Authors: Jon Bruns, Finn Knoll, Jan Müller, and Marc Michel.
The urban design studio approaches Berlin from the ground, with soils as a lens through which the city is put in the perspective of its urban and environmental history, as well as of its sustainable and equitable futures. At the interface of the geo-, bio- and atmospheres, soils form thin, fragile and dynamic layers which lay the foundation of ecosystems across natural and cultivated landscapes, but also inhabited territories. Over the last centuries, the successions of vernacular, classical, modernist and postmodern urbanistic plans and projects, as well as the spontaneous urban wilderness emerging from the unplanned processes of ruins, brachen and laisser-faire, have developed intricate genealogies of multiple “projects for the ground” (Secchi, 1986) that constitute cities’ multilayered palimpsests.
Students are invited to work individually and collectively on a series of sites, characteristic of Berlin’s urban fabric from the 19th century Hobrecht-Plan to Eastern and Western variations of the post-modern critical reconstruction.
We will explore the potential to update these “projects for the ground” through strategies of soil-based urban renewal, environmental health and climate adaptation:
• urban soils as an ecological infrastructure insuring climate resilience through the reactivation of the urban water cycle
• urban soils as a garden habitat insuring support for circular management of resources and carbon sequestration through the reactivation of local food production
• urban soils as a social medium insuring citizen awareness and engagement through the reactivation of outdoor learning, community and care practices