CHAIR OF ARCHITECTURE
AND URBAN DESIGN —
PROF. KEES CHRISTIAANSE

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LECTURES 3RD COURSE YEAR

URBAN MANUFACTURING / MANUFACTURING THE URBAN I

 

 

 

„Creatives“ are often and without knowing assisting urban renewal. This way, many decayed city quarters, which have fallen into oblivion have experienced an unexpected rise, causing attention far beyond their own limits. As for example Soho (London), Williamsburg (New York), Berlin Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg (Berlin), Schanzenviertel (Hamburg), Langstrasse (Zurich) to name just the most popular examples.

 

Low rents, inspiring ambience as well as spatial and social niches to practice alternative lifestyles are often the local qualities attracting the first wave of young creative professionals. These people don’t have much financial capital, yet they have much “creative capital” to invest in their urban environments: in studios and galleries, clubs and bars, startup firms and alternative retail. By this means “creatives” are driving urban renewal in many ways. They are laying the foundations for new urban economies (the so called creative industries) and they are creating attractive and vibrant urban spaces.

 

Under the influence of American economist Richard Florida the idea of the creative industry being one of the major economic foundations of the 21^st century has become one of the most popular arguments in the field of contemporary urban development. Cities all over the world are trying to improve their competitive capacity by creating urban environments, which are assumed to attract and bind the so called creative class.

 

However, it is heavily debated, how to establish appropriate environments by means of urban planning and what long-term effects these plans may have for the creative milieu and for local inhabitants alike. In many such quarters (e.g. Gängeviertel, Hamburg; Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin; Langstrasse, Zurich) conflicts between inhabitants and creative professionals on one hand and public and private stakeholders on the other are indicating the urgent need to search for solutions.

 

This lecture series takes on this urgency. International practitioners and theorists will report from cities around the world and will discuss their theories, projects and prognoses.

 

 

Lecture hall and time

 

HCI G7

Thursdays, 10:00 to 12:00 am

 

 

 

Dates and lecturers

 

22.9.

Prof. Kees Christiaanse

ETH Zurich / KCAP Architects and Planners, Rotterdam

 

29.9

Dr. Ares Kalandides

Urban planner, INPOLIS, Berlin

 

6.10.

Bart Reuser

Next Architects, Amsterdam

 

13.10.

Ying Zhou

Architektin und Researcher, FCL Singapur/ETH Zürich

 

20.10.

Tim Rieniets

ETH Zürich

 

27.10.

SEMINAR WEEK

 

3.11.

Martin Heller

Curator und cultural enterpriser, Heller Enterprises, Zurich

 

10.11.

Prof. Dr. Stephan Bone-Winkel

Real estate development, BEOS GmbH, Berlin

University Regensburg

 

17.11.

Prof. Dr. Arnold Reijndorp

Sociologist, University Amsterdam

 

24.11.

Damon Rich

Founder of Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP), New York

Urban planner, Newark

 

1.12. Sum Up

Tim Rieniets / Anne Mikoleit

ETH Zurich

 

8.12. Colloquium

Prof. Kees Christiaanse, ETH Zurich

Philipp Klaus, INURA Institute Zurich

And representatives of the city administration of Zurich