Sommersemester 2016

LECTURE

Module:  Spatial Planning              2 SWS/ 3 CP
Prof. Dr. phil. habil. Max Welch Guerra
Dott. Mag. Piero Sassi

L Lecture series “European Urbanism in the 20th century. The Tension between Real and Written History" 

Content
The debate on a common European identity is by no means novel. However, over the past few years the escalation of multiple crises and the consequent discussion about the future of the European Union have extended this debate to ever larger segments of society. A shared European history is a fundamental part of the European identity. Discussing it is today more important than ever. 

Professional and cultural exchange throughout Europe was very intense in the 20th century. It had a strong effect on urbanism in the individual countries. Therefore, the history of urbanism in Europe during the 20th century should be discussed in an international context, as a shared history. In doing so, it shouldn’t be neglected that dictatorships, wars, oppression and exile, that strongly characterized 20th century history, produced migration flows. These increased the exchange between the European debate and those of overseas countries, for instance in South and North America.  

Within the lecture series, we will tackle some major issues, such as housing policies, large-scale projects and urban renewal in different geographical contexts (Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, USA and Argentina) and historical periods. On the one hand, this will allow to underline similarities between case studies and to recognize the exchange of models, experts and know-how between different countries. On the other hand, by considering the single case study in a broader international context, this will make it possible to understand its peculiarities. Doing so, the lecture will take on a European perspective. Lectures will be given both by scholars of the BUW and by invited guests. Results of ongoing research projects will be discussed in order to provide an overview of contemporary debate on 20th century urbanism, in Germany and in Europe. Topics and case studies will follow a chronological order. In order to receive credits and an attendance certificate, students are required to pass a written examination at the end of the course.

SEMINARS

Module:  Spatial Planning              2 SWS/ 3 CP
Andrea Varriale    

S  Urban commons: new spaches between autonomy and inclusion      

Content
In the last two decades, ”the commons” have become an important concept in social sciences. Phenomena as diverse as guerrilla gardening, squatting, participative budgeting and Wikipedia are routinely analysed as commons. In urban studies, self-managed squares and parks come to mind, from Tempelhof in Berlin, to Campo de Cebada in Madrid, to Syntagma square in Athens. Such alternative spaces, neither state-controlled, nor privately owned, carry the promise of free experimentation and urban democracy. Yet the idea of the commons has penetrated the realm of politics too, and several European cities have incorporated the principle of the commons in their statutes, thus giving substance to the notion of ”city as commons”. To make matters more complicated, criticism abound both on the left and on the right of the political spectrum. 
 
What are urban commons, exactly, and how do they impact the way we live, study, and transform cities?

This block seminar offers a critical introduction to the theme of ”the commons” and invites the students to an active exploration of the theme. The first part of the seminar provides a basic definition of urban commons, and illustrates the main lines of the relevant scholarship. Students are then encouraged to use this basis to critically address some of the most pressing theoretical and empirical questions, such as:

• Is ”the commons” a new concept, or a fancy label for old practices? Which types of activities can be labelled as ”commoning”, and which are better conceptualised differently?
• How can the commons be studied effectively? Can different methods be used simultaneously?
• Are commons democratic? Can they become enclaves or be exploited by austerity-minded authorities?
• What is the relationship between advanced capitalism and the commons?
• To which extent do ”commoning” practices express personal freedom, and when are they unpaid work?
• Are common spaces a luxury reserved to wealthy cities in the global north?
• Can common spaces be created by institutions, or do true commons only emerge from bottom-up initiatives?
• Are the commons against the law? Are they just?

For each question, two students will prepare arguments for and against a given statement, respectively (e.g. ”the commons are democratic, because…” vs. ”the commons are not democratic, but rather exclusionary, because…”). Other students will be asked to prepare feedbacks to the debaters. Students are encouraged to debate freely, but are also expected to root (at least some of) their arguments in academic literature.

Practical information: Active participation is particularly valued. A final paper is required.

Please note that this is a block seminar, attendance is mandatory. (the seminar will consist in two or three sessions, each lasting one to two days).

Module:  Spatial Planning               2 SWS/ 3 CP
Jennifer Künkel

S  Neoliberalizing Cities / Neoliberalization of Planning

Content
From public-private-partnerships to creative city policies – processes of neoliberalization shape both content and form of urban planning. Urban neoliberalization promotes progressive aspects of planning such as citizen participation or planning for diversity. However, in strengthening market competition and privatization it also restricts the opportunities for planners to shape spatial processes in general and to foster social justice in particular.

The aim of the course is thus twofold. On the one hand, the seminar provides an overview on crucial aspects of the German planning system – from housing and neighborhood level planning to zoning and master plans. It also discusses current urban planning ideas such as creative cities, urban security or how to deal with shrinkage. On the other hand, it will also provide the necessary theoretical knowledge to critically reflect upon changes in urban planning systems and paradigms in the urban West in the course of neoliberalization. Finally, the course will serve to assess the possibilities of planners to act under and shape these conditions.

Additionally, students shall have the opportunity to improve skills for writing a master thesis.

To achieve these goals, the course draws in part on classical text analysis and lecturing but also integrates alternative methods such as discussing documentary movies, engaging in role plays or solving small analytical tasks.

Course requirements are: 1) participation in the debate, 2) the close reading of at least five of the recommended texts as well as 3) the writing and presentation of a (fictive) master thesis proposal (including abstract) on a course-related topic.

A preliminary schedule and the recommended readings can be downloaded here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17633877/Syllabus.zip

Module: Urban Sociology            2 SWS/ 3 CP
Prof. Dr. Frank Eckardt            

S  Thesis Writing Seminar

Content
The seminar allows students to get an insight into recent research on urban subjects from a variety of disciplines and professional backgrounds. Students can present their own work (PhD or master theisis) and will be offered a forum for discussion for different topics relevant in urban Research.  

STUDY-PROJECT

Module:  Study Project               16 SWS/ 21 CP
Prof. Dr. Bernd Nentwig, Prof. Dr. Frank Eckardt, Jun.-Prof. Dr. Sigrun Langner, Dipl.-Ing. Kristina Hoffmann, Antonia Herten M.Sc., Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Philippe Schmidt M.Sc., Jennifer Plaul M. A., Dipl.-Ing. Maria frolic-Kulik, Ammalia Podlaszewska 

P  Changing Landscapes: Tourism in Urban and Rural Areas

Content
Tourism is an important and expanding economic sector worldwide, in cities, but also in rural areas which otherwise have weakening economic opportunities. While tourism can thus present an opportunity – for growth, increases in employment and income – it also encourages change: both in economic and cultural terms. 

This study project will focus on ”changing landscapes” in urban and rural areas, with a particular regional focus on a rural area in the South of Thuringia, between and including the towns Sonneberg and Eisfeld. The project will combine approaches to this topic and in-depth views from various disciplines: Student work will be done within courses offered by the Chairs for Urban Studies and Social Research, Landscape Planning and Architectural Management. Existing theoretical frameworks related to tourism, the city, and social life will be discussed and can be used as tools to investigate social and spatial changes to the study project’s geographical area of focus. Methods of perceiving landscapes will be introduced, with the aim of gaining a more in-depth understanding of landscape as complex processes in order to be open to new ideas about landscape design and planning.

Additional Information:
Practical experience as a guest in the Thuringian Forest, but also in a region to be compared (Alto Adige, Italy) builds up a basis to develop new action plans for tourism, regional approaches and improving quality managment. A profound analysis of the destination Thuringian Forest (region of Rennsteig) will be created as a basis to control future developments in a sustainable way.

MASTER - COLLOQUIUM

Module: Masters´ Thesis             2 SWS/ 3 CP
Justin Kadi PhD /Prof. IfEU        

Master - Colloquium EU/AdUrb              

Content
The course is the platform for presentation and discussion of the Masters theses. The candidates will present the intermediate results of their work on their individual topics. Suggestions for further action will be made by fellow students and academics attending the colloquium. Admission for the Master examination is required for participation. Performance record (attestation) will be achieved by giving an oral presentation.

COMPULSORY ELECTIVES

Module: Urban Sociology      2 SWS/ 3 CP
Jennifer Plaul M. A.

S Changing Landscapes: Tourism in Urban and Rural Areas 1

Content
This seminar is an integrated part of the study project for Master EU and AdUrb students. In the seminar, we will discuss the existing theoretical frameworks to be found related to tourism, the city, and social life – to be used as a tool to investigate social and spatial changes to the study project’s geographical area of focus: between and including the towns of Sonneberg and Eisfeld in Southern Thuringia. Tourism reflects the dynamics of geographical-interconnectedness and of the hopes for physical, social and economic revitalization of regions. The seminar brings a range of views on themes of change and sustainability in the context of tourism as a global phenomenon. Students are encouraged to analyse the challenge and opportunity of pursuing tourism growth in a manner resilient enough to respond positively to a changing global environment and societal structure while remaining compatible with the principle and practice of sustainable development. This seminar will be held in cooperation with the seminar led by Ammalia Podlaszewska. The introduction and concluding sessions will be held together and an exchange of information between the two seminars will take place regularly.

Additional courses takes place as follows:
05.04.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
17.05.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
31.05.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
14.06.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007

Module: Urban Sociology      2 SWS/ 3 CP
Ammalia Podlaszewska

S Changing Landscapes: Tourism in Urban and Rural Areas 2

Content
This seminar is an integrated part of the study project for Master EU and AdUrb students. In the seminar, we will discuss the existing theoretical frameworks to be found related to tourism, the city, and social life – to be used as a tool to investigate social and spatial changes to the study project’s geographical area of focus: between and including the towns of Sonneberg and Eisfeld in Southern Thuringia. Tourism reflects the dynamics of geographical-interconnectedness and of the hopes for physical, social and economic revitalization of regions. The seminar brings a range of views on themes of change and sustainability in the context of tourism as a global phenomenon. Students are encouraged to analyse the challenge and opportunity of pursuing tourism growth in a manner resilient enough to respond positively to a changing global environment and societal structure while remaining compatible with the principle and practice of sustainable development. This seminar will be held in cooperation with the seminar led by Ammalia Podlaszewska. The introduction and concluding sessions will be held together and an exchange of information between the two seminars will take place regularly.

Additional courses takes place as follows:
05.04.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
17.05.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
31.05.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007
14.06.2016, 13:30 – 16:45 pm, Belvederer Allee 5, Room 007

Module: Theory of Architecture      2 SWS/ 3 CP
Prof. Ines Weizman

S Architecture on the Frontline

Content
The countries of the Middle East have in recent years been repeatedly engulfed in wars, and yet rest on top of ancient civilisations that gave birth to culture, and even poetry itself. This seminar aims to understand the architecture and culture of the Middle East through literature and film. In a series of four intense block seminars students will discuss the challenges of capturing conflict in writing, and will use these readings as introductions and motivation for a more focused architectural analysis. 

The idea of this course is to open up students’ imagination and learning interests to contemporary art, architecture and culture in the Middle East. We will particularly study films, novels, plays and poems that express the simultaneity of tradition and modernity and the tension between the respective national cultures, on the one hand, and the assimilation by the West, on the other, and how they explore war-shattered societies. Literature and film act not only as a means of understanding the threatening and traumatic events of the recent past, but also as a medium to explore architecture and the city as a key to initiate recollection and to practice the art of memory.

After an introductory session we will particularly focus on a study of the transformation of Iranian society under the influence of European modernism in the 19th and 20th century until today. Tehran, Iran’s capital provides the ideal setting for the exploration of unique spatial conditions as they developed in relation to new cultural and political regimes.

Module: Urban Architecture                      2 SWS/ 3 CP
Holger Gladys, M.Arch.                 

Workshop  International Summerschool in Porto. International Summer School 2016 in Porto. 
                Design in Urbanism. The Big Reset On Neighborhood Design

Content
The third edition of the European summer school will proceed with the ongoing debate on the topic of neighborhood design. After the highly successful start in Amsterdam and the fruitful session in Istanbul last year, the new edition will take place in Porto. The ten-day European Intensive Program is composed of inspiring lectures and excursions, intensive design workshops and critical debates. The challenging program particularly investigates the role of urban planners and designers in creating attractive and productive neighborhoods. Starting from the notion of ‘Neighborhoods as Laboratories between Social and Design Concepts’, the international student teams are invited to reflect on and engage with the given urban properties and constitution, to radically careful or carefully radical reconsider and redesign preselected urban fabrics towards spatially and socially sustainable places.

The Summer School is a collaborative program by the Academie van Bouwkunst, Amsterdamse Hogeschool voor de Kunsten | Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Faculteit Architectuur, Campus Sint-Lucas Brussels en Ghent | Glasgow School of Arts, Mackintosh School of Architecture | İstanbul Kültür Üniversitesi, Department of Architecture | Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Architecture et de Paysage, Bordeaux | Universidade do Porto, Facultade de Arquitectura | Rīgas Tehniskā Universitāte, Arhitektūras un pilsētplānošanas fakultāte | Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Fakultät Architektur und Urbanistik.

Module: Urban Sociology            2 SWS/ 3 CP
Anna Marie Steigemann M. A.         

S  Diversity and the City

Content
“Diversity” has become one of the main guiding principles and policy ideals for planning over the last years. And as such, “it constitutes an antithesis to previous orientations toward urban design, in which segregation of homogeneous districts was the governing orthodoxy.” (Fainstein 2005) However, it remains unclear, whether diversity refers to distinct spatial units or structures and what is commonly understood as diversity: Does diversity describe a concrete space’s uses, offers, or qualities or is it a built structure itself? Or, when we talk about diversity, do we mean a distinct ethnic or social structure? Diversity is also used as a new euphemism for social mixing policies and the promotion of specific demographics, and thus became a driver for gentrification processes in many cities. Hence, this class provides an introduction to the study of urban diversity. We start with an exploration of its content as well as of its theoretical, practical, reception, and application contexts. Since diversity has very different meanings in the urban literature, we thereby make use of urban studies’ interdisciplinary nature and draw on findings and arguments from sociological, geographical, planning and architectural literature. In addition to the analysis of the term diversity, we look at the historical, social, political, and economic forces that shape everyday life in so-called diverse places. Therefore we also explore the different forms and notions of ‘identity’, ‘community’ and ‘belonging’, also by means of our own empirical socio-spatial observations in selected urban spaces.

Module: Comulsory Elective             2 SWS/ 3 CP
Nija-Maria Linke, Dipl.-Ing. Philippe Schmidt M. Sc., Jun.-Prof. Steffi Zander                

S  Introduction to GIS

Content
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are a useful tool for different disciplines, among others urban and spatial planners. Collecting, managing, analysing and visualising data with GIS software can help in different states of planning processes – from identifying areas of work to spatial analyses it is possible to create easy understandable maps and to enable communication processes.

In this online-course you will get: 

• a theoretical insight in what GIS is about

• an idea of how to create maps by using ESRI ArcGIS software and 

• an insight in how experts are using GIS for different purposes related to questions of planning and design 

The course will start with a physical meeting on May 3 at the IfEU (room 007) from 13:30 – 15:00 at the Institute for European Urban Studies and then be continued as an online-course with no requirement of physical presence. Assignments and short tests have to be accomplished.