Concept and Objectives

// METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK. CONCEPT AND OBJECTIVES

Jörg Schröder, Riccarda Cappeller

The design studio “Cosmopolitan Habitat. Urban Narratives” aimed to develop performative and sustainable scenarios for future relevant, creative and productive cities, following concepts of Urban Re-Cycle, the understanding of the Open City (Sennett 2013) and collaborative ways of production. The design studio referred to three cities that in the current metropolisation process are not immediately linked with the term Cosmopolitanism, but according to our guess offer multiple reference points and current initiatives in this direction. In an introductory phase, conceptual approaches to Cosmopolitan Habitat will be discussed and drawn with diagrams and maps, in an exploration of Cosmopolitan aspects in Hannover, Halle and Flensburg The methodology foresaw a creative analysis that linked multiple research avenues, including texts and videos, references and new forms of mapping, diagramming and information interaction on urban patterns and practices; and a multi-scalar design approach that combined spatial activators and connectors as well as urban strategies and networks, bound together by narratives: arratives understood as meaningful and space-bound devices for urban futures.

Within the urban design discourse narratives were used in various ways that were be explored, and directed towards the production of concepts and spatial design ideas. During the semester the students approached and projected the topic of Cosmopolitan Habitat in THREE MAIN PHASES OF THE DESIGN STUDIO: (I) a literature and reference phase that created a common ground for discussions departing from a mix of urban and architectural studies, cultural and sociological positions and methodological references allowing a theoretic approach, (II) an analytical phase thought for a deeper research and the creation of creative mappings, capturing the existing narratives of the urban situations, and (III) a design phase that aimed at new spatial concepts, ideas and connections projected as urban narratives, understood as design tools for a creative scenariobuilding.