Once again, we are offering insights into our research and teaching programme Urban Design at HafenCity University to the interested public. Our third edition is devoted to our motif of interrogating housing. The annual theme 2018/19 will be concerned with ‘playing house’, the intricate linkages of social policy making and designing floor plans for the ‘family’ Annual Theme 18/19 Let’s play house.
The retrospective reflects on this year’s theme »Modes of Realising« Modes of Realising – documentation of the colloquium. Over the last ten years, Urban Design ran one long term and another shorter term live project. We give a taster of our approach to and understanding of the performative plan in the extract »From the University of the Neighbourhoods to Building A Proposition For Future Activities or how Urban Design mobilizes the performative plan« Spatial Agency. The centre spreads are reserved for outtakes of key readings: This time, we’re featuring Georges Teyssot’s 1989 »Die Krankheit des Domizils« Key Readings, in which he assembles the history of housing as accommodation and materialised social policy making, presented with kind permission by DeGruyter. In a similarly inquisitive way, Colin Ripley in his recent footprint article »Strategies for Living in Houses« Key Readings takes a closer look at the heteronormative single-family house and reveals ‘the very precise way in which it serves the needs of this concept of the family – and no other’. Beatriz Colomina’s report outlines the radical and programmatic move from Las Vegas to Levittown during a second Learning from studio at Yale undertaken by Venturi and Scott-Brown Key Readings. Roger Keil’s introduction to his »Suburban Constellations« provides an idea of how Lefebvre could be taken to examine the ‘suburban revolution’ Key Readings. Lastly, we turn to classic Bruno Taut’s »Das neue Wohnen. Die Frau als Schöpferin« who took on the challenge of making the home homely and gave new prominence to the house wife in its creation Key Readings.
Snapshots into how UD at HCU works are presented in the next two contributions; »working on the wall« as part of last year’s summer school »Building A Proposition For Future Activities« interview with Tamotsu, followed by an example of the technique of the collage as practiced in the seminar »Komposition des Städtischen« UD teaching.
The Assorted Publications list some of the printed matter that UD has produced over the recent years Assorted Publications.
Enjoy reading!
Yours, UD
