After City 1: Incrementalism, Assemblage & Infrastructure
Uckermark, Germany
Over half the world’s population lives in urban areas occupying just three per cent of the earth’s surface. A consequence of such rapid global urbanisation leaves rural regions facing an uncertain future. In our increasingly interconnected world, can rural space offer a viable alternative to the inequalities of the neo-liberal city?
Through a framework of participatory mapping and an incremental approach to design, students will address this question with projects based in Uckermark, a rural region north of Berlin. Although in economic decline, some places in the Uckermark are experiencing an unusual demographic shift, attracting young people from nearby cities. This dynamic throws up many challenges but also much-needed opportunity for a region traditionally suffering from a declining population. Regeneration, whether in rural or urban locations, is a provocative debate. Timeframes, economics, land pressures, social and spatial organisation are different in rural locations, but it is these factors that offer a frame of reference to consider new forms of settlement, one that finds a balance between an existing context and twenty-first century infrastructure.
Teaching partner: Colin O’Sullivan
Uckermark, Germany
Over half the world’s population lives in urban areas occupying just three per cent of the earth’s surface. A consequence of such rapid global urbanisation leaves rural regions facing an uncertain future. In our increasingly interconnected world, can rural space offer a viable alternative to the inequalities of the neo-liberal city?
Through a framework of participatory mapping and an incremental approach to design, students will address this question with projects based in Uckermark, a rural region north of Berlin. Although in economic decline, some places in the Uckermark are experiencing an unusual demographic shift, attracting young people from nearby cities. This dynamic throws up many challenges but also much-needed opportunity for a region traditionally suffering from a declining population. Regeneration, whether in rural or urban locations, is a provocative debate. Timeframes, economics, land pressures, social and spatial organisation are different in rural locations, but it is these factors that offer a frame of reference to consider new forms of settlement, one that finds a balance between an existing context and twenty-first century infrastructure.