Urban Utopias – Berlin as Battlefield and Playground - Hu

Urban Utopias –
Berlin as Battlefield and Playground of Ideas
Berlin Perspectives Programm
Summersemester 2016
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Thursdays, 12 am to 4 pm c.t.
Instructor: Eva-Maria Graf
First Session: 20.04.2016
E-Mail: [email protected]
Last Session: 06.07.2016
Consultation hour: Monday 2-4pm
Location: Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, building
Office: Room 4.12, Georgenstraße 47;
0323-26, and in the city during field trips
10117 Berlin
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Urban Utopias – Berlin as Battlefield and Playground of Ideas
What we call utopian is most often what we consider “illusionary” or “unrealizeable”. However,
every Utopia starts with an idea, and the idea becomes a plan, becomes the change. Imagination
and materialization form a dialectic relationship which is the basic element of utopian thinking.
And it is this utopian thinking that will be central to this seminar. Berlin, too, is a product of its
many ideas, ideas that find expression in the struggle for power and identity in the urban sphere.
In the first part, the seminar will deal with historic utopias. We will visit the garden city
Falkenberg and the modernistic housing complex Gropiusstadt. Utopias from the past hold up
a mirror to today's situation: The last bastions of subculture vanish, rents are increasing, and the
Right to the city (Lefebvre) is becoming the order of the day. The second part of the seminar
will introduce us to Critical Urban Theory. We will read critiques of gentrification processes
concerning the current developments of Berlin boroughs and large-scale projects like the
reconstruction of the Berlin City Palace. The natural balance of the urban jungle seems upset,
but we will gain a perspective in the third part of the seminar when looking at current utopias
and alternative urban concepts. Activists are demanding justice for the urban sphere and they
are reclaiming the city as they start local initiatives, guerrilla gardening projects, or reach out
for a self-sufficient existence. We will visit the artist-run initiative Kotti & Co. and the urban
gardening project Prinzessinnengärten in Kreuzberg to get an idea of how urban participation
can actually happen. The question we will not let go of is: How political is the utopia?
Material
All material (basic texts as well as additional ones) is to be found on Moodle by searching
either for the number (02181269) or the title of the seminar. The password is “Utopia”.
Moodle also works as a platform for questions and own additional findings. Texts are mostly
available both in English and German.
Course requirements
To receive 5 ECTS the following requirements need to be fulfilled:
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Active participation regarding the discussions in class and field trips
Every session one question has to be posted on Moodle and the session specific texts
need to be read and prepared in advance (see below)
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Language requirements: A level of at least A2 in German and a level of at least B2 in
English are expected. In the seminar we intend to slowly shift towards German as a
language of teaching and discussion.
Assignments and grade:
The credits for a full completion of the course and the final grade are composed of
I.
Oral assignment: One theoretical presentation or contribution to field
trip (around 20 min per person) – this covers all sessions except of the
first and the last one (40%)
II.
Written assignment: Essay on one specific seminar unit (1800-2000
words) (60%)
Thematically you should use the seminar units and the basic texts as an orientation for
your presentation. Get back to me if you wish to include own contributions which
could definitely enrich the seminar. Regarding the essay you should keep the central
question of our seminar in mind, although own inspirations and background
information are very welcome!
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Attendency Policy: Not more than two sessions can be missed. Exceptionally, in case
of missing more than two sessions and with announcement ahead, you can get an
extra-task to thematically keep up with the seminar. I expect you to inform me about
known absences in time. Moreover: Public transport as well as the subway system in
Berlin are sometimes a little tricky. Please get used to it and plan enough time to get to
the seminar, especially when meeting for a field trip.
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Plagiarism Policy: The presentation off another person’s words, thoughts, ideas,
judgements, images or data as though they were your own, whether intentionally or
unintentionally, constitutes an act of plagiarism. The penalty for this is failure of the
course.
Schedule
1. Session
20.04.
12 am –
2 pm
Introduction
- Overview of seminar schedule, Introduction to Moodle
- Presentation and motivation of participants
- Assignments to session (contribution to excursions or
presentation)
- Utopia: Etymology, imaginations and Berlin as a city of choice
Small survey: Jussi S. Jauhiainen Urban Utopias, Revolutions and the
21st century. Online Publication 2003.
I.
Historic Utopias in the City of Berlin
2. Session
Garden Cities, Urban Models and Transition Towns
27.04.
- Garden City as an idea
12 am –
- Its heritage: Urban and Guerilla Gardening
4 pm
- Transition Towns by Rob Hopkins (e.g. Eberswalde)
Text: Ebenezer Howard. Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1898). London
1945.
Christa Müller. Practicing Commons in Community Gardens: Urban
Gardening as a Corrective for Homo Economicus. Amherst 2012.
Excursion to Garden City Falkenberg
Alternative: Prinzessinnengärten (Collective Urban Gardening Project at
Moritzplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg)
3. Session
11.05.
12 am –
4 pm
Text: Thomas Krückemeyer. Gartenstadt als Reformmodell:
Siedlungskonzeption zwischen Utopie und Wirklichkeit. Siegen 1995.
Excursion to Gropiusstadt (Britz)
Rallye: Life in a Concept City – Maps and additional information on
various stations
Meeting Point: U Lipschitzallee (U7)
Text: Berliner Forum. Die Gropiusstadt. 4. Jahresausgabe. Berlin 1972.
Modernism und Future Cities
- CIAM and the Carta of Athens 1932
- Post-WW-II constrution in Berlin
- Large Capacity Housing: promising solution or modern
dystopia?
Text: Le Corbusier. Städtebau. Urbanisme. Stuttgart 1929.
Le Corbusier. Charta von Athen (1932). Braunschweig 1987.
Critical Urban Theory and the Right to the City - A Utopian Claim?
4. Session
Excursion to Potsdamer Platz
25.05.
„Reading the (capitalist) landscape“ – Tracing political agendas
12 am –
Text: Neil Brenner. What is Critical Urban Theory? In: City, Vol. 13,
4 pm
Nos. 2–3, September 2009.
Elizabeth A. Strom. Building the New Berlin: The Politics of Urban
Development in Germany’s Capital City. Lanham, Md. 2004.
II.
Gentrification – A keyword
- Utopische Räume als Vermarktungsstrategie
- Raum für eigene Erfahrungen, demographische Untersuchungen
Texts: Andrej Holm. Reclaim Berlin. Soziale Kämpfe in der
neoliberalen Stadt. Berlin 2014.
Henrik Chrzanowski. Gentrifizierung und Lebensstile: am Beispiel
Berlin - Neukölln. Saarbrücken 2014.
5. Session
1.06.
12 am –
2 pm
III.
The Right to the City
- Current Debates on rent restriction
- Conflicts about Mediaspree
Text: Andrej Holm. Das Recht auf die Stadt. 8/2011
Henri Lefebvre. The Right to the City. In: Writings on Cities. Oxford
1996.
Urban Practices, Spaces of Hope and Conducts of Utopia
6. Session
08.06.
12 am –
4 pm
The Mental Map of Berlin
- Guest: Anne Kleinbauer (Master in Historic Urbanism)
- Participant‘s Mental Map of Berlin
- Orientation in space and relation to the city and its elements
Text: Kevin Lynch. Das Bild der Stadt (The Image of the City).
Braunschweig 1993.
Psychogeography – Excursion to Kotti
- Alternative mapping on the basis of maps by the artist Larissa
Fassler
Material: Larissa Fassler. Cognitive Mapping Kotti Berlin. 2011.
Text: Guy Debord. Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography.
1955.
7. Session
22.06.
12 am –
4 pm
Abstract vs. Lived Space
- The view of city planners vs. urban life
- Top-down planning strategies vs. Bottom-up actions
- Berlin as a Smart City vs. quiet Anarchism in its quarters
(‚Kieze‘)
Text: Michel DeCerteau. Die Kunst des Handelns. Berlin 1988.
The Situationist International
- Examples of Urban Intervention in Berlin: Squatting / Tradition
of Occupied Houses, Streetart, Improv-Now, Flash-Mobs, Urban
Installations, Demonstrations
- The Technique of détournement
Text: Ivan Chtcheglov. Formulary for a New Urbanism (1953).
Kotanyi, Attila; Vaneighem, Raoul. Basic Programme of Unitary
Urbanism (1961). Situationist International Anthology 1988.
Final Session
8. Session
Berlin – An Utopolis?
6.07.
- Which direction is Berlin’s development taking and how can we
take part in it?
10 am –
2 pm!!!
- The (international) Image of Berlin
- A Generation through the Looking-Glass / Daring a Survey
Text: David Harvey. Megacities Lecture 4: Spaces of utopia in possible
urban worlds. Amersfoort 2000.
Tobias Rapp. Lost and Sound: Berlin, Techno und der Easyjetset.
Frankfurt am Main 2009.
Review
- Bringing together impressions and findings
- Presentation of results
Film: Nana A.T. Rebhan. Welcome Goodbye. Berlin 2014.