EVENT
CITY
The
Bauhaus Kolleg has started in September 2000. It examines the changes
in architecture and the urban environment in an event-oriented society.
The
urban entertainment culture of the 21st century has spawned a host of
event worlds for shows, amusement and consumerism. Malls, theme parks,
amusement centers and events are symbols of the cultural change accompanying
the disintegration of the previously separate spheres of culture, politics,
society and business. The marketing of cities and regions with spectacular
presentations of history and culture and the redevelopment of city centers
to create event spaces for shopping and entertainment are an eloquent
expression of this development. In ever fewer cases is this process
of urban reorganisation the product of town planning schemes devised
by the public authorities. The commercialisation of cities is being
accompanied by a loss of public space, increasing controls and a growing
exclusion of the poor and destitute. The commercialisation of culture
is celebrating its triumphal march in the event city. Architecture,
as an artistic product, is barely in a position to hold its ground against
the powerful flow of cultural goods. It forms part of the window dressing
which cities are using to generate an image for themselves.
The
Bauhaus Kolleg focuses on the changes in the urban environment brought
about by the cultural revamping which cities are undergoing. It investigates
and analyses the changed conditions in the development of the urban
environment in an event-oriented society with a view to drawing up design
strategies for an "event city beyond sprawl".
"Event
worlds”
Theory
and method
The
aim of the first term has been to provide a comprehensive overview of
the development trends in culture, society, economics, planning and
architecture in the event-oriented society. It will deal with the theory
and history, methodological access to and practical knowledge of the
development of the event city. The first term has been divided up into
two blocks. The lectures and seminars in the first block will provide
an overview of the complexity of the event city. The workshops in the
second block will focus on methods of studying and designing urban environments
using the project location, the European quarter in Frankfurt, as an
example. The teaching programme has been supplemented by excursions
to urban event worlds in Germany and to the project location.
Curriculum
Sociology
of the event society, Cultural industry and urbanity, Transformation
of culture, Social geography of the postindustrial space
Workshops
Introduction
in the project location, Excursion to Frankfurt/Main, Strategies of
urban planning in the Event City, Architecture of the Event City, Scenes
of urban entertainment, Cartography of Urbanity
We
have undertaken a theoretical journey through the artificial urban landscape.
It has analysed the changed conditions in the development of the urban
environment in an event oriented society.
Within
an emipirical approach the participants from USA, Croatia, Great Britain,
Ukraine, Colombia, Egypt and Germany investigated the development of
the Urban Entertainment Center of the Europe Quarter in Frankfurt as
a prototype for the revitalization of the city by shopping and entertainment.
They have created a network of scenes of urban pleasure to propose a
rethinking of the urban event worlds as a flexible structure providing
an interfusion of local and global space, commercialised cultural events
and everyday cultural practices.
Isabell
Heckelsmüller, Kristina Wright, Bastian Lange, Sonja Beeck, Hassan
Hussein, Juan Pablo Cortes-Ayala, Silke Steets, Paula Roush, Natasa
Radovic, Alexander Vereschak, Margarita Zinets Ukraine Kunst
Event
City - Accidental City - Fantasy City - Themed City - Spectacle City
- Natural born city
City
between heaven and hell - Urban Paradise - Staging of urbanity - Urban
Pleasure - Instant City
Divided
City - Shopping City
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