The City as a University
Autumn Workshop
at FLOATING UNIVERSITY
01/10-03/10/2021
Using a variety of methods in order to create immediate scenarios, the cross-border group Panta Rhei Collaborative will be running a workshop as part of the Floating University 2021 Free Radicals Programme.
The workshop will use Berlin as its laboratory, through several walking tours exploring sites of collective self-governance, localised initiatives and radical typologies as precedents for new learning environments. To uncover what combined action can achieve, away from economic pressures and the focus on growth, the workshop will observe these spaces through three key lenses:
Methodology - where the modes of production become more important than the production itself.
Typology - looking beyond known trajectories for architectural development and towards
collective appropriation
Anthropology - working under the premise of social, demographic and cultural intersectionality in order to seek for representational research.
For Benjamin, walking without time pressure was also an act of resistance, a stoic creeping up against the speed of the modern city. But it is impossible to run against the forced deceleration of the lockdown. It is a reminder that connection and interaction are integral to our society even in times of crisis. But is this particular type of collectivism a product of urban density? After the lockdown is always before the lockdown: Corona is one of many crises to come. From Corona, it goes straight to the issue of climate protection.
1
2
3
1 Saskia Trebing: “Das Jahr der öffentlichen Enttäuschung”, monopol magazin
(17/03/2021) [Accessed 26/07/2021]
2 Tahj Rosmarin: “Public spaces bind cities together. What happens when coronavirus forces us apart?”, The Conversation (25/03/2020) [Accessed 26/07/2021]
3 Mathias von Lieben: “Wie die Corona-Pandemie unsere Städte verändert”, Deutschlandfunk (18/07/2021) [Accessed 25/07/2021]
Can we create spaces of resilience and resolution?
What can we learn from the freely reachable urban environments that we inhabit, especially the ones formed by users?
How can we enable spatial practice that goes beyond binary correlations?
WHEN
Friday, 01/10, to Sunday, 03/10/2021.
WHERE
We will be based at Floating University Berlin and throughout the city for walking and cycling excursions.
Floating e.V.
Lilienthalstrasse 32
D-10965 Berlin
WHO
Depending on the pandemic regulations at the time, we will be able to work together with a group of up to 24 participants, coming together from different backgrounds across Germany and
(if possible) Europe.
WHAT TO BRING
We aim for hybrid working methods whilst relying on recycled/reused material to the greatest possible extent. This means that, amongst others, we will gather material during the city tours and come up with suitable methods of represenation in the process.
It surely will be helpful to bring some basic digital equipment (laptop, cameras, microphone, etc.) that you feel comfortable working with.
Whilst working together, we have to ask all participants and guests to get tested every morning before entering Floating University or meeting with other people. For safety purposes, this also includes partially/fully vaccinated persona.
HOW MUCH
To cover the most essential expenses, we ask our participants to pay a fee of 15 Euros for the three days. However, if you should not be able to come up for the fee, you are free to decide the amount yourself.
HOW TO ENTER
We would like to ask you: what does your place of residence have that makes it uncanny? That inspires you and others? That includes different parties or that relies on unusual methods in inclusive spatial practice?Please translate your thoughts in a visualisation of your preference (photo, image, collage, etc.) and elaborate it with a short description of approximately 100 words before sending it to the address below. APPLICATIONS CLOSED
CONTACTS
workshop, application and further information:
team@pantarheicollaborative.eu
Please feel free to sign up to the newsletter on our website and follow us on social media for updates.
Photography by Panta Rhei Collaborative
Berlin icons by Anna Weiss,
“The Noun Project”
Fonts:
“Messapia” by Collletttivo (2019), “Authentic” by Christina Janus and Desmond Wong (2015),
“Montaga” by Alejandra Rodriguez (2011)
INVITED GUESTS
On Sunday, our final discussion will benefit from inputs by a series of practitioners who know, and operate in the context of Berlin. Other practitioners who will be present on-site will join spontaneously throughout the workshop.
ANGELIKA HINTERBRANDNER
Angelika Hinterbrandner works in various collaborations on projects, contents and formats within the field of architecture and beyond. Currently she collaborates with Brandlhuber+/
bplus.xyz reflecting on the question “who architects?“ in the context of the commercialization of space and new models of architectural production. Together with Kontextur/@kntxtr she is exploring the potentials and responsibilities of future architects.
Since 2021 she is teaching assistant at the ETH Zurich as a member of Studio Arno Brandlhuber. In parallel, she is enrolled in the postgraduate program Leadership Digital Innovation at the University of the Arts in Berlin.
Photo credit: Thomas Raggam
NILOUFAR TAJERI
Niloufar Tajeri is an architect, activist, researcher and writer. She teaches at the department of History and Theory of Architecture and City (GTAS) at the TU Braunschweig. Her PhD thesis is concerned with structural racism permeating planning processes in the neoliberal city. Focusing on a specific case in Berlin-Neukölln, she is particularly interested in how societal discourse and normative architectural practice inform and reproduce spatial injustice. As a research fellow at Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart (2015/16), she looked into riots and urban uprisings in relation to the demolition/dismantling of social housing in particular and the welfare project in general.
Her edited volume “Nights of the Dispossessed: Riots Unbound” has been awarded with a grant by the Graham Foundation and was published by Columbia Books on Architecture and the City in 2021. In 2016, she published the edited volume “Small Interventions. New Ways of Living in Post-War Modernism” with Birkhäuser Verlag, which explored feminist and socio-ecological practices of careful renovation – spatial practices brave enough to be almost invisible yet enabling radically different ways of living.
In 2008, she co-edited “Kabul: Secure City Public City” with Archis Foundation. The booklet documented the colonization and militarization of public space by international agencies on the one hand and land grabbing by Afghan elite on the other asking how spatial politics ultimately reveal the dire nature of nation building and human rights in Afghanistan.
Photo credit: Victoria Tomaschko
DIMITRA ANDRITSOU
Dimitra Andritsou is an architectural researcher at Forensic Architecture since October 2019, where she undertakes advanced spatial research alongside preparation for novel testimonial and evidentiary techniques. Dimitra graduated in 2017 from the School of Architecture of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in 2019 she completed with distinction the MA in Research Architecture at Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work at the Centre for Research Architecture revolved around spatial politics of migration and bordering, focusing on the reiterative emergence of fire at migrant encampments in Greece. Prior to the MA, Dimitra worked as freelance architect in Berlin.
Forensic Architecture (FA) is a research agency based at Goldsmiths, University of London. It undertakes advanced spatial and media investigations into cases of human rights violations, with and on behalf of communities affected by political violence, human rights organizations, international prosecutors, environmental justice groups, and media organizations.
Photo credit: Forensic Architecture
Panta Rhei Collaborative is a Non-Profit organisation. All material is used for educational or research purposes only and does not involve commercial interests. We do not hold any responsibility for the content discussed in any of the sessions or descriptions mentioned by third parties on this website.
©️ 2023 Panta Rhei Collaborative.
