THE TASK
On the basis of empirical material, of data and facts, visualisations should be developed that
- cast light on the current problems of the urbanisation process
- indicate strategies in the approach to these problems
- and that, as far as can be discerned, present more advanced concept
The presentation should thereby look behind the facts and clarify coherencies and trends. The presentation should visually display spatial and temporal circumstances and trace the forces driving their development. To master the task, all techniques of visual representation and pictorial media can be employed, but a coherent overall concept should be recognizable in the selection, transformation and presentation of the information. Possible topical groups that may be developed as main focus areas are:
1. URBAN METABOLISM: The conservative critiques of the city in the late nineteenth century already saw the size, in other words, the population of the rapidly growing cities as one of the causes of societal ills. How can the megalopolises of today, which have grown tenfold, ensure stable social conditions and supply and waste systems for the population and, respectively, how can a certain standard be maintained in the case of shrinkage? How environmentally sustainable is the urban metabolism? Besides the delivery of municipal services, which mainly applies to transport provisions and waste and water management, the flows of materials that pass through a city as well as its global integration and logistics are of interest. To what extent are the beginnings of a sustainable circular economy and the replacement of goods by services discernible?
2. SPATIAL STRUCTURE: Size alone is not an adequate indicator for the social conditions that result from the spatial concentration of people. Density, i.e., the relation of population number to available space, is more relevant. Which density is reasonable or still beneficial and in which way do building structures modify the experience of density? What do the spatial structures of the new megalopolises look like? Are there spatial distribution mechanisms such as, e.g., the East-West model with graduated building density? The desperate housing situation of the nineteenth century was first and foremost a density problem. The compounds in which asylum seekers or migrants are housed in today are reminiscent of these in terms of density, while the gentrification of urban neighbourhoods invariably also means a reduction in density.
3. POPULATION: The social integration of the different population groups in a community is considered to be a guarantor for political stability. Accordingly, the concept of a social mix in urban neighbourhoods stands at the top of the list of planning objectives, although without concerted counteraction, the tendency towards segregation appears to reassert itself; as a rule, the more recent ‘soft’ gentrification of neighbourhoods is also associated with social segregation. Are there examples of a sustainable gentrification of urban areas without displacement? Would the composition of the population of informal settlements change if these were legalised?
4. SOCIAL INNOVATIONS: Today, in accordance with municipal practice, the dual concept of formal/informal is no longer seen as a dichotomy, but as a tiered series of steps. For a long time, the term ‘informal’ was reserved for ‘unauthorised’ settlement on the peripheries of core cities, without rights of land ownership, whereby not only the legal status, but also the internal organisation, based on self-help and neighbourhood assistance, is informal. It constitutes, after legalisation, a necessary complement to the supply of municipal provisions. Informal structures meanwhile also increasingly characterise the historic cities of Europe, both as informal housing situations resulting from migration and migratory labour and in terms of community involvement and self-help. The latter compensate for cutbacks in the provision of social services and the privatisation of formerly public services. New concepts and solutions that can be tried and tested with fewer bureaucratic obstacles bring innovations to the publicly managed services of general interest. Here, practical action plays a part in the direction in which a society develops.
5. DIGITAL CITY: Man has created for himself a mantle of data, which envelops him and his environment like a second skin. The growth rates of this construct are exponential and cannot be compared with any form of biological reproduction. It is an irreversible development, which is currently the subject of controversial debate, with the bywords ‘private sphere’ and ‘control’ pitted against a ‘brave new world of intelligence’. What significance does this electronic mantle have for the functioning of a city, in relation to both infrastructural services and the economic and planning-related evaluation of personal data? How secure or vulnerable is the electronically regulated city, in which man is both a data provider and a data receiver, who with the assistance of his mobile prostheses can both reach out and be sought out. To what extent are slum areas and informal settlements connected to the electronic world? Do disadvantages arise from poor networks, and do the mobile networks dependent on material conduit systems open up new opportunities for development? That new forms of political and citizens’ engagement take shape in social networks has become evident, based on numerous examples in recent years.
6. REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY: The global link between financial capital and the real estate sector is a significant underlying factor for urban growth and for the management of land and the existing real estate for both housing and commerce. The collapse of the property bubble in 2008 with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers is merely an extreme example of how the financial markets influence spatial planning. Based on the transactions at a municipal level, it is clear that urban development is influenced at least to the same extent by investors or investment-seeking capital and by public policy development. A particularly blatant example of the incompatibility of the objectives of the various participants is represented by the sales of complete housing stocks and settlements from the social housing sector to hedge funds. As a result, the living conditions of a large proportion of the population became the plaything of financial transactions. How can such constellations of power be exposed? Can they be regulated? What possibilities for the supply of affordable housing exist beyond the laws of the financial market?
The spatial localisation and the scale of the analysis are left open; several scale levels and areas may be linked together in the work. However, contact and collaboration with the municipalities and the players in local politics must be sought. The selection and research of a suitable topic is no less relevant than the conversion of the research into visualisations and the methodology thereby applied. The information must be clearly communicated, must not rely on the viewer’s standard of knowledge and must not require detailed verbal clarification.