city); • hybrid of local (Middle East) building typologies and (Western) technology; • city as lab experiment for hypothetical population; • ‘pros’ and ‘cons’ of the project as a utopia raises questions such as: can a utopian project be realized as an inhabited and lived place (‘utopia’ means literally ‘no place’)?; Case Study Abstraction • a group puzzle is used to show the different aspects of the case study analysis: ‘Future-Oriented Capacities of the City’, ‘Sustainability’, ‘Culture and Context Specificity’, ‘Infrastructure’; ! the main theme seems to be the ‘Future-Oriented Capacities of the City’. Sustainability would certainly be in this category, but so would infrastructural innovation. A separate theme related to this would be that of ‘Culture and Context Specificity’, and whether a utopian project can, by definition as ‘no place’ be culturally or contextually specific; Case Study Appropriation • the discussion after the presentation led to 3 possible approaches: a) producing a manifesto that would formulate the future-oriented capacities a city would have to have in order to be sustainable in a contextually specific way (Local Utopia); b) producing a manifesto that is based solely on different promises about the city of the future – this would be a collage of various proposed urban futures from the past and present (Collage Utopia); c) producing a manifesto about a model city that could be visited like an exhibition or ‘model home’. This model city (p-0-lis) could act as a critical ‘mirror’ of the present city – much like Michel Foucault’s ‘heterotopia’ from 1967. The manifesto could thus be conceived like a catalogue for a ‘model city’ without the frictions of a real population, and would simultaneously reflect upon how we might inhabit the REAL CITY better (Urban Doppelgänger); • possible driving question of manifesto: what if the Soft City is a mirror double of the hard city, an unruly twin that critically subverts its more inflexible counterpart by refracting (breaking up) its dominant (and dominating) images?; = LOCAL UTOPIA or REFRACTED (critically mirrored) URBANISM. Programming Concept • different attractor poles of Theresienwiese/Flaucher and inner-city/outer-city (N-S and E-W axes); • in combination with these MACRO-attractors (large-scale influences), the group proposes MICRO-attractors on the site as ‘synaptic’ nodes that form a network of programmatic relations on the site. What forms the cores, and what forms the connections of the synaptic model?; • analysis of missing resources in the neighborhood revealed 2 primary target groups for programming consideration: ‘young’ and ‘elderly’ *(this aspect could lead to interesting programmatic collisions and hybrid activity mixes). • neighborhood ‘portal’ for ‘DIY’ initiatives is interesting.

Phillipp Boshart

Gilda Bélorgy

Franziska Vogl

perimeter and point field

01_concept for DIY vertical gardens: urban ‘ready-made’ Freitagshop, Zurich agency of the border

activated edges

02_concept for communal attractors: urban ‘chameleon’ Le Volcan, Le Havre

DIY pockets

distributed DIY zones

03_concept for DIY public space: urban ‘canvas’ Olympic Village, Munich

re-use of existing tracks

organizing circuit

04_concept for re-use of industrial landscape: urban ‘archaeology’ Shöneberger Naturepark, Berlin affiliations

05_concept for guerilla spatial tactics: urban ‘acupuncture’ Klohäuschen Gallery, Munich

site-works: dual worlds of the designed and DIY

3D study of situation of programmatic volume within activity field

we make sendling just do it, use it!

urban highlight map of site and its latencies

RAUMFABRIK: community DIY courtyard with vertical guerilla gardens

we have too much of everything. find out what people really want and produce less!

backyard collision horizontal guerilla gardens with integrated traces of former industrial elements

The Highline as case study

every 2nd person owns a car

5613 traffic accidents per year on average

on average, each car is used 1 hour per day

each driver spends an average of 20 minutes looking for a parking space 638 752 cars 58 806 motorcycles 28 372 trucks each driver spends an average of 43 minutes per day in a traffic jam

10% spatial gains by re-programming automotive space

statistical portrait of daily life with cars in Munich

Mittlerer Ring as Munich’s future Highline?

ROAD DIET: re-programming the Mittlerer Ring as a new ‘greenway’ through Munich / re-routing the city for an automated public transport system comprised of ‘greenways’ and ‘drone-mobiles’

dialogue

TRAVOLUTION Case Study Analysis • The Highline: reuse of infrastructural ruin in the heart of the city – urban regeneration and ecological branding; • community-action-based renewal (project works to PRODUCE a new community of activist citizens); • infrastructure brought into the foreground against a background of the urban environment (reversal of urban foreground and background); • project of ecological ‘episodes’ within an infrastructural narrative; • project focused on SLOWNESS and doing (almost) nothing (space for leisure and ‘killing time’ that reflects critically back on the city of programmed life routines); • hijacking (détournement) of an existing structure for new purposes; • ‘teflon’ project that escapes any criticism (project for everyone and for a ALL causes – socio-political-economic darling – the HIGHLINE EFFECT – ECOLOGY AS BRANDING TOOL FOR URBAN DESIGN); • excavating something ‘new’ from the ‘old’ (the ‘new’ inherent in the ‘old’) – urban readymade (see Marcel Duchamp ready-mades); ! the Highline project began as an ‘image’ of a neglected fragment of the city and became a UNIFIED URBAN IMAGE of renewal – hybridization of nature and culture into an ENTANGLED (hybrid) ecology that is managed by design. Case Study Abstraction • 3 key actions: REUSE (‘mining’ the city ‘as found’ – city as resource vs. city as commodity), OPTIMIZE (little ‘push’ projects that focus on enabling fragile opportunities of the city), GREEN (consider design within a more interconnected ecology of built and natural environments – horizontal and vertical ‘greening’); • making strategic changes to the city ‘AS IS’ (city as a re-formable and ready-made set of conditions that can be re-activated for new purposes); • minor architectural interventions rather than ‘monumental’, stand-alone projects (micropolitan moves); • use of other cases studies to illustrate the application of these 3 principle actions suggests a tool-kit approach to thinking about the Soft City; ! the group should consider different combinations of these actions and what they might achieve (a diagram of the different combinations would be helpful, as well as rules or cases for their possible combinations!). Case Study Appropriation • the manifesto might suggest that small, ‘push-oriented’ projects can be initiated to activate fragile urban opportunities that otherwise would be missed or ignored in favor of big-profit development (‘blowing wind in the sails’ of the city). The city is understood as a RESOURCE for imaginative (re)design initiatives rather than only a collection of finished design PRODUCTS. • possible driving question of manifesto: what if the Soft City is conceived as an always renewable condition based on newly activated, but ready-made conditions?; = RETROFIT- or CONVERSION-URBANISM. Programming Concept • BIG urban ‘move’ made by the group: ‘freeing-up’ of the train track channel for NEW programs – this is a new URBAN BOULEVARD of programmatic space that runs through the neighborhood and the city; • this urban channel is similar to the ‘Highline’ project that you studied – RE-USE of an infrastructural artifact that is currently out-of-use (Middle Ring as case study for investigating potential re-use scenarios for transport infrastructure); • the idea of the main ‘artery’ (urban boulevard) and the capillary networks of circulation on the site could form the organizing SCAFFOLD for the ‘organs’ of activities.

Kevin Fournelle

Vicky Klieber Lion Krauss

Magdalena Stadler

Jenny Tran

Laura Zalenga

WANDERLUST: 2D and 3D study of interlacing a new circulation system for automated transport and pedestrians through the Sendling site

new public transport node of Munich-Sendling

slim down streets. make space. be driven. abolish fuelled cars. plant. serve yourself and others. join joy!

design storyboard and scenarios

find gaps, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t create a need!

PRO-VISION: undulating urban landscape of communal traffic

DOWN IS UP: folded strip of continuous movement

Durch eine Revolution des Verkehrssystems ist es möglich,

das Straßenbild drastisch umzuwandeln, zu verbessern, architektonisch aufzuwerten – die ‘Travolution’.

In den Entwürfen steht die Beziehung zwischen Architektur

und Landschaft; innen und außen, oben und unten, im

Vordergrund. Die Räume ordnen sich nach Vorbild des Ponte

Vecchio in Florenz an den Wegen an. Sowohl auch unter den

Wegen. Die organische Form des Gebäudes wird auch wieder

in der horizontalen und vertikalen Wegführung aufgenommen. Die Dächer der Gebäude funktionieren auch als

Verkehrswege, sei es für Fußgänger und Radfahrer als auch

für Autos. Das Straßenbild wird durchgemischt und belebt – das Leben findet nicht nur, wie heutzutage, auf dem

Erdgeschoss statt. Das Leben auf der Straße wird auf einen

neue Ebene gebracht.

Parc de la Villette as case study

from bands to the grid as â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;equalizerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;

Manhattan grid as ready-made tool for re-programming Sendling

roll of the dice = game of life

grid-cloud (vertical suburb)

populations of stacked pixel-parcels

PUBLIC NOTICE: group manifesto billboard with portraits of local residents

dialogue

EQUALcITY Case Study Analysis • Parc de la Villette (OMA): city district used as part of a political agenda (era of Mitterand’s ‘grand projet’ campaign) – city as expression of dominant political ideology of the time; • transformation of La Villette from suburban neighborhood to URBAN district; • social condenser of programmatic opportunity (congestion of different interests and different activities – contradiction is desired rather than avoided!); • collision of (in)different systems: project conceived in different layers (strips, confetti, circulation, large objects (Bigness)) – idea for the group manifesto!; • reference to Delirious New York and the analysis of the ‘Downtown Athletic Tower’ as source for the competition concept – horizontal skyscraper (‘hijacking’ of a building typology for another use); • designed “illusion of park” rather than a nostalgic image of ‘nature’; • programmatic indeterminacy – softspace (user-defined activities) within a designed field of options; ! what might have been helpful for you as a group is to compare OMA’s competition entry with that of the wining and built entry of Bernard Tschumi. This might allow you to better understand what works and does not work in Rem Koolhaas’s proposal. Case Study Abstraction • layered textual diagram that shows a field of interrelated themes (top: nature as significant programmatic component; middle: connectivity, social condenser as cultural mixing catalyst; indeterminacy as shock to the system; bottom: equality of elements as a means of re-evaluating urban hierarchies); ! The layered structure of the diagram suggests a clear format for the manifesto, yet NONE of the terms listed have been really analyzed, and thus remain only interesting, yet vague thematic propositions. Please consider each term or phrase within a field of associated terms (tag cloud). Case Study Appropriation • the manifesto might suggest an alternative way of approaching urban design, namely, by FIRST placing everything on the SAME level of importance (equality of elements), and then considering different ways of differentiating them (making them distinct) without relying on given hierarchies of good\bad, big\small, high-\lowculture, architecture\building, natural\cultural. This would be like a new ‘soft’ inventory of the city and its elements that could be used to produce completely unexpected juxtapositions of program and activities (like in Parc de la Villette), but also new combinations of elements that are usually separated by given hierarchies of importance; • possible driving question of manifesto: what if the Soft City is defined by a radical equality of everything, whether built or natural, whether human or nonhuman (things), whether permanent or temporary?; = HORIZONTAL or FLAT URBANISM Programming Concept • systematic approach to the modular grid idea by considering a series of operating rules for negotiating various parcels of space within the communal grid structure; • COLLECTIVE SCALE: the Sendling site is divided into a ‘neutral’ grid based on the MINIMUM needs of a citizen + INDIVIDUAL SCALE: each grid unit is likewise sub-divided into smaller parcels of basic personal needs (living, outdoor space, access to infrastructure, etc. – ‘SCHREBERHOOD’ as concept • the grid establishes a ‘pixel’ organization of space that is then negotiated according to a series of ‘give and take’ rules (nothing leaves the system. If something is ‘given’, it is ‘taken’ elsewhere!). This is how you can begin to introduce programmatic difference and hierarchies into the original order of equality. • the resulting distribution of volumes within the grid system might result in a MAT BUILDING typology (please see the work of Candilis, Josic, and Woods for reference).

Lena Keilhofer Marina Kolb

Franziska Mueller Anna Yeboah

living

infrastructure

work

recreation

45m

spatial pixel as building unit

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pixelatingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; the Sendling site / grid as basis for communal equality

site settings: grid and loop

combinatorial logics

Claes Oldenburg, Soft Manhattan, 1966

sectional studies of vertical suburbia with communal base of amenities

34 amenity base and the precarious expansion of equality

model study of aleatoric spatial combinations

The City of the Captive Globe, Madelon Vriesendorp and Rem Koolhaas, 1972 the concurrence of freedom and control, or the ageless pregancy of desire

common ground make democracy work!

Bilbao Guggenheim as case study

topological mapping of site values

staking a position on the Soft City

UN Studio, IFCCA-Penn Station Competition, New York, 1999

topological plan of varying program densities distributed across Sendling and surroundings

dialogue

IDENCITY Case Study Analysis • Bilbao Guggenheim Museum: ‘Bilbao effect’ as measure of socio-political-economic impact of architecture on place (architecture-in-extension); • project an outcome of the successful linking of various conditions (economic decline of Bilbao, successful marketing campaign of Guggenheim Foundation, ‘starchitect’ status of Frank Gehry, cultural program of museum used as urban regeneration tool for a city, hybrid brand image of Guggenheim and Gehry = new brand image for Bilbao as cultural center – context-specific urban ‘formula’ that is (uncritically) exported to or desired by other contexts – image without right conditions); • ‘implant’ that alters the ‘body’ of the city in which it is inserted; ! how do you work with the theme of ‘image-making’ and the city, or with the theme of different possible ‘identity-givers’ to the city? You should identify a clear theme from the Bilbao case study that you can continue working with but, you need NOT agree with Gehry’s Guggenheim strategy! Case Study Abstraction ! you might consider the theme of ‘identity-giving to the city’ at different scales (personal, collective neighborhood, district, city, etc.) rather than (as Gehry does), producing an identity-giving image of the city that overshadows anything else in the city by reducing it to that image alone. Do we REALLY know Bilbao now just because of a new, ‘spectacular’ museum (museum of the spectacle)? Case Study Appropriation • The manifesto might formulate an alternative program for urban image-making or identity-giving strategies that DO NOT rely on given formulas of gentrification (spatial-fixes for profit), or on the assumption that a single cultural artifact (such as a museum) is THE ANSWER to the future success of the city. These formulas work to reduce the city to an ECONOMIC EQUATION, which usually EXCLUDE other possibilities (and people) from the image-making process! Perhaps your manifesto is about the LOCAL IMAGE, or the LOCAL IDENTITY rather than the GLOBAL IMAGE or GLOBAL IDENTITY of a city. Please consider how everyday USE might offer something to the identity-making strategies of a city; • possible driving question of manifesto: what if the Soft City is defined by identitymaking processes that adapt to difference rather than flatten them into a single icon of (the same) partial interests?; = MOSAIC or CHAMELEON URBANISM. Programming Concept • layered diagram that presents a different aspect of the programming concept in relation to the manifesto points; • 2 new main axes that connect with popular bicycle routes through the neighborhood (the map showing these routes was NOT presented!) (N-S axes and E-W axis) – “BREAKING BORDERS AND BRIDGING THE SITE” (the crossing of these 2 axes is treated as a potential major place on the site; • layer showing the distribution of local shops – “DIVERSE DESTINATIONS”; • layer showing the location of possible attractors of public functions – “STRONG ATTRACTS STRONG”; • layer showing possible location of office functions; • layer showing the infill location of housing – streets alternate in height to introduce diversity to the ‘local’ neighborhoods within the site; • layer showing ‘pockets’ of leisure activities “CREATE SLACK”. • these layers together present a potentially interesting idea of an urban ‘microcosm’ (city within the city); • density map of site and surrounding distribution of programs is introduced to plot an activity topology across the site.

Martin Barner

Stefan Glueder

Andreas Plaianu

Marcus Wallbaum

setting the stage for spatial encounters / taxonomy of architectural relations

relational matrix of identity types

massing study for Sendling site

precedents

visual relations: Kunsthaus Lehnbachhaus, München mutation

influence

implied connecting axis: Pinakothek der Modern, München

alliance urban axis: Pinakothek der Modern, München

symbiosis

merge

identity mix: Bauhaus, Dessau

overlay

activating identities: Townhall, Talinn

occupy

compete

condensation of architectural qualities: Opéra, Lyon

fight

parasite

occupation by identities: Tempelhof Flughafen, Berlin

operating on typologies: Glockenbachwerkstatt, München

chwerkstatt, M端nchen

40 translation

The Solitary

The Conglomerate

The Nested

spatial dispersion of program

time- and space-based shuffling of programs

design scenario choreography

think big. think small. lure people to create slack. cultivate the ground extend borders. strong attracts str change. create

ple to walk. create current. ound floor. break borders. s strong. donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be afraid to eate diverse destinations!

Melun SĂŠnart as case study

15-MINUTE CITY

staking out thematic alliances

urban ecologies

holey space

dialogue

FLEXITY Case Study Analysis • Melun Sénart: satellite city designed to accommodate population growth of the city center; • designated zones of NON-BUILDING (planned, anti-architectural voids) and programmatic bands of public facilities surrounded by islands for urban development (moments of control within a sea of ‘anything goes’); • ordering system that allows for unpredictable relations between built and natural spaces (hybrid ecologies between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’), ! why is OMA proposing this strategy? What are the driving assumptions of OMA in this project and what is the key ideology supporting the proposal? Case Study Abstraction • 3 key thematic categories: VOIDS (spatial providers), CIRCULATION, ECOLOGY; • public facilities, infrastructural elements, and ecological zones organized around spatial buffer zones that either connect or separate the other programmatic areas. These spatial providers could be the designed ‘voids’ (in a ‘positive’ sense) that participate as activity fields that are part of the other zones (these voids take on characteristics of the other zones – adaptive voids or incubator zones for the ‘birth’ of new activities); • the diagram relates to different speeds of circulation (pedestrian, bicycle, motorized) and proposes that everything is accessible within 15 minutes (spirals of spatial connectivity) – ‘15-minute city’ (pedestrian city, bicycle city, promenade city, city of drifting, etc…); Case Study Appropriation • the manifesto might suggest that ‘pockets’ of space can be conceived as ‘shock absorbers’ for the multitude of conflicting activities of the urban realm. These spatial pockets (voids) are not neutral or generic, but are precisely designed so that they CONNECT and\or SEPARATE different programmatic zones, while also adapting to the different characteristics of the neighboring programs. Even though designed, they form the ‘soft organs’ of the city…Mobility and its associated infrastructures (foot, bicycles, pubic transport) are also used as a tool for weaving the various activities into a system of interconnected nodes (max. 15 minutes apart horizontally and vertically) in and around these spatial pockets…etc; • possible driving question of manifesto: what if the Soft City is a porous, spongy field that is interwoven with programs on the edge of public pockets (holes)?; = HOLEY–URBANISM Programming Concept • historical summary of the development of the Sendling neighborhood provides useful insight to its different characteristics as developed in space and time; • this establishes a series of offsite ‘poles’ or ‘attractors’ for the Sendling site. Instead of addressing the train tracks as a PROBLEM to be ‘solved’, the groups accepts the channel (urban cut) as a given urban fact and engages a southern axis’ instead; • VECTOR 01: this establishes a vector that sweeps through the eastern part of the site and connects with the commercial strip of Implerstrasse; • VECTOR 2: a second vector establishes a connection between the (sub)-cultural activities associated with areas along the Isar and the industrial area of the large market hall near the site; • VECTOR 03: a third vector establishes a possible connection to the urban neighborhood to the north of the train tracks; • the three organizing vectors should be considered as a means to introduce different types of programs that relate to the end-poles or attractors (this would mean a green promenade that connects with a commercial area, a cultural zone connected with industry, and a possible axis with the inner city to the north, etc.); • a ‘time map’ is presented showing the degree of accessibility the Sendling site has to surrounding parts of the city (urban time ‘continents’ within the city).

David Frauenkron

Yan Pechatscheck

Julia Vetter

Yuichiro Yamada

neighborhood scan: an ecology of proximities

46 mapping local agencies and relational networks

urban â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;time continentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;: urban fields opened up by public transportation, bikes, and walking

programmatic irrigation of Sendling site

fuck cars! let diversity

commit to interaction! expect the une

bring mobility to perfection! respect t

provide for publics ye

give the c

What is Soft City?

use

cautious human/environment interactions

identity

confidence softtenings pride human and things as a collective agency opportunity to be truly creative freedom of responsible choice

facilitated encounters

spectra of uses

gaps between want and will

What if the Soft City cannot be planned?

What can design do? catalyze activity populations accelerate + slow down connections open spaces and times

provoke publics into becoming

find opportune breaks

What if the Soft City is defined by what is not designed and built?

What gives the city a structure?

relational rhythms circuits of desire circuits of desire

rsity emerge!

connectivities

memory and experience

unexpected!

material tendencies

ect the given!

material tendencies

How can design promote the Soft City?

s yet to exist!

loose analysis adaptive plans mutipurpose thinking mutipurpose thinking mobilize sensibilities risk diversity exploit regulation follow formations in the making know policy and its latent freedoms

he city a rest!

we are all experts of our own experience