Doctorate from Dr. Arch. Thomas Kovári, 2006-2009, supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
ETH Zurich – Institute for Urban Design
HIL H44.1 – Stefano-Franscini-Platz 5 – 8093 Zurich
contact
From 2003 to 2018 Kees Christiaanse was Full Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the Institute for Urban Design at the ETH Zurich. From 2010 to 2015 he led the Future City Laboratory (FCL) programme at the Singapore ETH Centre (SEC) in Singapore, which is researching current urbanisation processes worldwide.
Interview on ETH News (11.08.2018)
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At ETH Zürich and FCL Singapur, the Architecture and Urban Design course led by Prof. Kees Christiaanse examines global contemporary processes of urbanization. Our team participates in national and international research programs, works on SNF-sponsored doctorates, and on non-university project collaborations. We place special focus on linking research, teaching, and practice.
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The main focus of Design Strategies and Instruments in Urban Space is the observation of urban phenomena and the development of methods and tools that can be implemented.
The goal of the course is to develop sustainable strategies for urban planning, which would creatively integrate changes in social tendencies into dynamic planning and control processes.
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The chair’s core research questions are aimed at the challenges of achieving a sustainable method of urban design. We understand sustainability as a comprehensive concept that goes well beyond technical and ecological indices, and places a strong priority on the long-term development possibilities of the city as resource.
At the moment, the main fields of research are Kulturlandschaft, Urban Breeding Grounds and Airports and Cities, which are researched in Singapore and Zurich in several coordinated projects that include the National Research Program 65, New Urban Qualities.
Our research results are published in project documentations, exhibitions, monographs, book contributions, articles, conference involvement, and symposiums. Our team engages in a constant exchange with experts from both the practice and research fields of urban design as well as experts in related fields from around the world.
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Collected Texts on the Built Environment 1990–2018
The collected texts range from charting the influence of the bicycle on his thinking about future mobility to the examination of dominant concepts and projects in the contemporary built environment. Illustrations of Christiaanse’s sketches, personal notebook pages and watercolours complement this unique collection.
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This book celebrates Patrick Abercrombie and J. H. Forshaw’s renowned ‘Potato Plan’ and assesses its potential as an analytical tool for contemporary metropolitan territories.
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Symposium Recordings (Direktlink)
On behalf of Prof. Kees Christiaanse’s retirement, this conference brings together dozens of acclaimed urban designers.
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The book presentation will be held on 24 May at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini in Venezia.
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BUILDING ON THE SOVIET PAST
Exhibition Opening 19 February, 18.30
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European - South East Asian Architectural Dialogue
27. Februar 2018, 18.30 Uhr
Andra Matin (andramatin, Jakarta) meets
Quintus Miller (Miller&Maranta, Basel)
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Book Launch on September 26, 2017
18:00, HIL H 40.4 (NSL Plaza), ETH Zurich Hoenggerberg, with Kees Christiaanse, Benedikt Boucsein, Eirini Kasioumi, Christian Salewski
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Ausstellung Gewinnerprojekte Ideen-Studienauftrag
Im Rahmen des Projekts «Zernez Energia 2020» befasste sich ein Ideen-Studienauftrag mit der zukünftigen Ortsentwicklung von Zernez.
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European – South East Asian Architectural Dialogue
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The book lauch will be held at the Fokushalle at ONA - ETH Zürich.
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Future Cities / Challenges is the first annual conference of Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in its second phase. It will be held in Singapore and showcases the progress FCL researchers have made
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Die Abschlusspublikationen zum Forschungsprojekt 'Zernez Energia 2020' sind ab sofort online verfügbar
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The results of the urban design studio "Schaffhausen weiterbauen" and the elective course "Wie entsteht Stadt? Instrumente, Akteure, Prozesse" will be on display at the Kammgarnareal in Schaffhausen.
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The project 'Zernez Energia 2020' is featured prominently in the current Sustainability Report 2013–2014 from the ETH Zurich as a good example for research and knowledge transfer activities of the ETH.
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The A-Diploma project of the Department of Architecture will be presented in the Zehntenhaus Affoltern.
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City as Resource
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Global Schindler Award Ceremony 2015 and book launch
30 April 2015 | 17:00 to 19:30 | Grand Hyatt Hotel, Shenzhen, China
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On the occasion of the awards show of the Zurich Climate Prize 2014 on the 26th of november 2014, the project Zernez Energia 2020 was awarded with the CHF 10'000 special price 'buildings and habitation'!
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On October 31st, 2014, the Podium voor Architectuur Haarlemmermeer en Schiphol in collaboration with ETH Zurich, Chair Prof. Kees Christiaanse, Airports and Cities research platform organize the symposium “Towards a Better Airport Region” in Amsterdam.
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Dutch New Worlds receives the IPHS book prize 2014.
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An overview of current projects of the KULTURLANDSCHAFT research team in collaboration with the photograper Marc Latzel is on display during the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam - URBAN BY NATURE from 29th of may until 24th of august 2014.
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– FULLY BOOKED –
CASE STUDIES: AMSTERDAM AND ZURICH
Video podcast of the conference (online or download)
Friday, 4th of April, 2014, 9h-18h
ETH Zürich, ONA
Neunbrunnenstrasse 50, 8050 Zürich
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From Hong Kongs productive hinterland to a globally connected and polycentric metropolitan region
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AMSTERDAM: THE AIRPORT BACKYARD
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Organized by the chair of Architecture & Sustainable Building Technologies, Prof. Dr. Arno Schlüter and the chair of Architecture and Urban Design, Prof. Kees Christiaanse the “InduCity Summer School” invites students of architecture and urbanism from both the ETH Zürich and EPF Lausanne to participate in a 10-day design studio to envision a sustainable urban transformation of an Industrial Area in Zug.
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ROK ZERMATT
Zermatt ist eine der Top-Destinationen im schweizerischen Alpenraum. Doch der damit einhergehende wirtschaftliche Erfolg
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23.01.13, 14h – 17h30 | ETH Zürich, Zentrum
Das Kolloquium "Stadt neu bauen. Ziele für die Stadt von morgen" findet am Mittwoch, 23. Januar zwischen 14h und 17h30 in der Semper Aula im ETH-Hauptgebäude in Zürich statt. Im Anschluss wird die Ausstellung "Stadt neu bauen – Eine Reise in die Stadt von morgen" um 18h im Foyer des ETH-Hauptgebäudes eröffnet.
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Urban manufacturing has a positive impact on urban space and, in reverse, urban spaces are providing ideal condistions for urban manufacturing.
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Urban Code. 100 Lessons for Understanding the City
URBAN CODE wins DAM Architecture Book Prize. Frankfurt Book Fair and Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) selected the book Urban Code. 100 Lessons for Understanding the City as one of the best ten architectural books of the year 2011 and awarded it with the international DAM Architectural book price.
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Re/Occupation
Shopping center, train stations, libraries, hotels, factories—what do all of these places have in common? You would think nothing, yet in these places strangers are in constant contact. They exchange a glance, speak to one another, trade or work together. They are not public spaces in the classic sense of the word, but they are spaces where there is a high level of public business and encounter.
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Now available!
Catalog of the exhibition "Langstrasse verlängern!" (Extend Langstrasse!) (Architekturforum Zürich 2010) and documentation of the teaching and exhibition projects "Langstrassifizierung" (Langstrassification!) (Urban Research Studio, FS 2010).
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The City as a Brand - The Role of Branding in Urban Planning
Doctorate from Dr. Arch. Thomas Kovári, 2006-2009, supported by Schweizerischer Nationalfonds (SNF)
Brands have an important function in our increasingly differentiated, diverse, and ever-faster changing world. They offer a chance of orientation as more constant markers, signs, and symbols. Whether this has to do with consumer goods, services, or cities—brands embody a promise. But what promise would a city make—and, what role does this play in the development and planning of a city?
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Alex Lehnerer, designed by Joost Grootens
Grand Urban Rules is a tribute to the city’s will to form, manifest in its vast number of steering regimes. The book contains a total of 115 significant ingredients for the Grand Projet of our contemporary metropolis. Not always positive but always powerful, these rules are the inverted, abstracted and extracted image of a city’s actual situation. Setting standards is first and foremost a cultural act. We read cities by their rules!
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Nicola Schüller, Petra Wollenberg, Kees Christiaanse (eds.)
Today’s cities are not only juggling for position in the global context, but also simultaneously attending to local economic, ecological and social needs. They vie with each other to attract investment by global players in the fields of the economy and science – hoping of course to gain jobs and greater opportunities for education.
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The lecture series 'Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum I & II' and 'Städtebau I & II' will be held by the lecturer Michael Wagner starting in the autumn semester 2018.
All further informations can be found here:
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Urban Design I & II / Design and Strategy in urban space I & II
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Urban Design Theory: Texts, Positions, and Discourses
FS18: The City of Collective Memory
The aim of this reading seminar is to gain deeper understanding of themes, positions and discourses within the field of urban design. The current class will introduce a range of theories that address the relationship of collective mamory and urban form.
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Städtebau II / Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum II
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Rotterdam ist die zweitgrösste Stadt der Niederlande und unterhält den grössten Seehafen Europas. Sie liegt in der Metropolregion Rotterdam-Den Haag und ist Teil der sogenannten Randstad, ein Ballungsraum, der von den urbanen Gebieten um Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam und Den Haag markiert wird und insgesamt rund 8 Millionen Einwohner fasst. Zwischen diesen Städten hat sich das am intensivsten genutzte Schienennetz Europas entwickelt, welches kontinuierlich angepasst und ausgebaut wird.
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Urban Design Theory: Texts, Positions, and Discourses
HS17: Places for People
The aim of this reading seminar is to gain deeper understanding of themes, positions and discourses within the field of urban design. The current class will introduce the environmentalist discourse regarding cities and will take a journey through different positions concerning the role of place in human life.
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Design and Strategy in urban space I / Urban Design I
Means and potentials of urban design are depicted from different perspectives to illustrate how the city can be designed as a sustainable and humane environment.
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Barcelona Sagrera
Currently, Sagrera is Barcelona’s most important urban development area. On the site of the former goods yard, a new high speed train station is under construction¬ - an international traffic node connecting the Iberian peninsula with Central Europe, a new gate to Barcelona.
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Post-Soviet Urban Planning and Development in the Baltic States
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Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum II
Aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven werden Mittel und Möglichkeiten der Disziplin Städtebau aufgezeigt, die Stadt im Sinne einer zukunftsfähigen und menschengerechten Umwelt zu gestalten.
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Urban Design Theory: Texts, Positions, and Discourses
FS17: Architecture and Politics of Urban Form
In this seminar, we will take a journey through different positions concerning the city as architectural form and as political form.
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Shocks of Change
Urban Planning and Development in Prishtina and Tirana
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London Bishopsgate
Die denkmalgeschützte Ruine des ehemaligen Güterbahnhofs Bishopsgate liegt an der Schnittstelle zwischen dem Londoner Financial District und den sich im Wandel befindlichen Quartieren des Londoner Ostens
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Kevin Lynch asserts that the purpose of urban design is ‘good city form’ (1981). In this reading seminar we will investigate what role utopian thinking might play in reaching this goal, based on the discourses on urban utopias and on urban form theories.
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Amsterdam Waterfront
Whether London, Boston or Copenhagen, the centers of cities move towards the water. Amsterdam too is looking for a new relationship with its fast developing areas on the north-side of the estuary IJ, which separates Amsterdam’s north from its south.
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São Paulo Stadtarchitektur
The cities like the houses. The houses like the cities. Vilanova Artigas, 1969
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Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum II
Aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven werden Mittel und Möglichkeiten der Disziplin Städtebau aufgezeigt, die Stadt im Sinne einer zukunftsfähigen und menschengerechten Umwelt zu gestalten.
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Positions on Form in the Urban Design Discourse
In this seminar we will take a journey through different positions concerning form in the post-1968 urban design discourse with special regard to the reciprocal relationships between material space and human operations. We will read and discuss early post-modern concepts of form, inspired by spatial hierarchies and patterns, as well as theories that qualify form through its performance, its social-material relations or operations of its emergence.
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Grand Projet Zürich-Oerlikon
Kann am Bahnhof Oerlikon ein zweites Zentrum für Zürich entstehen, das bezüglich seiner Dichte, seiner Intensität und seiner Urbanität den Vergleich mit internationalen Sekundärknoten stand hält?
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San Francisco Bay Area
Die San Francisco Bay Area war schon immer ein Anziehungspunkt für Pioniere: Ob für die Glücksritter des Goldrauschs im 19. Jahrhundert, Hippies, die Wegbereiter der Ökobewegung, LGBT-Aktivisten oder
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Hamburg - Olympic Legacy
Die Stadt Hamburg bewirbt sich für die olympischen Sommerspiele 2024. Auf der „Kleinen Grasbrook“, einer gegenüber der Hafencity gelegenen und zur Zeit durch den Hamburger Hafen genutzten Halbinsel, sollen das Olympische Dorf und die wichtigsten Sportstätten angesiedelt werden.
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Rom Under the Magnifying Glass
Urban Sketching
Colin Rowe's book, “Collage City” interprets Rome as an organically grown alternative to the urbanism of social engineering and total design, and serves as a starting position for our seminar.
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Emergence, Examples and Potential of a Global Typology
"The new city of the 20th century is the familiar, decentralized world of highways and terraced houses, shopping malls and office parks", wrote Robert Fishman in 1991 in the magazine ARCH +. Office parks, the workplaces of this new city, can be found almost anywhere in the world.
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Methods in Urban and Landscape Studies
The goal of the NSL Doctoral Colloquium is to invite PhD candidates in the field of urban studies to share their experiences and insights regarding the application of methods in their research and scientific publications. It is hosted on an alternating basis by professors of the NSL. The colloquia provide participants with a differentiated knowledge of methods in the field of urbanism. Furthermore, they serve as a platform to exchange contemporary urban research experiences across disciplinary boundaries, drawing from different geographies of knowledge production. Besides discussing ongoing individual work and its methodological questions, the course shall also probe critical perspectives on urban and landscape design and the city’s relation to society, and examine the historical and epistemological significance of these perspectives. A methodological meta-theme is set for each colloquium with the idea that papers presented link the individual dissertations with this theme. After the colloquium, revised papers are published in a booklet, which is disseminated to universities and libraries.
Organization and moderation: Dr Daniel Kiss (lecturer, Institute for Urban Design)
Recent colloquia:
The Single Case in the Backdrop of the General Thesis
(November 23, 2017)
This colloquium’s aim was discussing the relationship of case studies and broader conclusions within one’s dissertation. This includes both ways of selecting cases and of getting from the specificities of each case to general patterns and conclusions of the thesis via abstraction, synthesis and other methodological means.
Hosts: Prof. Ir. Kees Christiaanse, Prof. Dr. Philip Ursprung
Guest critic: Prof. Dr. Aseem Inam (Cardiff University)
Navigating Through Evidence: From Hypothesis Through Data to Thesis
(December 3, 2015)
This colloquium focused on the relationship between the assumptions (hypotheses) that motivate one’s research, the empirical materials gathered in support of these assumptions, and the (re)formulation of statements (theses) based on these materials.
Hosts: Prof. Dr. Marc Angélil, Prof. Ir. Kees Christiaanse
Guest critics: Prof. Dr. Nathalie Roseau (ENPC Paris), Prof. Dr. Paola Viganò (EPFL Lausanne)
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Examples of past free diploma projects at the chair:
Kallang as an integrated island (FS 2015)
Hybrid forms of settlement in the Furrtal (FS 2015)
Greyfields as a Resource (HS 2014)
Kulturlandschaft Appenzell (HS 2014)
Amsterdams Airport Corridor (HS 2013)
The Professorship of Kees Christiaanse does not take on any more free master theses.
For informations on the regular master thesis please contact Benno Agreiter.
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Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum II
Aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven werden Mittel und Möglichkeiten der Disziplin Städtebau aufgezeigt, die Stadt im Sinne einer zukunftsfähigen und menschengerechten Umwelt zu gestalten.
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As part of the Design Studio, we will develop urban design plans for the Fulach and Herblinger valley in groups of four to six students.
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Singapore. Mixed Use - High Density
Complementary to our Special Urban Design Studio “Vertical Cities Asia” we offer a seminar trip to Singapore to explore the South-East Asian metropolis and some of the neighbouring tropical islands.
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Vertical Cities Asia, Singapore
Within the framework of the Future Cities Laboratory, we offer a Special Urban Design Studio in the FS15. The studio is bundled with the international student competition “Vertical Cities Asia”, which is hosted by the National University of Singapore.
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CASE STUDIES IN CITY OF SCHAFFHAUSEN
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EFFECTS OF LARGE-SCALE URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
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IMAGES OF THE CITY: BRUSSELS
Taking pictures and Citysketches with Andri Pol
Brüssel, Hauptstadt Belgiens und Sitz der europäischen Union, ist eine dynamische Stadt. Multinational, global vernetzt und in ständigem Wandel, bietet Brüssel mit seinem polyzentrischen Stadtgefüge ein diverses Umfeld für das städtische Leben.
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CASE STUDIES IN URBAN DESIGN: SMALL ENTERPRISES AS DRIVERS FOR DISTRICT DEVELOPMENT
Small urban enterprises shape the city morphology and development throught their multiplicity of activities and forms of appearances. These varieties often don’t fit comfortably into standardised definitions and categorisations, which inform planning policies and urban development in regards to a better integration of small businesses in urban culture.
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Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum II
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DIE STADT DES WISSENS
IBA Academy Heidelberg -- Workshop und Konferenz
Die Stadt Heidelberg ist bekannt für ihr Kulturerbe und ihre herausragenden Bildungs- und Forschungsinstitutionen. Die Internationale Bauausstellung (IBA Academy) initiiert hier einen interkulturellen Dialog zur Zukunft der Stadtentwicklung in der wissensbasierten Gesellschaft.
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From Hong Kongs productive hinterland to a globally connected and polycentric metropolitan region
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Entwurf und Strategie im urbanen Raum I
Aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven werden Mittel und Möglichkeiten der Disziplin Städtebau aufgezeigt, die Stadt im Sinne einer zukunftsfähigen und menschengerechten Umwelt zu gestalten.
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IMAGES OF THE CITY
Taking pictures with Andri Pol
Das städtische Gefüge ist ein Produkt, das aus einer Vielzahl von bewussten und unbewussten Entscheidungen entstanden ist. Gleichzeitig ist die Stadt aber auch selbst wieder Ausgangslage und Umfeld für das Gelebte, Gelagerte, Gespeicherte und Gedachte. Doch wie fotografiert man diese Stadt, unsere Lebenswelt?
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Die Siedlungsentwicklung nach innen ist seit vielen Jahren ein zentrales Thema der Raumplanung in der Schweiz. Innere Verdichtung,
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Kulturlandschaft II
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VERTICAL CITIES ASIA – EVERYONE HARVESTS
Every year a one square kilometre territory will be the subject of the competition. This area, to house 100,000 people living and working, sets the stage for tremendous research and investigation into urban density, verticality, domesticity, work, food, infrastructure, nature, ecology, structure, and program – their holistic integration and the quest for visionary paradigm will be the challenges of this urban and architectural invention.
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Protagonists of the Kulturlandschaft
Agriculture in Transition
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Transformation Scenarios for an Deteriorated Downtown Area
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Amsterdam-Schiphol
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Infrastructure Landscape Amsterdam-Schiphol
Photography workshop on the boat in Holland
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Special Urban Design Studio
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This research project deals with Patrick Abercrombie’s famous 1943 'Potato Plan', and its usability as a contemporary tool to analyze urban territories. Applying Abercrombie’s method on 40 cities from around the world, we are putting together a collection of polycentric metropolitan spaces.
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This research platform explores ways of employing urban design in qualitative research on polycentric metropolitan regions. Besides developing the means to understand, describe and further design these, the goal of this initiative is to analyze the performance of the relevant planning strategies and instruments.
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In large urban areas one can find particular quarters that contribute overproportionally to the social, cultural and entrepreneurial value creation of a city. These quarters are often characterized by intense use of public space and ground floor based activities such as retail, gastronomy and creative industries. They are often located in central areas with a historic and partly devalued building stock, and with divers populations. They serve as a springboard for socially climbing groups, such as migrants, students or entrepreneurs, and they offer the social niches and networks needed to practice unconventional life styles and ways of working.
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Everything shaped by humans is culture. This includes the territory. Cultured landscapes are created by the constant interaction of humans with nature.
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Airports and Cities is a research platform that investigates the relationship of airports and their urban regions. Searching for a deeper understanding of their reciprocity, the aim is finding potentialities for better and more sustainable airport and urban development strategies.
Airports and Cities is based on specific case studies, such as Zurich Airport region, Munich Airport region, Singapore Airport region, the Pearl River airport system, or Amsterdam airport region.
Airport and Cities' main research themes are urbanisation effects of hub airports, development of airport design and planning, best practices of enhanced reciprocity of airports and cities and conceptual models for airports and cities.
Airports and Cities is connected to TU Munich, TU Delft, University of Amsterdam as well as industry partners such as Schiphol, Zurich Kloten Airport and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport‘s theGrounds.
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Project Description
The subject of this research is the specific symptom-group of Budapest's post-socialist urban development, planning and governance between 1990 and 2010. Everyday experience offers a large number of seemingly disjointed and unsystematic micro-phenomena characterizing this period’s urbanization. The starting point of this research is the observation that these phenomena come together, and form a pattern.
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Design as Qualitative-Heuristic (Thought) Experiment
Following Donald Schön’s theoretical paths, designing can be conceptualized as a use-test-entity that has both a productive and and an inquiring dimension. On the one hand, it projects contingent possibilites to illustrate differences to actual reality. Therefore, designing can be understood as a tool for producing (new) recources in order to achieve the projected difference. On the other hand, designing can be seen as an inquiring qualitative-heuristic (thought) experiment that investigates the qualities of actual reality. Additionally to Schön’s concept, a third dimension can be added: the theoretical dimension of design that leads to knowledge through experience and judgment, while combining aesthetic and ethical deliberations.
The aim of this work is to critically examine and systematize processes of thinking and cognition in the design process, and, if possible, to present the design process in a way that is as inclusive as possible. Therefore, the central thesis is that design can be thought of as both the source and mouth of three different dimensions: As an instrument of change, as a means of gaining knowledge and as a resource of a theory of practice. By relating these three dimensions, and thus instead of trying to stratify and specialize design practice, design theory and the use of design in research collectives, as is customary today, this work tries to link these roles as an integral form of thought through the basic action of design. In this line of thought, the design process can be extended beyond the mere creative act to a more extensive formation of thought and the work of the designer can be better connected to other intellectual virtues.
This theoretical recombination should firstly improve the understanding of design, secondly arrange these insights theoretically and thirdly accompany the design practice in a structuring way. In order to be able to use this research project as a tool for teaching, design thinking is not only outlined theoretically, but is also presented step by step using simple examples and finally described in a more detailed case study.
Contact Simon Kretz
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The research focuses on three key scales: sustainable building technologies, the city as an urban system, and the relationship between urban and rural environments. The new strategy of the Future Cities Laboratory consists of combining these key points in an appropriate way and researching their interactions.
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