Creating Knowledge: Innovation Strategies for Designing Urban Landscapes 9783868598865

Table of contents :
Content
The Power of Creating Knowledge
With Brains, Heart and Hands
Designing as Working Knowledge
Introduction
Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge
Exploration Creativity, Understanding and idea
Exploration: Creativity, Understanding and Idea
What Does Understanding Mean?
Artistic Processes of Understanding among Language, Sign and Image
Creativity in the Balance between Action and Complexity
The Neurobiological Preconditions for the Development of Curiosity and Creativity
The Maiuetics of Knowledge
Creativity and Understanding
Curatorial Acting
Focus Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies
Focus: Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies
Understanding is Essential for Designing
Improving the Quality of Fragmented Urban Landscapes – a Global Challenge!
Productive Open Spaces
Design Knowledge
Ideas – How Can They Emerge?
Design is Experimental Invention
Manifold Horizons
Stossworks: Hybridized, Expansive, Incomplete
We Focus on People
Multiscale Design
Dynamic Media
Designing through Experiment
The “Park of Least Resistance”
The Authors
The Editors
Picture Index

Citation preview

Creating Knowledge

STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN

jovis

Creating Knowledge

Hille von Seggern I Julia Werner I Lucia Grosse-Bächle (Ed.)

Innovation Strategies for Designing Urban Landscapes

STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN

jovis

This book was developed as a part of the research field Innovation Strategies for Designing Urban Landscapes. The first edition (print) was financially funded by the Leibniz Universität Hannover research fund, among others. © first edition 2008, revised and extended e-book 2015 by jovis Verlag GmbH I Texts by kind permission of the authors. Pictures by kind permission of the photographers/holders of the picture rights. All rights reserved. I Editors: Hille von Seggern/Julia Werner/Lucia Grosse-Bächle, STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität Hannover I Translations: Rachel Hill, Berlin (p. 49–58, 152–163, 188–256, 274–308); Neal Odonoghue (p. 98–103); Julian Reisenberger, Weimar (p. 6–39, 59–82); Lucinda Rennison, Berlin (p. 164–187); SAW Communications, Christa Trautner-Suder (p. 257–264); SAW Communications, Norma Keßler (p. 265–273); Geoffrey Steinherz, Wiesbaden (p. 40–48, 83–97, 104–133, 257–264) I STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN projects: text, conception and graphics: Julia Werner I Book design and setting: Susanne Rösler, Berlin I Lithography: Bild1Druck, Berlin I Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek | The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.ddb.de jovis Verlag I Kurfürstenstraße 15/16 I 10785 Berlin I www.jovis.de I ISBN 978-3-86859-886-5

content The Power of Creating Knowledge A Transformative Design Approach Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Lucia Grosse-Bächle With Brains, Heart and Hands For a Culture of Creativity in Scientific Theory and Practice Wilhelm Krull

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Designing as Working Knowledge 42 Helga Nowotny Introduction 49 Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Lucia Grosse-Bächle Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge 59 Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner

Exploration

Creativity, Understanding and idea

Exploration: Creativity, Understanding and Idea 83 Hille von Seggern What Does Understanding Mean? The Perspectives of Heidegger and Gadamer Jean Grondin

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Artistic Processes of Understanding among Language, Sign and Image Selected Pictures by Trude Fumo Anne D. Peiter

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Creativity in the Balance between Action and Complexity 104 Hans Poser The Neurobiological Preconditions for the Development of Curiosity and Creativity 112 Gerald Hüther The Maiuetics of Knowledge Body, Sense and Language Gustl Marlock

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Creativity and Understanding Neurobiology, Mimesis and Art Hinderk M. Emrich

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Curatorial Acting Art, Work and Education Beatrice von Bismarck

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Projects at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN Symposium: Research by Design 22 Evolution of a Spatial “Creating Knowledge Process” 25 Water Atlas 27 Elbe Island Dyke Park 29 The Dyke Hut in Goetjensort 30 Deichpark 2 – Spreehafen 31 Kreetsand – Experiencing the Tidal Land­scape 32 Kirchdorfer Wiesen Resort 32 A Vision for the Wadden Coast Landscape in the Context of Climate Change 33 2Stromland – 2Riverland 34 Rhine Love 35 Expeditions in German Educational Landscapes 36 Lima Beyond the Park 37

Focus

Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies

Focus: Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies 151 Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner Understanding is Essential for Designing 164 Hille von Seggern Improving the Quality of Fragmented Urban Landscapes – a Global Challenge! 188 Thomas Sieverts Productive Open Spaces 195 Undine Giseke Design Knowledge 202 Martin Prominski Ideas – How Can They Emerge? Design Teaching at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN Julia Werner

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Design is Experimental Invention 240 Peter Latz Manifold Horizons 257 Henri Bava Stossworks: Hybridized, Expansive, Incomplete 265 Chris Reed We Focus on People 274 Markus Gnüchtel Multiscale Design Ontwerpen door des schalen heen Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze, Susanne Zeller

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Dynamic Media Water and Vegetation in Process-oriented Design Lucia Grosse-Bächle

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Designing through Experiment 302 Daniela Karow-Kluge The “Park of Least Resistance” An Inventory Boris Sieverts Appendix The Authors The Editors Picture Index

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317 319 320

Dragnet Investigation Designing Regions while Exploring Them 38 Transformative Narratives as Agents of Change 39 Designs with Experiments 44 Cliches, Prejudices, Stereotypes 57 Body and Space 71 Cult Glasses 79 “The Part and the Whole“ 84 People Create Space 90 Rediscovering the Douro 157 KAMP-LINTFORT 162 Experiments in Luxemburg 178 The Spatial Vision 179 Urban Surfers 181 New Farmer. Farmland 184 An Image for the Altmark 230 On the Axis 236 Selection, Editing, Comments: Julia Werner, Hille von Seggern

A Transformative Design Approach

Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Lucia Grosse-Bächle Six years have passed since Creating Knowledge was first published. The integrative approach to design that we outline in the book is the product of many years’ experience in practice and research, and of exploratory teaching methods and reflection on design. To mark the occasion of the book launch, we elected to apply our approach to designing for large-scale areas in an open experiment among professionals. This was the starting point for an event funded by the Volkswagen Foundation and conceived and implemented by STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN as an experimental setting. In July 2008 we presented the book to international colleagues, invited guests and students as part of a symposium on “Research by Design – the case of urban landscapes” at the Leibniz University in Hanover. Imagine some 100 people coming and going between a series of light-filled neutral spaces. Hanging plants with blue blossoms hang from the ceiling of the main room, which one reaches through a notional “cinematic sluice gate” comprised of two screens on which the banks of the Elbe between Hamburg and the North Sea (filmed from the deck of a ship) slide gently by on each side. Various people stand talking in groups while others sit on a sofa, reading and browsing through handbooks, project work and research reports. At certain times, most of them listen attentively to the “discussion carousel”, a panel discussion between international professionals in which, at intervals, one person leaves the panel and another takes his or her place. Ever more experts – researchers, practitioners, teachers and students from different disciplines – take a seat at a long table and start to draw, glue, write or create collages. In the next room, two people are working on a dance choreography inspired by the Elbe. Others simply watch and observe. By the end of the day, some 50 pieces of paper are hanging on the wall: a colourful bouquet of pictorial visions for the landscape of the Elbe, covered with a plethora of interesting handwritten questions. (p. 22-24) The context for this setting was a one-day symposium that was simultaneously a discussion forum, experimental concept and workshop. In addition to an exhibition, a library and a perpetually running film of the River Elbe, the symposium featured a periodically recurring discussion carousel and a parallel design workshop in the same room. The participants were able to move around freely between the workshop area, the lecture area, the entrance and the space outside. The rules were simple: participants could read, listen, take part in discussions and work as and when they wished. In this open experiment, the participants and organizers worked together to explore relevant research questions and development possibilities for a chosen urban landscape. Every region and every kind of urban landscape was in principle available as a potential subject of planning. After consideration, STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN elected to focus on a section of the Elbe estuary that borders the federal states of Hamburg, Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony in which a range of current and complex issues coincide. The region is exposed to an increased risk of flooding as a result of rising sea levels, heavy rainfall, increasingly intensive shipping use and the presence of a power station in the flooding zone. The region has contaminated industrial wasteland that needs transforming and is subject to the competing interests of urban settlement, recreation and nature protection – all within a section of the lower Elbe in the midst of a wonderful estuary landscape.

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The Power of Creating Knowledge

Creating knowledge in practice, research and teaching

Creating Knowledge is a research through design process for urban landscapes and is the primary design approach used by the members of the STUDIO. As a consequence of the symposium in 2008 and this design approach, we have since had the chance to lend our voice to the often controversial global debate on how to deal with what is obviously a highly complex spatial constellation: that of tidal river estuaries, which are becoming increasingly threatened by flooding as a result of climate change and rising sea levels. In the six years since the book was published, and as a product of the symposium, members of the STUDIO have continued to work on this topic in both national and international contexts. A series of research and practice

Images 1 to 3: Water system models Image 4: Landscape machines Dynamic exploratory models help to understand the complex ecological and economic processes and to investigate the effects of different initial conditions and the changes they cause to a system’s dynamics. They are also simultaneously a creative-aesthetic design step. Research for the “Landscape machines” focussed on the tidal landscape of the River Elbe. The “Water system models” explored the water systems of Melbourne. Landscape machines: Leibniz University Hanover, Germany, 2008/09, tutors: Antje Stokman (SUL*), Sabine Rabe (SUL), Sigrun Langner (SUL) Water story machines: RMIT University Melbourne, Australia, 2010, tutors: Cath Stutterheim and Julia Werner (SUL)

projects followed such as the Wasseratlas (Water Atlas, p. 27-28), the Tideelbebuch (Tidal Elbe Book), the “Deichpark Elbinsel” (Elbe Island Dyke Park, p. 30), the “Deichbude” (Dyke Hut, p. 30), “Pilotprojekt Kreetsand” (Kreetsand Pilot Project, p. 32) and the “Deichpark Bereich Spreehafen” (Spreehafen section of the Dyke Park, p. 31). These are just some examples from a series of projects, prize-winning competition entries, publications, exhibitions and lectures *  Member of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN

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The objective of the design workshop was to find a pictorial expression of the landschaftsgeschehen – of the multitude of processes and activities that give shape to the project area – in the form of drawings, collages, mappings, models or texts, and from these to elaborate initial design ideas for the development of the landscape and derive relevant research questions based on the “dialogue with the pictures”. The basis for the pictorial representation of the project area was an aerial photograph at a scale of 1:5.000 measuring 60 × 24 cm, and further design materials were also provided. The intention was that by the end of the day, participants would have overlaid their map with a vision for the Elbe area and formulated research questions for the area for presenting at a pop-up exhibition in the evening. On the day, more than 50 works were produced, each of them a visual interpretation of the project area. More than half of the participants (some of whom worked in pairs) were able to find an initial pictorial representation to capture the complexity of the Elbe area. The subsequent evaluation of the works revealed a range of promising ideas and potential questions for further exploration (p. 22-24).

Designing – a transformative process

Designing is a working knowledge (see Nowotny, p. 42). It requires brains, heart and hands (see Krull, p. 40) and it involves cognition, intuition, emotions and feelings (see Seggern & Werner, p. 59). Designing is a practice, a knowledge that works and with which one works – a process that is simultaneously about creation and comprehension. Designing is a forward-looking activity with its respective theoretical conceptual basis and also a specific understanding of the specialist field in which it is being practiced. In our case it is concerned with wider social issues, how they transform space and how they manifest themselves in a holistic manner (gestalt). Over the past few years the members of the STUDIO, like many other professionals and groups around the world, have been searching for a term that adequately encapsulates a contemporary understanding of design. We ourselves began with systemic planning and design, then with situative design (von Seggern 1997) and explorative design (e.g. von Seggern & Werner 2005) and we investigated approaches such as reflexive design (e.g. Margitta Buchert), ecosystemic design (e.g. Antje Stokman), topological design (e.g. Christophe Girot), process-oriented design (e.g. Lucia Grosse-Bächle, Marc Angelil), relational design (e.g. Stefan Kurath) and more. The search for an adequate term goes hand in hand with the debate on designing as an independent scientific process of cognition. And this in turn links the debate on design as research with the discourse on a contemporary understanding of science in general – a link that is more important than ever!

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undertaken by or in conjunction with members of the STUDIO team. At the same time, the design approach was also being applied and developed in teaching, and subjected to theoretical, empirical and design research in doctoral projects, essays and lectures.1 The field of designing integrative approaches to developing flood-threatened regions is a good example for illustrating the power of the Creating Knowledge approach (see the project examples on p. 25-33) and in turn for demonstrating how it works (cf. von Seggern, 2014). The design projects and proposals aim to identify approaches that have the potential to be a transformative force for bringing about long-term change and that simultaneously offer a basis for entering into a global discourse on practice and research. Parallel to the field of working with water, members of the STUDIO extended the approach to other fields, applying its methods through collaborative interdisciplinary processes to other socially relevant fields of research, including regional and urban development, regional trials of alternative energy concepts, nature protection and landscape design, or the exploration of links between education and space, looking from the perspective of education as part of raumgeschehen (p. 36) (www.studiourbanelandschaften.de). But what are the central themes of the Creating Knowledge approach? What does the book tell us and what new findings have contributed to its development since it was first published in 2008? Last but not least, which issues and discussions do we need to consider further? In this publication, we focus, using practice, research and teaching processes, on the search for design methods that are suitable for finding – and creating – (own) answers and design expressions (both aesthetic and functional) for the major issues of spatial development within the canon of public planning processes, incentive programmes, governance and market forces. For this reason, our approach requires that we take a closer look at large-scale spatial design and how we define space as well as the related themes of creativity, understanding and ideas, practice and action, direct involvement, and inter- and transdisciplinarity which today are increasingly relevant topics, all of which lie at the intersection of different disciplines. We will therefore examine each of these in turn, illustrating them with example projects.

72 hours CULTUREgate A spatial exploration through a 1:1 do-it-yourself experiment to install a theatre and event stage on Tempelhof airfield in Berlin made a concrete design contribution to pioneering its subsequent development. Students from the Department of Open Space Development at the Leibniz University of Hanover worked together with the urban pioneers from KULTURGate e.V. Team: Malte Maaß (SUL), Elisa Serra (SUL), Holger Pietrzok; Students: Christopher Haase, Eva Harmel, Tanja Murko, Corinna Wassermann, Felicitas Wiener

This renewed interest must, however, be seen against a somewhat ambivalent background: in essence there are three hard-to-reconcile aspects to consider. We know that as humans we have enhanced our evolution through our actions, cultural and otherwise. This fuels the conceit that we believe we can make or design anything we turn our hand to. At the same time, we are aware that things have a tendency to repeat themselves, which can lead to problems that become remarkably persistent and compounded. Then again repetition is safe and comforting. And finally we know that developments in large-scale raumgeschehen (see below) and the effects they have behave more like complex, open systems that we can neither fully predict nor plan – but that we can at least influence. Every definition and description of the initial conditions

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In Creating Knowledge we describe designing as an integrative process of creating knowledge (p. 59) that brings forth something new out of the simultaneity of a process of understanding and the emergence of ideas. We have deliberately avoided using descriptive adjectives so that the term design can be used to express a contemporary notion of design that can encompass a whole series of characteristics – such as systemic, situative, performative, relational, transformative, topological, experimental – none of which are adequate on their own. Particularly interesting in this context is the current discourse on the notion of transformation (cf. for example Bement 2007/2014 and Schneidewind & Singer-Brodowski 2013). “How transformation happens” is a central, if not the central, aspect of our approach. Our fundamental premise is that to successfully effect a transformation towards a good, liveable future environment – one that is “fit for our grandchildren” as Welzer (2013) calls it – it is necessary that we embrace the careful process of understanding, and the creative simultaneity of understanding and the emergence of ideas it embodies. In recent years, and therefore also since this book was first published, there has been a surge of interest in the study of the theory and practice of designing in many fields of research and practice (cf. for example Grand & Jonas, 2012; Mareis et al., 2010). As an act of envisioning the future, design plays a role in all disciplines, even if in many disciplines it does not go by that name. Even in the natural sciences – disciplines that epitomise the quest for objective truth – design often informs the questions that determine the direction of research. How can we use what we find out to shape the future? This is therefore no longer primarily about eternally correct and irrefutable knowledge.

A postcard from Glenorchy Everyday practices such as walking, drawing, and writing, and their combination in a relaxed way makes it possible to fuse the process of exploration with that of idea-creation. “Write or draw a postcard to your class mates telling them about your experiences” was the lunch-break assignment for students while out in the field undertaking individual, all-day walks through the City of Glenorchy, a local government area of Tasmania near Hobart. These often rather naïve drawings represent an initial intuitive “on the spot” response, a personal, sometimes clichéd appreciation that can serve as an important starting point: each postcard drawing is an initial description, interpretation and idea of the study area. For example, the real Mt. Wellington was re-dubbed “Mt. Direction Tasmania”. Only by obtaining a better understanding of the landscape and its relationships can one shape Tasmania’s future, a premise that can still be seen in the finished design proposals. For example, the abandoned railway line, which was identified as a “hidden resource” during the initial exploration, became the starting point for a couple of design proposals. Graduating Double Degree Design Studio (Bachelors in Landscape Architecture and in Urban Planning); RMIT University Melbourne, 2014; Course leaders: Judy Rogers, Julia Werner (SUL)

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is therefore subject to chance, but is by no means arbitrary because we know that the respective initial conditions can be decisive for what will come about in future. That we have learned from the science of complexity. Helga Nowotny’s remark: “That is how it is. But it could also be otherwise.” (Es ist so, es könnte auch anders sein, 1999) is therefore as applicable as ever – and also as maddening. Given this situation, contemporary approaches to design and to research in the spatial design disciplines are faced with a balancing act: we cannot ignore the initial conditions but at the same time we can only try and understand them as best possible in the knowledge that their complexity is such that they can never be fully understood, and that in order to unravel their complexity we must draw on creative ideas. Similarly design and research must continue pushing forward this transformative process of understanding and the emergence of ideas for that which we cannot totally understand in a succession of iterative steps until a (preliminary) result is reached. If the spatial design disciplines are therefore to be able to produce design responses to the incalculable, unclear, complex and contingent conditions of large-scale development areas, and wish through them to bring about social, institutional and individual transformation, they will naturally need corresponding knowledge and methods for applying their design skills, for understanding what they see and for finding solutions. We believe that the above has potentially radical implications for how we perceive the design research process in five areas in particular:

Image 1: Assumed water flow directions Image 2: Water Atmospheres Image 3: Water Stories Collective mappings according to the principle of similarity: “as in small so in large”. Result of a combination of intuitive explorations in small teams of respective parts of the study area (a strip measuring 15 km × 2.5 km) and their representations according to partial mapping roles jointly agreed beforehand. Co-productions by 25 landscape architecture students in the design studio (Bachelor): „Water Stories. Designing with Narratives of Melbourne’s Catchment“. RMIT University Melbourne, Australia, 2010; Course leaders: Cath Stutterheim and Julia Werner (SUL)

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1. Design is a product of humankind’s creative ability to initiate cultural and evolutionary developments. In this context, design must be understood as the interplay of rational thought with intuition, body and spirit, incorporating the emotions and emotional creativity of all participating in the design process. We all possess a capacity to design, and while this is something that needs training and cultivation, it is by no means solely the reserve of geniuses. 2. Any attempt to define an initial situation, and any consideration and analysis of the existing state of things is necessarily an interpretation; it is an invention – and therefore involves design. Designing always begins with an “invention”, namely the design of the way we choose to look at the initial conditions and the project brief. The beginning of the design process is therefore especially important and for this we need to discover new methods of recording and presenting the existing situation (Werner 2009; 2013). Cartography, for example, as one of the most essential methods for considering large-scape project areas, is not merely an objective recording of the truth but a method that interprets, gives shape and designs, and is consequently now often known as mapping (Langer 2013). Everyday activities, not to mention professional practices from other disciplines, such as walking, playing, recounting, dancing, drawing and producing images, when seen against this background need to be reconceived in order to acquire methodical relevance as means of understanding and cognition . An example of how this kind of design works in the decisive/formative phase at the beginning of a project can be seen in the experimental “Dragnet investigation” undertaken by the STUDIO (Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen gAG, Studio Urbane Landschaften, 2012. See p. 38). 3. If spatial design is to contribute to solving pressing issues, it must immerse itself in different disciplines and integrate their respective knowledge into the design process and the result-

In recent years, many aspects of this creative, inventive, solution-focussed way of designing described in the five points above have been recognised in their cognitive approach and scientific dimension, and the Creating Knowledge process has been discussed around the world in the context of design research – often drawing additional distinctions between research by/ through design, research for design and research about design. In most cases, a design project will employ all three of these forms. This distinction is not useful in an either/or sense, but is instructive in differentiating between ways of designing as a means of creating knowledge with specific approaches and means of representation. One such differentiation is the adaptive appropriation of scientific methods and traditions for design purposes, rather than their wholesale adoption. This can be seen in some of the STUDIO’s projects, such as “Stadtsurfer, Quartierfans und Co” [Urban Surfers, Neighbourhood Fans & Co] (2009), the “Wasseratlas” [Water Atlas] (2008, p. 27-28) or the recently completed research project “Unterwegs in deutschen Bildungslandschaften” [Explorations in German Educational Landscapes] (2015, p. 36). In this second edition of Creating Knowledge we are especially interested in the contribution of design research to the debate on a contemporary understanding of science. In this context, a further aspect of importance, which has arisen as part of the current discourse on “Mode 3” methods (Schneidewind & Singer-Brodowski 2013) is the direct social and practical relevance of these methods, and the transformative effect they have on institutions and people. This is something that in our view is such a self-evident part of design processes in the spatial disciplines that we rarely reflect on it. Creating Knowledge is namely also practice-oriented design approach that involves active immersion in the space itself. The planning of large-scale landscapes is often overly focussed on analysing the existing situation and its history. We instead place stronger emphasis on direct (creative) action. The approach we take draws on the interaction between conceptual ideas and the concrete situation, between the large scale and the small scale, between the part and the whole, and between reflective consideration and direct action in a specific context. The process of design is therefore fundamentally experimental in nature and is often explored through the vehicle of an experiment. That means that much of our creative explorations involve stimulating situative impulses and creating interventions that have a temporary or permanent effect. From practical experience, we develop a hypothesis, which we in turn test in practice, examining and reflecting on the effect of a design idea directly in the respective context. As yet, this pragmatic, experimental, transformative and also scientific-reflexive aspect of the Creating Knowledge design approach and the spatial interventions that follow from it have not

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ing design. In the context of Creating Knowledge , we understand “integration” as a creative, idea-generating, trans-disciplinary approach, that in the spirit of the “friendliness of AND” (Han 2005, p. 39) is able to produce open images and stories. 4. Designing for large-scale areas is an iterative process, a succession of (almost) identical repeating steps that progress from one level of knowledge to the next level of knowledge in a spiralling, searching pattern (see p. 174). This process depends more than anything on the systemic connections between the individual measures and the large-scale whole, the thematic layers and the narrative visions (stories, lines of argumentation, scenarios). At the same time, the entire design process is directed towards the aim of devising possible courses of action. 5. A good design requires a specific creative point of entry (Werner 2013), an open development idea that determines the task at hand, an idea of a process or pathway to the solution, a framework or form, or alternatively rules that, much like a choreography, give rise to form or that set in motion the dynamics of a design process. Every design proposal is both part of a transformation process and an impulse that shapes it.

Creativity, understanding and the idea

In addition to the topic of designing, we also take an equally comprehensive and interdisciplinary look at the second main topic of this book: creativity. What is creativity, how do we create conducive conditions for Kairos, and how can it be put to use? How do ideas arise? And, is creativity something that we can practice? In this book, the authors Poser, Marlock, Emrich, von Seggern and Werner explore how intuition informs creative processes, the role that feelings and emotions play in creativity, the contribution of the body and bodily knowledge as well as how the initial line of enquiry affects the later design process (see also Werner 2013). In recent years, the subject of creativity has experienced something of a renaissance. Richard Florida’s hypothesis (2002) on the creative class and its relevance for economic growth has given rise to a flood of creative quarters in many cities around the world. Creativity is posited as a magic pathway to greater knowledge. In Creating Knowledge, creativity is seen as an evolutionary motivator that, in accordance with

Open-air living room – Temporary interventions for urban gardens Nine different temporary installations designed by students aim to encourage local inhabitants to voluntarily participate in the planning, construction and development of an international neighbourhood garden initiated by the City of Laatzen. The simulated atmosphere of an open-air living room created a platform for exchanging ideas about the future urban gardens. The students erected the installations themselves. The way it was constructed and the materials used reflect the philosophy of low-budget design and recycling. Each installation could be used interactively and flowers and seeds were given away as symbolic gifts. Student project at the Institute of Open Space Planning and Design of the Leibniz University of Hanover, 2012. Tutors: Elisa Serra (SUL), Susanne Zeller (SUL), Imke Rathert, Malte Maaß (SUL)

a new hermeneutical notion of understanding, simultaneously generates ideas: i.e. that understanding and creative re-interpretation are part of one and the same process (see in particular Emrich p. 125; von Seggern p. 164; Werner p. 212). In this context, creativity as a way of understanding (p. 75) describes the stimulating process of arriving at an idea. By accepting that I will neither know nor understand everything, I alternate between observing and taking in and becoming an inseparable part of what is going on to allow ideas to “emerge”. The formation of an idea and the act of understanding are part of the same simultaneous transformative process. It is through this that we understand what (lasting) transformation means, as opposed to arbitrary or imposed change. The spatial design disciplines are as yet not well versed in such cre-

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been widely discussed in professional circles. Since this book was first published, we have gained further experience and collected evidence in a variety of projects which we have reflected on from a theoretical standpoint (Seggern 2012, Grosse-Bächle 2012, Werner 2013, see projects p. 22-39).

Defining space: Raumgeschehen and situation, landscape and the landscape perspective

The third topic of this book has also been discussed extensively in professional circles: how do we adequately define what space is today? Creating Knowledge takes the view that it is now fundamentally necessary to consider space and landscape in two different ways: both as a multi-dimensional, near-endless, nameless and conceptless, open constellation of activities (Geschehen) – a constantly changing space of possibilities – unfolding from moment to moment, as well as in layers, situations or aspects. The material aspect – the built, planned or evolved environment in its different degrees of physical permanence – is just one viewpoint. To properly see this, one has to switch back and forth between the role of an observer and an active participant immersed in the context, between distancing oneself and joining in (Foxley, 2010), between the world view and the local view and between the scales. Only by considering these multiple perspectives can we develop designs that are both visionary as well as pragmatic. Creativity requires physical and sensory oneness – a sense of being, flow, of being present that is often called the Kairos moment – while taking action requires that we are able to differentiate and separate. In the field of the spatial design disciplines and beyond, spatial discourse has elaborated space as a complex topological constellation of developments with a performative character and contingency. In Creating Knowledge we understand space as what we call Raumgeschehen, a viewpoint that emphasizes the performative, topological aspects of spatial and social development. In German, the word Raumgeschehen expresses the multi-dimensional, manifold character of space – occurrences that arise from one moment to the next and manifest themselves in situations. Layers, themes, places, aspects, situations, nets, sections and statistics are all ways of describing different dimensions of this from a specific viewpoint but are not able to describe the situation as a whole. This for the most part neutral consideration of a spatial constellation (Raumgeschehen) is followed by a creative response that attempts to capture the entirety of the urban landscape and its performative aspects from a landscape perspective. In this context, the term “urban” emphasizes the influence of humans on the respective developments while the term “landscape” focuses primarily on the topological relationships and their expression, including a contemporary notion of nature. Professional discourse has been searching for a while now for new ways to describe the coupling of urban and landscape that the use of these terms implies, namely the way that urban and cultural characteristics are permeating the development of regions and large-scale areas. Charles Waldheim put forward the concept of “Landscape Urbanism” (2006) in the USA, and Kelly Shannon has called it “Water Urbanism” (2013). In 2013, the international landscape architecture journal “Topos” devoted their annual conference to the topic of “Strategic Urbanism”. “Green infrastructure” is likewise an increasingly popular recent term that attempts to encapsulate a conceptual idea that links space, landscape and urban life. The search for suitable terminology is often encumbered by the competing claims of architecture, landscape architecture and urban design, or is – consciously or unconsciously – given an ideological slant through the appending of “-ism” to the word.

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atively interwoven approaches and the resulting methodological approaches to simultaneously observing the existing situation and finding ideas. Creative transformative knowledge can only be acquired through experience: it requires one to be mindful, attentive, watchful, to be alert to one’s senses, to linger, traverse, to nose around (as the Chicago School of empirical social research have called it), to drift – all things that are not currently common practice (Han 2005).

EMILA Summer School 2014: Initial Ammerland ideas built from earth. After exploring the region by bike, bus and on foot, students built their first insights and ideas on 5 × 5 m squares of earth in the earth hall of the DEULA. By the end of the exercise, five different visions for the development of the Ammerland region were presented at a scale of 1:20,000, with strips at 1:5,000 showing a section in greater detail. Aligned next to one another, the strips provided a basis for discussing potential future development scenarios for the region. EMiLA (European Master in Landscape Architecture) Summer School: Running out of land. Designing strategies for Ammerland’s competing land use demands. 28 August–6 September 2014 During the EMiLA summer school, 50 students from seven countries explored the Ammerland, a region in northern Germany where agriculture, tourism, tree nurseries and peat extraction compete for land use. Guided by the international teaching team and stakeholders from the region, students designed visions for the development of the Ammerland region. The one-week workshop took place at the DEULA, an institute for training people in agricultural occupations. Workshop hosts: Leibniz Universität Hannover, Faculty of Architecture and Landscape Sciences, Institute of Open Space Planning and Design, Verena Butt (EMiLA-Coordinator; SUL), Prof. Dr. Martin Prominski (SUL). Students from Germany, France, Spain, Netherlands, USA, Japan, China. Teaching team: Associate Professor Karin Helms, École National de Versailles, Lisa Mackensie, University of Edinburgh, Prof. Dr. Anja Kucan, University of Ljubljana, Associate Professor Jorg Sieweke, University of Virginia, Professor Li Dihua, Peking University, Professor Luis Maldonado Rius, UPC/ESAB Barcelona, Associate Professor Nobutaka Nagahama, Kobe University, Japan. Visiting critic: Professor Dr. Hille von Seggern (SUL)

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In the context of Creating Knowledge, our view is that the old, culturally elaborated notion of landscape is in itself perfectly adequate for perceiving spatial constellations (Raumgeschehen) from a contemporary perspective. This act of perception must, however, be accompanied by ever new design ideas of what landscape can be, if it is not to remain stuck in preconceived notions. In our view, the term landscape still adequately expresses a concept that aligns with a contemporary understanding of designing space as Raumgeschehen: landscape always refers to relationships, it is dynamic, systemic, built but also natural, encompasses people, climate, sky and ground and can also be used in an immaterial sense. It typically has positive connotations that we consciously draw on when we want to mobilise a desire to give shape to something. When we perceive something positively, as being beautiful, inviting and accessible, it mobilises an intrinsic motivation within us, providing an important creative impulse. A ‘neutral’ basis on the other hand can inhibit our creative faculties due to its lack of initial impetus. Landscape is multi-dimensional and at once boundless and concrete. When designing spatial transformative processes, this landscape perspective is therefore helpful in finding new ways of describing and inventing spatial constellations (Raumgeschehen), and consequently to bring about movement and change. The development of this landscape perspective is the topic of this book. How can one change one’s own perspective of space in order to creatively perceive – i.e. to look ahead and envision – and take action? In our experience, the act of considering a region from a landscape perspective, in a mindful, immersive but also impartial way (as far as is possible) and from this to acquire an idea of it as an urban landscape is already a radical and deeply-creative step in itself!

Every call for more creativity also implies the need to find a way to cultivate its development. Our credo in Creating Knowledge is to develop a practice of practising. This stems from many years’ professional and personal experience of practising and the realisation that while evolution shows us that people possess an innate creativity, this can only thrive when constantly practised. In his book You Must Change Your Life, Sloterdijk (2013) portrays humans as practising beings who are “self-forming and self-enhancing” and goes on to elaborate a new definition of anthropology. In an age characterised by uncertainty, complexity and unpredictability in which the search for creative forward-looking ideas is ever-present, the notion of people as practising beings (Sloterdijk speaks of practising as a mode of existence) seems appealing, even if it is not always called “practising”. Connected with this is, perhaps, a hope that we may be able to alleviate our sense of insecurity and ignorance through the practice of practising.In many disciplines, such as in the arts or sports, the role that practice plays in acquiring a particular skill is well known: genius and talent is good but practice makes perfect. In such contexts, practising has a dual character – it is about training both technical proficiencies and ‘mental’ abilities. This is no different in the context of design, although of course technical design skills such as drawing are especially important for perfecting one’s design skills. A practice of practising therefore means the continual focused and organised practising of relevant skills and capabilities that go beyond mere technical proficiency. In the design of urban landscapes, for example, this can include how to engage with a space, how to linger phenomenologically without passing judgement. And because this practice requires experience, it is usually helpful to begin with the help of a trainer of sorts. In Creating Knowledge we postulate a practice, or a culture, of practising that is permanently anchored in our everyday activities. Only by practising on a regular basis will we be able to respond to constantly changing situations and shifting boundary conditions and to engage with the manifold complexity of space. To pursue an integrative approach to designing, we need abilities that lie outside those of our profession and that are not part of our traditional repertoire of professional skills. As such, we focus on practices that help us to be creative, to have the right idea at the right moment in time. To work with intuition, to tap into our emotions, to coordinate our senses, to immerse ourselves bodily in a spatial constellation (Raumgeschehen), to become aware of and work consciously with preconceptions necessitates a practice of practising in which such skills are continually developed, honed and transformed. Through constant practice, a process of understanding is made possible. Sloterdijk (2013) calls this “the making explicit of what was implicit”. In order to design, we must engage with what we are designing, we must learn to love it, to almost lose ourselves in it, to all but immerse ourselves without becoming engulfed by it. That means we need to practise skills that are in essence about cultivating humanity and consequently transcend the traditional boundaries of our own field. Engaging directly with space

Creating Knowledge subscribes to the premise that designing always entails some form of direct action in the actual context. In a general sense, designing is a form of taking action, but what we mean here is something more real: to immerse oneself in a space, to engage with it, experiment, discover a topic for investigation before actively taking action. The freedom to work so openly and in such diverse ways is made possible by our understanding of space as Raumgeschehen. At the same time, this presents the challenge of choice: which paths, which topics, which constellations shall we choose. Our choices must be guided by the intention to promote good living conditions – by which we mean living conditions that will also be good for our grandchildren (Welzer 2013).

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A practice of practising

Putting the approach into effect

To encourage broader adoption of this approach, one needs a group. For STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN and its members, Creating Knowledge has become a common theoretical framework and basis for working in teaching, research and practice. The Water Atlas and Urban Surfer research projects were published immediately after the symposium in 2008. The STUDIO began to develop rapidly and its members started taking part in new projects, workshops, laboratories, exhibitions, lectures and publications (www.studiourbanelandschaften.de). Specific aspects of the research and design approach were examined and discussed in doctoral theses as part of the STUDIO’s annual international PhD conference. There followed a period of intensive development in which various STUDIO members founded offices or entered into new collaborations while others took up new positions or were appointed to professorships. As a consequence, the members of the STUDIO now work throughout Germany and there is even a new “offshoot” of the STUDIO in Australia. Projects, lectures, workshops, exhibitions and summer schools followed in various countries. To hold the STUDIO group together, it became necessary to find a suitable structure for the group that could be both a think tank and a project platform. The STUDIO is more than a traditional design office but also more coherent than an informal network. After a period of flux and upheaval, a concrete joint project in 2012 – in this

Designing en route – Creative expedition during the Conference of Landscape Architecture Students (LASKO) on 3 November 2010 in Hanover, Germany The physical experience of walking through a district for a day gives students the opportunity to simultaneously explore, understand and acquire an initial idea of the district. The mappings show the paths the students took and reveal initial questions and insights about the landscape. Tutors: Henrik Schultz (SUL), Hille von Seggern (SUL)

case the experimental “Dragnet investigation” (Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen gAG, Studio Urbane Landschaften 2012) – brought together the various STUDIO members. Once again, the principle of experiencing directly on site formed the basis of the project (p. 38). In retrospect, we have realised that our experience of the STUDIO echoes the typical development pattern of other successful groups.

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Our design approach aims to result in some form of direct action. The process of deciding which aspect to concentrate on, of formulating a question, outlining the task, looking with a team and local stakeholders for effective and feasible projects and so on is both a pragmatic and a strategic affair. To use the words of the philosopher Cornel West (Manemann et al. 2012), the Creating Knowledge approach can be seen as a form of prophetic pragmatism.

Landscape is much more than simply the focus of a select handful of disciplines. Because the notion of landscape that we describe in Creating Knowledge is so comprehensive and multidisciplinary, it was important to us from the outset to establish connections to and incorporate knowledge from other disciplines in the concept of the book. In the process, landscape has proven itself as a suitable catalyst for discussing large-scale spatial design. To adequately address contemporary design problems, landscape architecture needs input and knowledge from other disciplines and an open dialogue between the professions. At the same time, landscape architecture has a long tradition in understanding how to deal with complexity, dynamic processes and open systems. The conventional notion of landscape as a natural counterpart – or complement – to the city and the built environment, means that landscape architecture has traditionally been classed as following the “building” disciplines of architecture or urban design. More recently, however, landscape architecture has begun to play an integral part – and sometimes a leading role – in the development of large-scale regional development projects. This would not be possible without interdisciplinary skills. Landscape architecture has extensive experience in working across disciplines, which other spatial design disciplines do not as yet seem fully aware of. Although Creating Knowledge was conceived as an interdisciplinary book – a third of the essays are by authors from fields that are not typically associated with landscape architecture such as neuroscience, psychology, literature studies or philosophy – it has achieved most widespread recognition in the field of landscape architecture. Could it be that despite widespread calls for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary work, the disciplines (would) still prefer to keep themselves to themselves? Our original intention with this book to promote interdisciplinary discourse on the pressing questions of regional development, and on creativity and design, has only been partially successful, although several disciplines are conducting similar debates within their own professions. We need, it seems, to find ways of building bridges between the discourses conducted within the individual disciplines. We have therefore come to the conclusion that a publication with an interdisciplinary approach is not enough. We can only speculate on the reasons for the reluctance to engage in interdisciplinary dialogue on the central issues of Creating Knowledge but a key reason would seem to be that the book discusses design, creativity and our definition of space in the context of landscape design. This focus is likewise the primary reason why the book has been most well received in the field of landscape architecture. It is almost as if the presence of the word landscape in the title of the book leads readers to believe that the book only concerns the “green” interests of professional landscape architects. We have chosen to focus on landscape not because we wish to address a particular discipline but because we think that landscape is perfectly suited for addressing the dynamic, performative character of (urban) areas from an interdisciplinary perspective and for observing and describing ongoing transformation processes. The terms landscape and especially urban landscape also explicitly include the built environment (see the Spreehafen and Kirchdorfer Wiesen, p. 31 and 32) as well as a contemporary notion of nature. Hopes for the new edition

Five years on, continuing demand for Creating Knowledge is such that the first edition is now sold out. The publisher and the authors have therefore decided to bring out a new edition of the book as an e-book. The book was reviewed widely in publications, and conferences, design workshops, and many universities courses have made reference to the approaches featured in the book. Nevertheless, the book is something of a “silent seller” that has spread without making much noise, and we are curious to hear how and where the book has been received,

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Interdisciplinarity as a basis for transdisciplinarity

Hamburg, Melbourne, Hanover, February 2015, Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Lucia Grosse-Bächle

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which aspects of it left an impression and which new directions it has perhaps inspired. We hope that the new edition will succeed in generating an inspiring (and also more vocal) discourse among the spatial design disciplines as well as among sociologists, economists, philosophers, artists, natural scientists, educators and cultural scholars – especially given the plethora of useful material now available in the form of project examples and research studies and their underlying theoretical concepts. We will continue to develop our approach, to initiate transdisciplinary design projects and to create opportunities for stimulating, furthering and intensifying dialogue that transcends typical (disciplinary) boundaries. And because at present so many disciplines in many parts of the world are pursuing similar lines of enquiry, we think the chance of such dialogue looks promising!

1 A range of creative exploratory practices and their respective theoretical contributions have been examined in a series of doc-

toral theses undertaken at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, for example: Christiane Kania: “Vom Spielen und Entwerfen. Spielerische Erkenntnisweisen und Ideenfindung im Entwurfsprozess urbaner Landschaften” [On Playing and Designing] (in progress); Sigrun Langner: “Navigieren in urbanen Landschaften: entwerfendes Kartieren als Navigationsstrategie” [Navigating Urban Landscapes] (Langner 2013); Anke Schmidt: “Urban landscape stories. Introducing narrative strategies in large-scale urban landscape design” (in progress); Henrik Schultz: “Landschaften auf den Grund gehen. Wandern als Erkenntnismethode beim Großräumigen Entwerfen” [Designing Large Scale Landscapes through Walking] (Schultz 2014); and Julia Werner: “‘Im Anfang ist die Idee’. Kreative Entwurfseinstiege ins großräumige urbane Landschaftsentwerfen” [‘It Starts with an Idea’ – Creative Approaches to the Design of Large-Scale Urban Landscapes] (in progress).

To seed – After assuming ownership of a site, a self-organised concert was held that set off a powerful spatial choreography. To maintain – Choreographed interventions with local residents: multi-purpose stage, urban gardens, and open-air kitchens. To harvest – Events and movements choreograph the landscape through the reciprocal relationship between space and its inhabitants. LANDSCAPE CHOREOGRAPHY is an interdisciplinary research project financed by the European Culture Programme. It involves partners from three European cities: Taranto in Italy, Cottbus in Germany and Cluj-Napoca in Romania. Starting from an observation of the spontaneous activities of local residents and the need to re-appropriate wasteland sites, it aims to stimulate a new European culture of public spaces that encompasses socio-anthropological analyses, landscape architecture, and performing and public arts. Citizens are encouraged to create new urban spaces through participatory constructions and art performances with the aim of bringing about long-term change. The project’s five phases – to dig up, to seed, to maintain, to harvest and to continue – correspond to the agricultural cycle. www.landscapechoreography.eu

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Note

Bement A.L. 2007. Important Notice No. 130: Transformative Research http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2007/in130/in130.jsp (accessed 30/06/2014) I Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen gAG, Studio Urbane Landschaften (Ed.): Rasterfahndung. Regionen im Erkunden entwerfen. Ein Experiment des STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN. Hanover 2012. I Florida, Richard: The Rise of the Creative Class. New York 2002. I Foxley, Alice: Distance und Engagement: Walking, Thinking and Making Landscape. Baden 2010. I Grand, Simon; Jonas, Wolfgang (Ed.): Mapping Design Research. Basel 2012. I Grosse-Bächle, Lucia: “Landschaft als Labor. Entwerfend die Landschaft erforschen.” In: Krebs, Stefanie; Seifert, Manfred (Ed.) Landschaft quer denken. Leipzig 2012. I Grosse-Bächle, Lucia; Stokman, Antje: “Mit dem Wasser leben. Bauen in hochwassergefährdeten Gebieten”. In: IBA_Hamburg (Ed.) Metropole: Stadt neu bauen. Band 7, Berlin 2013. I Han, Byung-Chul: Hyperkulturalität, Berlin 2005. I Internationale Bauausstellung Hamburg (Ed.), Studio Urbane Landschaften: Wasseratlas. WasserLand-Topologien für die Hamburger Elbinsel. Berlin 2008. I Langner, Sigrun: Navigieren in urbanen Landschaften: entwerfendes Kartieren als Navigationsstrategie. Hanover 2013. I Manemann, Jürgen; Arisaka, Yoko; Drell, Volker; Hauk, Anna Maria: Prophetischer Pragmatismus. Eine Einführung in das Denken von Cornel West. Munich 2012. I Mareis, Claudia; Joost, Gesche; Kimpel, Kora (Ed.): Entwerfen – Wissen – Produzieren. Designforschung im Anwendungskontext. Bielefeld 2010. I Nowotny, Helga; Testa, Guiseppe: Naked Genes: Reinventing the Human in the Molecular Age. Cambridge, Mass. 2011. I Nowotny, Helga: Es ist so, es könnte auch anders sein. Frankfurt am Main 1999. I Prominski, Martin; Stokman, Antje; Zeller, Susanne; Stimberg, Daniel; Voermanek, Hinnerk: River.Space.Design. Planning Strategies, Methods and Projects for Urban Rivers. Basel 2012. I Schneidewind & Singer-Brodowski: Transformative Wissenschaft. Marburg 2013. I Schultz, Henrik: Landschaften auf den Grund gehen. Wandern als Erkenntnismethode beim Großräumigen Landschaftsentwerfen. Berlin 2014. I Seggern, Hille v.: “The power of a landscape perspective” In: Girot, Christopher (Ed.) Thinking the Contemporary landscape, forthcoming. I Seggern Hille v.: “Understanding = Creativity: Designing Large-Scale Urban Landscapes”. In: Jonas, Marieluise; Monacella, Rosalea (Ed.): Exposure. Melbourne 2012, pp. 61–70. I Seggern, Hille v.: “Towards Creative Knowledge” In: Diedrich Lisa; LAE Foundation (Ed.) In Touch. Landscape Architecture Europe. Basel 2012, pp. 194–200. I Seggern, Hille v.: Werner, Julia: “Entwerfen als Forschung”. In: Garten + Landschaft, Vol. 12 (2005) pp. 19–21. I Seggern, Hille v.: Systemische Planung am Beispiel des integrativen Parkraumkonzeptes Bremen-Steintor, begleitet durch Supervision (Schriftenreihe der Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumordnung, Heft 82). In conjunction with Gariele Kotzke, Rolf Sachau and Christiane Redlefsen. Bonn 1997. I Sloterdijk, Peter: You Must Change Your Life. Cambridge 2013. I Welzer, Harald; Rammler, Stephan (Ed-): Der FuturZwei Zukunftsalmanach. Frankfurt/Main 2013. I Werner, Julia. “Urban Landscapes Need Great Ideas!”. In: Licka, Lilli; Schwab, Eva (Ed.): Landscape – Great Idea! X_LArch III, 5, Institute of Landscape Architecture, BOKU Vienna, Vienna 2009, pp. 12–17. I Werner, Julia: “Knowing (by) Sensing. Reflecting on the importance of emotion and intuition in large-scale urban landscape design” In: J. Verbeke (Ed.) Knowing (by) Designing. Brussels 2013, pp. 265– 273. I Wüstenrot Stiftung (Ed.); STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN (work): Stadtsurfer, Quartierfans & Co. Stadtkonstruktionen Jugendlicher und das Netz urbaner öffentlicher Räume. Berlin 2009.

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Reference literature

SYMPOSIUM: RESEARCH BY DESIGN THE CASE OF URBAN LANDSCAPES

One-day International Symposium “Research by Design. The Case of Urban Landscapes” at Leibniz University Hanover, Germany, July 2008.

Diskutieren auf dem Podium Discussing on stage

Entwerfen in Designing atder theWerkstatt workshop Zuhören im Publikum Listening audience

Dynamic interactions between spatial settings, discussion carousel, design workshop and auditorium

Parallel activities: designing, discussing and listening The symposium was conceived as an exemplary case study application of the Creating Knowledge approach that examined the highly complex urban landscape of the tidal region of the Elbe between the City of Hamburg and the Elbe River Estuary at Cuxhaven on the North Sea coast. Within the space of a few hours, each of the symposium participants developed a pictorial impression of the region as a whole – from the perspective of the landscape – that is both a momentary understanding of the region and a first creative interpretation. Through their dialogue with these pictoral representations, the workshop participants developed initial interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research questions along with ideas for their development. Organising team: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN – Antje Stokman, Martin Prominski, Börries von Detten, Lucia GrosseBächle, Sigrun Langner, Sabine Rabe, Hille von Seggern, Anke Schmidt, Julia Werner Funding: VolkswagenStiftung

Parallel activities: discussion carousel and design workshop

Parallel activities: conversations, investigations and designs

Presentation of images and research questions at the end of the day

Presentation of the publication Creating Knowledge

A selection of the results from the design workshop at the International Symposium “Research by Design. The Case of Urban Landscapes.” at the Leibniz University Hanover, July 2008. These and 45 other pieces of work explored the enormous complexity of the study area. Many of the works explored ways in which to grasp its complexity, both in its individual constituent parts and as a whole – as an integrative, multi-layered ongoing landscape constellation. The participants tried to capture the overall dynamics of the landscape as a space for nature, for settlement, as an economic region and a productive environment, as a space for transport and as a leisure space for recreation. Some themes arose that had not initially been considered and were elaborated in sketch-form, for example sediment and silt management in the tidal region, connections to the banks and river crossings as well as (large-scale) uses of the shoreline areas. Together, the different contributions led to the development, clarification and qualification of subsequent cooperative STUDIO projects which all contribute to the long-term objective of developing the Elbe River Estuary region into a dynamic, productive and balanced tidal landscape in the context of climate change. Top left: Disruption as a means of researching the area and its structures Top second from left: The ferryman. Product, consumption, transport: How far does the ferryman need to travel from the fruit tree to the table? Top second from right: Energy flows & river farmers. Disappearing and re-appearing landscapes. How do new landscapes develop this way? Top right: How much sediment is good for us? How can we utilise the process of sedimentation as a means of effecting new processdriven urban landscapes? Below: What makes a landscape different? After a storm tide?

EVOLUTION OF A SPATIAL “CREATING KNOWLEDGE PROCESS”

THE PRINCIPLE OF INVENTION AND LANDING IN THE TIDAL LANDSCAPE OF THE ELBE RIVER ESTUARY

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The images illustrate the stages of a Creating Knowledge process: 1) A complex, confusing, multidimensional performative space (Raumgeschehen), whose issues are yet to be revealed and elaborated. 2) A casual, personal interest in sustainable water projects leads to … 3) a better understanding and a variety of practice-teaching-research projects. 4) The projects – strategically chosen – “land” in the Elbe River Estuary region and address questions concerning large-scale development in the area as a whole and in specific sub-regions. Landscape is understood as a process that can integrate climate change, flooding and use of the river areas, simultaneously making wider reference to projects around the world. 5) The process spawns a series of concrete, practical realisable projects … 6) and simultaneously makes reference to and gives rise to renewed consideration of wider issues such as education, energy, regional development, and megacity development. (all images: Hille von Seggern) Concrete projects within the tidal landscape of the Elbe, as well as in other landscapes, can be seen on the following pages..

EVOLUTION OF A SPATIAL „CREATING KNOWLEDGE PROCESS“ The tidal landscape of the Elbe – an example

a tk es Ge e nt

7 Marne

Nordsee

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Brunsbüttel

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Cuxhaven Freiburg (Elbe) Otterndorf

Glücksstadt

Elmshorn Kollmar

Uetersen

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Hamburg

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Teufelsbrück

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4 The power of the integrative Creating Knowledge process and the specific approach of designing from a landscape perspective lies in its ability to facilitate designing for a region as a whole – respecting its complexity and its overall gestalt – to discern layers, themes, structures or patterns and to uncover and elaborate relevant sub-projects. Selected members of the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN have worked for several years in various internal and external design teams on the large-scale development of the tidal landscape region between Hamburg and the Elbe River Estuary at Cuxhaven on the North Sea. The diagram shows an overview of all the design projects involving members of the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN that relate to the development of the tidal landscape region of the Elbe, its spatial and other relationships, different levels of scale and temporal dimensions as well as how they overlap. Some of the projects are explained in more detail on the following pages. The involved STUDIO members are identified with (SUL).

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[1] KIRCHDORFER WIESEN RESORT (KIRCHDORF MEADOWS) Feasibility study: “Dwelling with the landscape in Kirchdorf East”, Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg; 2007 [2] INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: “RESEARCH BY DESIGN” Examining urban landscapes using the example of the border region on the Elbe river between Hamburg, Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein; July 2008 [3] WASSERATLAS (WATER ATLAS) Research project: New water–land topologies for the Elbe Island in Hamburg; 2008 [4] BOOK: THE TIDAL REGION OF THE RIVER ELBE* Landscape and open space study on establishing and implementing the Hamburg Port Authority’s development concept for the tidal region of the river Elbe; 2009 [5] KREETSAND – EXPERIENCING THE TIDAL LANDSCAPE Study of ideas for making the tidal landscape tangible in the Spadenlander Busch/Kreetsand; 2009 [6] TRANSFORMATIVE NARRATIVES AS AGENTS OF CHANGE Research project: Adaptation and design strategies for creating dynamic cultural landscapes in urban regions – the “Alte Land” near Hamburg; 2009-2010

[7] THE FUTURE OF THE RIVER ESTUARY* Visual study; 2010 [8] ELBE ISLAND DYKE PARK Feasibility study, exhibition and communication process; 2010-2011 Sub-projects resulting from the Dyke Park: [8.1] DYKE HUT IN GOETJENSORT Feasibility study, design, construction and exhibition, all phases; 2011-2013 [8.2] PARK KLÜTJENFELDER (MAIN DYKE) Urban planning and open space competition for dyke elevation, 1st prize for the Klütjenfelder section of the main dyke; 2013 [9] A VISION FOR THE WADDEN COAST LANDSCAPE IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE Future visions and scenarios; 2010 [10] EXPEDITIONS IN URBAN LANDSCAPES Travels in the Süderelbe region. Pictures from an exhibition as part of the “Free zone of the river Süderelbe” project in cooperation with the Galerie für Landschaftskunst (Gallery for Landscape Art); 2014 * Further information on these projects is available online: www.studiourbanelandschaften.de

4,80 2,80

2,00

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Norderelbe

Deichvorland

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Spülfeld Spadenlander Busch

Wettern und Gräben

Spülfeld Stillhorn

Deponie Georgswerder

Brack

Autobahn

Sanddüne in Kirchdorf

Wilhelmsburger Dove-Elbe

Abwasser / Trinkwasser

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Seeschiffhafen

Kläranlage

Schleuse

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Kanal

Wohnquartier

Altarm

alter Ortsmitte

Hafenland

Wohnen in Großsiedlungen und am alten Deich

Landwirtschaft

Regulierungsland

Fluss mit Deichvorland

Schutzland

Cross section showing Water-Land topologies

WATER ATLAS

[3]

NEW WATER-LAND TOPOLOGIES FOR THE ELBE ISLAND HAMBURG [m]

+ 5,0

+ 4,0

+ 3,0

+ 2,09 MThw

Land level

+ 2,0

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Water-Land level

Deichvorland Norderelbe

Spülfeld Spadenl. Busch

Goetjensorter Wettern Hauptdeich

Stillhorner Wettern

– 3,0

Gräben

Deponie Georgswerder

Autobahn Brack

Sanddüne in Kirchdorf

Wilhelmsb. Dove-Elbe

Jaffe-Davids-Kanal

Aßmannkanal

Veringkanal

Abwasser / Trinkwasser

Reiherstieghauptdeich

Reiherstieg

Travehafen

Roßhafen

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– 2,0

– 4,0

+ 2,09 MThw – 1,53 MTnw

M 1 : 45.000 max. Sturmflut + 6,45 m MThw + 2,09 m Höhen und Tiefen in m MTnw – 1,53 m

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Topological overview of the Water-Land region

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40 40

Hypsometric tints of the Water-Land region

The topological overview of the Water-Land region is both a description of the current situation and a productive (pictorial) point of departure and tool for future developments. The central idea of the Water Atlas is to describe how the island is, was and still is being shaped by the dynamics of the water along with possible ways of dealing with it. The island is therefore examined and described in terms of three shifting hypsometric horizontal layers that show the dynamics of the site above and below the water level. This provides a basis for identifying the creative potential of future development possibilities. Potential directions and ideas are found using a 3×3 scenario approach in the Water Atlas. The projects that arose out of the Water Atlas have developed these ideas in detail as specific designs for concrete situations. Design research project and book publication on behalf of the International Building Exhibition IBA Hamburg, 2008. Team: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN – Antje Stokman, Hille von Seggern, Sabine Rabe, Anke Schmidt, Julia Werner, Susanne Zeller

+ Prinzip Regulieren

3×3 Scenarios for the Water–Land Region

Zwischenland

+ Prinzip Auflanden

From the topographical analysis, three types of spaces along with their respective Water-Land dynamics are identified: the Harbour Land,Neuland Regulation Land and 3 x 3 Szenarien Protection Land. For each of these types of space, three scenarios were explored and designed: one by optimizing the existing water-land dynamics, two more Hafenland im Bestand Regulierungsland im Bestand Schutzland im Bestand by applying the respective dominant dynamics of the two other types of spaces. This produces 3×3 scenarios that are named after the respective dominant wadominierendes Prinzip: dominierendes Prinzip: dominierendes Prinzip: ter-land dynamic in each case.. Dynamisieren Regulieren Auflanden Zwischen Wasser und Land

Regulierungsland Bestand Vom Wasser im zum Land

Hafenland im Bestand

Existing Harbourim Land Hafenland Bestand Dominant principle: dynamic dominierendes Prinzip: change Dynamisieren

Existing Regulation Land Regulierungsland + Prinzip Dynamisieren

Protectedim Land + Prinzip Existing Regulieren Schutzland Bestand

im Bestand

Regulierungsland Dominant principle: landbuilding dominierendes Prinzip:

Hafenland Dominant principle: regulation dominierendes Prinzip:

Regulieren

Auflanden + Prinzip Auflanden

+ Prinzip Regulieren

Zwischenland

+ Prinzip Auflanden

3 x 3 Szenarien

From to Land VomWater Wasser zum Land Regulierungsland im Bestand

+ Prinzip Dynamisieren

Neuland

Between Water and Land

Schwankungsland

Flutland

From Land to Water

Land zum Wasser Schutzland im Wasser Bestand und Land Zwischen Beispielhafte Verortung der Raumtypen im Prinzipschnitt als Grundlage für dieVom Darstellung der Szenarien im jeweiligen Raumtyp des WasserLandes ++Principle landbuilding Prinzip of Auflanden Prinzip of Regulieren ++Principle dynamic change ++Principle regulation Prinzip of Dynamisieren Protection Land Schutzland

Regulation Land Regulierungsland

Harbour Land Hafenland

of regulationder Szenarien im jeweiPrinzip Regulieren of landbuilding Prinzip of Regulieren ++Principle regulationVerortung der Raumtypen++Principle Prinzip Auflanden Beispielhafte im Prinzipschnitt alsFluctuation Grundlage für die++Principle Darstellung Foreland Land VorlandLand Transfer Land Schwankungsland Zwischenland ligen Raumtyp des WasserLandes ++ Principle of landbuilding Prinzip Auflanden

Tidal Park with storm tide protection

und Land

+ Prinzip Regulieren

Marsh Land Schwemmland

Vom Land zum Wasser

The scenario Reclaimed Land and the principal of landbuilding

+ Prinzip Decentrally-regulated rain andAuflanden sewage water management

Schutzland in Harbour Land: Obsolete harbour docks are selectively filled.

Regulierungsland

Silt/mud management

+ Prinzip Auflanden

++Principle dynamic change Prinzip of Dynamisieren

Flood Land Flutland

Hinterland

Foreland

Zwischen Schutzland im Wasser Bestand

++Principle dynamic change Prinzip of Dynamisieren

Reclaimed NeulandLand

Schwankungsland Sand dune

+ Prinzip Regulieren

Drainage Grey water Wetlands

Vorland + 6,45 m

+ 2,09 m

+ Prinzip Dynamisieren

Purification + Prinzip Dynamisieren

Flutland

Schwemmland

and filtering of sewage water

Sands

– 1,53 m

Sludge

+ Prinzip Regulieren

Schutzland

Refuge area

Vorland

Second dyke line/ existing summer dyke

+ Prinzip Auflanden

Meadow floodplain as first chamber

Canal floodplain as second chamber

Third new dyke line

Vom Land zum Wasser

Decentralised rain and sewage water management in the flooding compartments

Decentralised rain water management in the flooding compartment

+ Prinzip Dynamisieren Refuge area

The scenario of Floodland and the principle of dynamic change in Regulation Land: Instead of building higher dykes, lowerlying layers are permitted to be shaped by the dynamics of the River Elbe. The land is divided into segmented floodplains.

at storm tide/overflow

during storm tide/

Schwemmland overflow

+ 6,45 m

Farmsteads/ residential buildings

Expansion

Overflow into next compartment

+ 2,09 m

– 1,53 m

controlled return flow into the river Elbe when flood subsides

The scenario Marsh Land and the principal of dynamic change in the Protection Land: The landscape is created by fluctuations between low and high tide. The newly gained marshland serves as a recreational area from which one can observe the specific natural processes of the floodplain and alluvial meadows.

Elbe-Tide-Aue Tidal River Elbe floodplain

Deichlinie Dyke line (Bestand/Versetzt/ (existing/shifted/ Verzicht) none)

controlled return flow into the river Elbe when flood subsides

Prielbildung Tidal gully formation

Daily periodic flooding withperiodische water from tägliche Flutung durch Elbwasser the River Elbe

The River Elbe as a natural Die Elbe landscape als Freizeit- for und Naturraum recreation

+ 6,45 m

+ 2,09 m

– 1,53 m

Elbe Island Dyke Park

[8]

Feasibility study, exhibition and communication processes Different spatial characters in the Dyke Park

Conceptual sketch: foreland + hinterland + protection land -> Dyke park

Designing with the hinterland: Spree harbour promenade

Designing the new foreland: Rowing club in the tidal landscape

Functions in the dyke foreland and dyke hinterland

Designing the waterside: Ferry dock beach

The Dyke Park concept aims to link questions concerning climate change adaptation and dyke security to the design of the urban landscape and ways of using flood protection infrastructure as public open space for recreational purposes. It proposes designing the circular dyke surrounding the Elbe Island and its foreland and hinterland to function both as flood control infrastructure and as a park. The Dyke Park project is an IBA Hamburg project that will continue long beyond the time

span of the International Building Exhibition itself. It demonstrates a pioneering approach for reinterpreting flood control infrastructure as an attractive and multi-purpose part of the urban landscape. At the same time, it aims to improve public awareness of different approaches to the issues of flooding, landscape and flood protection. Feasibility study, exhibition and communication processes; 2010– 2011. osp-urbane Landschaften – Sabine Rabe (SUL), Antje Stokman (SUL), Burkhard Köhler, Malte Pill, Gerko Schröder (SUL), Julia Schulz, Hille von Seggern (SUL); Commissioned by: IBA Hamburg GmbH

Elbe Island Dyke Park

[8.1]

The Dyke Hut in Goetjensort

The Dyke Hut in Goetjensort: Flood control infrastructure, information point and lookout (photos: left, Hagen Stier: right, Julia Werner). The Dyke Hut sits atop the sluice house on Moorwerder dyke and is visible far and wide for day-trippers, visitors and residents alike. The building affords views over the different water-landscapes in the dyke foreland and hinterland, revealing the functional interrelationships between the dyke, sluice, dyke foreland and dyke hinterland and how they all contribute to the image of the landscape as a whole. An exhibition within the hut provides information on the built water landscape of the Elbe Island, the tidal landscape of the Elbe with the Kreetsand (dyke foreland), the protection land (flood protection line) and the regulation land (the dyke hinterland). The Dyke Hut was built to accompany the building of the Kreetsand tidal area in the context of Hamburg Port Authority’s overall tidal concept for the River Elbe region. The exhibition explains the background to the project and photos of its development over time. The hut can serve as the starting point for trips and small experiments on the topic of building water landscapes. Feasibility study, design, construction and exhibition, all phases; 2011–2013. Team: osp-urbanelandschaften – Sabine Rabe (SUL), Thomas Gräbel (SUL), Marcella Hartmann in collaboration with Malte Wolff Architektur; Exhibition design: Wiebke Genzmer Design; Exhibition text: Lucia Grosse-Bächle (SUL); Commissioned by: Hamburg Port Authority

Landscape architecture students from the Leibniz University in Hanover explore the Dyke Park and develop performative responses:

A sense of pleasant anticipation in the Hinterland of Sublime views across of landscape from the Protection the Dyke Park Land of the Dyke Park

Waterside relaxation in the Foreland of the Dyke Park (photos: Sabine Rabe)

Dyke Park 2.0

[8.2]

Klütjenfelder Dyke, Spreehafen Living along the dyke and the Ernst August Canal Dyke Boulevard Harburger Chaussee Hinterland

Sheep pasture Ridge pathway

Dyke bench Berlin Promenade

Flotsam bank Willow and reed bed zone; tidal zone

Protection Land

Foreland

former profile of the dyke

The Dyke Park is flood protection +

+ animals in the city

+ 2 kilometres of seating

+ water access and ability to experience the tide

+ ecological diversity

Urban planning and open space competition for heightening a dyke; 1st prize for the Klütjenfelder section of the main dyke; 2013. Team: Sabine Rabe (SUL), Gerko Schröder (SUL), Hille von Seggern (SUL), Marcella Hartmann, Julia Schulz, Rouven Wagner and Yellow Z, Berlin. Initiators of competition: IBA Hamburg GmbH and Landesbetrieb Straßen, Brücken, Gewässer

+ park infrastructure

The opening of the former customs fence by the IBA Hamburg and the annulation of the free port zone made the Spreehafen harbour generally accessible, creating an area with great recreational potential for the Wilhelmsburg district of the city. This potential is best accessed via the main dyke, which is due to be elevated to meet the new projected high water levels. This presented an opportunity to initiate an exemplary collaborative process involving different authorities to explore the idea of a Dyke Park as part of a competition, and to implement this in subsequent projects. The heightening of the dyke by between 80 and 100 cm across a length of 2 kilometres made it possible to combine flood control measures with recreational uses. An additional challenge was to achieve this within the same footprint, because the dyke elevation had to occur on top of the existing dyke.

KREETSAND – EXPERIENCING THE TIDAL LANDSCAPE

[5]

Study of ideas for making the tidal landscape tangible in the Spadenlander Busch/Kreetsand

Kreetsand is a newly created shallow water tidal area created out of a former high-lying sludge pond. As part of the Hamburg Port Authority’s tidal water concept for the River Elbe, a retention area for a further 1 million cubic metres of tide was created. The project is intended as a conceptual study to show how the new tidal area can raise public awareness of the complex dynamics of tidal processes. Conceptual study of the potential for experiencing the tidal landscape at Spadenlander Busch/Kreetsand, 2009 Team: Antje Stokman (SUL), Börries von Detten (SUL), Sabine Rabe (SUL) in collaboration with Christiane Diehl and melchior-wittpohl Ingenieurgesellschaft, Hamburg. Commissioned by: Hamburg Port Authority

KIRCHDORFER WIESEN RESORT (KIRCHDORF MEADOWS)

[1]

LIVING IN THE FLOODPLAINS: HOUSING FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR KIRCHDORF EAST, HAMBURG-WILHELMSBURG

Heralded as a new “collaboration” between nature and culture as urban landscape development, the project proposes decoupling the ditches from the drainage management system for the Elbe Island. Through the additional use and purification of rainwater and grey water from the new buildings, the project creates the ideal conditions for maintaining the specific flora and fauna of the Kirchdorfer Wiesen and for living in the water meadows of the floodplains. Team: Ohrt-von Seggern-Partner with Sabine Rabe – Sabine Rabe (SUL), Timm Ohrt (SUL), Hille von Seggern (SUL) in collaboration with LRW Architekten und Stadtplaner, Hamburg and bmgr Landschaftsarchitekten, Berlin. Initiator of the competition: IBA Hamburg GmbH, 1st prize

Riffbögen Sand reef

Tidelagune Tidal lagoonimin the Hinterland

Lagoon landscape in the tidal buffer zone: the lagoon as sand catcher and recreational space

The Wadden Coast in the tidal buffer zone: sand deposition as new sand reef

A VISION FOR THE WADDEN COAST LANDSCAPE IN THE CONTEXT OF CLIMATE CHANGE

[9]

Future visions and scenarios

Are the mud flats sinking into the sea? Are the dykes going to reach gigantic proportions? How will we live on the coastline in future? This Vision for the North German Wadden Coastal Region seeks answers and outlines possible ways of dealing with the challenge of climate change and its effect on the tidal flats: the project elaborated future visions and drew up new landscape scenarios that show how the dynamics of the tidal forces and accompanying sediment displacement can be used, how land reclamation can be achieved using natural processes, how rising sea levels can be given more space and how people can live in this new landscape in future, both as an economic and as a recreational space. The central concept of this vision is to move away from the notion of coastal protection as a line separating land from water and to transform and develop the landscape into a broad coastal region consisting of successive protection zones. The project discussed spatial possibilities and planning principles for developing a flexible adaptation strategy for sensitively transforming the coastal defences into a “tidal buffer zone” in which a variety of tidal landscapes can emerge: natural landscapes, tourism-oriented landscapes, agricultural landscapes, landscapes for energy-production, residential landscapes and landscapes that provide access to the coastal area. In short, to explore synergies between coastal protection strategies and active land use. Team: Sabine Rabe (SUL) (project leader), Burkhard Köhler, Gerko Schröder (SUL), Antje Stokman (SUL), Timo Thorhauer, Christiane Diehl; 05-07/2010, Commissioned by: Michael Otto Stiftung

Strategies for developing a tidal buffer zone and its potential to accommodate a variety of tidal landscapes

2StromLand – 2RiverLand

Processes, strategies and experiments for a future landscape

The three levels of actions in the 2RiverLand The 2RiverLand is an 8,000-hectare experimental landscape with significance for the entire area of the Regionale 2016, a three-year regional structural improvement programme. In the region between the rivers Stever and Lippe, the project undertakes experiments, often running several years, that explore concepts for innovative land management, land use and design of the forests and fields, the floodplains and lake, and how these can contribute to a holistic development of the landscape as a whole. The project ranges from local experimental interventions to large-scale strategic planning and is undertaken by a dedicated working group of local stakeholders from the towns of Olfen and Haltern am See, the Lippeverband (Lippe Association), the Gelsenwasser AG (local water authorities) and RAG-Töchtern (RAG subsidiaries). Since 2011 Stein+Schultz have accompanied the 2RiverLand working group. Stein+Schultz supports the stakeholders in developing design ideas and project studies for the Regionale 2016 and advises on cooperation processes and the conceptual development of participative events with local citizens, research partners and partner regions. Team: Henrik Schultz (SUL), Ursula Stein (both Stein+Schultz, Urban, regional and open space planners, Frankfurt am Main). Map and diagrams in cooperation with: Anke Schmidt (SUL) (landinsicht, Berlin). Since 1/2011; commissioned by: Working group 2RiverLand..

Experiment rural roads

Experiment woodland pastures

Experiment river beach

Debate conducted on the site of the future riverside beach

Rhine Love

Joint development of the Rhine landscape between Bad Bellingen (GER) / Communauté des Communes Portes des France Rhin Sud (F) and Möhlin/ Schwörstadt (CH)

“Old Love”

D Seduction Landscape F

Admiration Landscape

Existing Place of Admiration

The IBA Basel 2020 (International Building Exhibition) aims to promote the joint development of the tri-national agglomeration area around Basel and to facilitate a culture of cooperation across national boundaries between France, Switzerland and Germany. The River Rhine plays a specific role as a connecting element. The “Rhine Love” study aims to place the individual IBA projects in a wider context. The particular features and idiosyncrasies of the Rhine landscape are presented in the spatial vision entitled “Rhine Love”, which characterises the space in four landscape typologies: Admiration Landscape (steep slopes along the Rhine), Seduction Landscape (banks of the Rhine), “Old Love” (former alluvial land), and Closed-off Landscape (isolated industrial and commercial areas). These describe the different spatial qualities of the Rhine landscape. For each of these landscape typologies, new questions were developed for the future of the region that should help qualify the IBA projects and generate ideas for new projects. The design team developed initial ideas for the spatial vision during a 3-day site visit. The visit began with a joint initial exploration of the area by car, followed by discussions and sketches in the evening. Thereafter each member undertook day-long walks on their own equipped with specific questions to address to the landscape, convening in the evening to talk and sketch. To conclude, the group undertook a river cruise and swam together in the Rhine.

CH

Rhine Love – Spatial Vision

Examples of spatial interventions = enchanting encounters Left: Admiration – Buvette (little wine bar) in the vineyards (CH) Right: Temporary breach of a closed-off space (CH) – Stairway over the quay wall

Left: Seduction – A place to touch the Alt-Rhine (GER) Right: New love – Springboard and rain shower at the Huningue Canal (F)

10/2012 - 02/2013, Commissioned by: IBA Basel 2020, Team: Sabine Rabe (SUL), Marcella Hartmann, Thomas Gräbel (SUL) (all: rabelandschaften); Sigrun Langner (SUL), Michael Rudolph, Aline Kamke, Sebastian Pietzsch (all: Station C23), Consultants: Henrik Schultz (SUL) (Stein+Schultz); Hille von Seggern (SUL) (AlltagForschung-Kunst)

EXPEDITIONS IN GERMAN EDUCATIONAL LANDSCAPES DESIGN RESEARCH WITH ADOLESCENTS

Learning happens all the time and everywhere. This project aimed to find out what role spatial dimensions play, as part of raumgeschehen, in these processes? Using design research methods in conjunction with filmmaking, a team of landscape architects, architects, town planners and documentary filmmakers went in search of the challenges that teenagers face in their daily lives today. The study investigated the lifestyles and everyday routine of fourteen-year-olds in two contrasting regions of Germany: a rural area suffering from decline and a growing metropolitan region. Four teenagers from the rural community of Bodenfelde in Lower Saxony and four teenagers living in Hamburg took on the role of “researchers”. Inventing an exchange programme for this study, the teenagers visited each other for four days and filmed the daily routines of the other teenager. After returning to their hometown, they then developed a mini-documentary with the help of the filmmakers. The result is 4×2 cinematic portraits that tell the story of the life and challenges of teenagers nowadays in cities and in rural areas. Based on the documentaries and supplemented by interviews, mappings and other workshop results, the research team described different individual learning landscapes by translating the empirical material into mappings, images and narrative descriptions, concluding with a portrayal of rural and urban educational landscapes. The team’s conclusions focus on the spatial dimension, describing its potential, challenges and constraints as well as possible development strategies, instruments and practices for the future. Building on the gathered stories in a final think tank, teenagers and experts developed future visions for educational landscapes. Team: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN on the road – Thomas Gräbel, Anke Schmidt, Sabine Rabe, Hille von Seggern in collaboration with: doktales (Sarah Nüdling, Robert Paschmann) and Lilli Thalgott; Funding: Wüstenrot Foundation; 2013-2015

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Ecological Infrastructure Framework Plan for the Lower Chillón River Watershed

Lima Beyond the Park

PARQUE DE LAS FUENTES SAN MARTIN DE PORRES | LIMA | LIMA

PLANO ESTRATÉGICO PARA LA CUENCA BAJA DEL CHILLÓN Augusto 2012

Designing urban landscapes for a city out of water The megacity Lima in Peru is considered the most extensive desert city in the world after Cairo. The German-Peruvian research project “LiWa” is developing concepts for Lima’s water-sensitive future. A new approach that combines infrastructure design and spatial design acts as a catalyst for landscape transformation. The “Lima Ecological Infrastructure Strategy” (LEIS) integrates the hydrological cycle into a multifunctional open space system, which is strengthened to guide future urban development. This approach shifts focus from the current practice of “image-based” open space design to “performance-based” open space design. It no longer considers urban open space solely as an expensive luxury but one that is needed to save water, purify water, treat wastewater and recycle nutrients, and even to harvest water. Team: Antje Stokman (SUL), Eva Nemcova (SUL), Bernd Eisenberg, Rossana Poblet (all: Institut for Landscape Planning and Ecology, University of Stuttgart); Design Loma Park: Marius Ege (student University of Stuttgart)

Parque Loma: Integrating fog catchers into the park design

Dragnet Investigation Designing regions while exploring them sEttIng und chorEograFIE dEs ExpErImEnts

Das dreitägige Experiment „Rasterfahndung“ lässt sich im A STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN experiment Wesentlichen in vier phasen gliedern: die Einzelerkundungen in den Quadranten (1), den Weg zur Denkwerkstatt in Günne (2), den Austausch der Erfahrungsberichte (3) und den Bau des Raumbilds als Modell (4):

15 people simultaneously undertook 15 explorative tours in 15 grid quadrants of a region 1. Im Raster fahnden: Der Fahndungsraum wurde im vorfeld around the Möhnsee Lake in search of local specifics and characteristics, people des Workshops mit places, einem Raster aus 15 Quadranten überzogen. Innerhalb der 15 Felder liegt jeweils and everyday stories. Together they became part of a large-scale choreography, players in der Ausgangspunkt für die Einzelerkundungen der Gegend durch einen „Fahnder“ an experimental search motion. The experiment “Dragnet Investigation” is part of a series bzw. eine „Fahnderin“. of research projects by the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN that examine new research 2. Unterwegs nach Günne: Gemeinsamer zielort der Erkunmethods for large-scale landscapes.

sEttIng und chorEograFIE dEs ExpErImEnts

dungstouren ist die Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen in Günne am Möhnesee; sie muss am Ende des zweiten Tages von allen erreicht werden. Welche Route die „Mitspieler“ des Experiments nehmen, welche Stationen sie während ihrer Erkundungen aufsuchen, welche verkehrsmittel sie nutzen und mit welchen Gesprächspartnern sie über die Region reden, ist ihnen freigestellt.

Das dreitägige Experiment „Rasterfahndung“ lässt sich im Wesentlichen in vier phasen gliedern: die Einzelerkundungen in den Quadranten (1), den Weg zur Denkwerkstatt in Günne (2), den Austausch der Erfahrungsberichte (3) und den Bau des 3. Austausch: Am zielort angekommen werden die Erfahrungen Raumbilds als Modell (4): der Fahnder/innen untereinander ausgetauscht sowie Namen und Bilder für die Region formuliert. 1. Im Raster fahnden: Der Fahndungsraum wurde im vorfeld des Workshops mit einem Raster aus 15 Quadranten überzo09.03. 2012entsteht: Gemeinsam entwickelt das STUDIO22:00 4. Ein Raumbild gen. Innerhalb der 15 Felder liegt jeweils der Ausgangspunkt Team ein dreidimensionales Raumbild des Untersuchungsfür die Einzelerkundungen der Gegend durch einen „Fahnder“ raums. Es soll eine alltagsästhetische und potenziell zugeneigbzw. eine „Fahnderin“. te Sicht auf die Region vermitteln. Anschließend wird über die Tragfähigkeit des Bildes diskutiert. 2. Unterwegs nach Günne: Gemeinsamer zielort der ErkunSetting and choreogradungstouren ist die Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen in phy of the experiment: the Günne am Möhnesee; sie muss am Ende des zweiten Tages von allen erreicht werden. Welche Route die „Mitspieler“ des four phases Experiments nehmen, welche Stationen sie während ihrer Er10.03. 2012 17:00 kundungen aufsuchen, welche verkehrsmittel sie nutzen und mit welchen Gesprächspartnern sie über die Region reden, ist ihnen freigestellt.

09.03. 2012

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10.03. 2012

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11.03. 2012

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Setting und Choreografie des Experiments: die vier Phasen EI N FüH RU N G

3. Austausch: Am zielort angekommen werden die Erfahrungen der Fahnder/innen untereinander ausgetauscht sowie Namen und Bilder für die Region formuliert. 4. Ein Raumbild entsteht: Gemeinsam entwickelt das STUDIOTeam ein dreidimensionales Raumbild des Untersuchungsraums. Es soll eine alltagsästhetische und potenziell zugeneigte Sicht auf die Region vermitteln. Anschließend wird über die Tragfähigkeit des Bildes diskutiert.

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MODELLBILD "FR – IST-zUSTAND U Das Modellbild a farbigem Klebeba hervor. Wasser is in der Region.

24

R AU M BI LD

IMAGES OF THE MODEL “DRESSED LANDSCAPE” – CURRENT CONDITION AND SPACE OF POSSIBILITIES The image of the model made from gray cardboard, newspaper and coloured sticky tape emphasizes the watercourses. Water is the connecting element that defines the plotline of the region. Denkwerkstatt der Montag Stiftungen gAG, Studio Urbane Landschaften (Ed.): Rasterfahndung. Regionen im Erkunden entwerfen. Ein Experiment des STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN. Hanover 2012.

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Multifunctional land-use scenarios for the cultural landscape of the Alte Land

The protagonists of change

The conflicting demands of wanting to conserve a traditional characteristic landscape and ensuring the ongoing economic success of a highly-efficient productive landscape presents the Alte Land region with a challenge that is typical of many dynamically-changing regions: how can it move forward while retaining its past tradition? Which users, techniques, processes and interactions have shaped the image of this cultural landscape to date? Which processes are new and how have they changed its spatial developemnt? And, which productive scenarios and visions can be developed for the future? The knowledge of local people serves as the starting point for both interpreting this cultural landscape and developing different land-use scenarios. By talking to a range of people in the Alte Land region, the research team identified current land-use strategies and depicted them in portraits. These typical protagonists and their spatial relationships became the foundation for the design of several productive scenarios including potential future land-users that narrate possible courses of large-scale and long-term transformation processes. The project employed and developed stories and narratives as design, research and communication tools.

Scenario dyke park: The new dyke corridors and their new users

Mapping by a protagonist (student work) Current and future protagonists of the Alte Land region Research project: Transformative Narratives as Agents of Change. Adaptation and design strategies for dynamic cultural landscapes in urban regions – the “Alte Land” near Hamburg, 2009 to 2010. Team: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN – Anke Schmidt, Antje Stokman, Sabine Rabe. Funding: Leibniz University Hanover, Germany

For a Culture of Creativity in Scientific Theory and Practice

Wilhelm Krull

“Sometimes we don’t know what we are looking for, until we have finally found it.“ Ludwig Wittgenstein A new idea, an insight or an invention often begins by seeing things differently. As if one saw them in another light or with the eyes of someone else. The Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman once described such a moment, which led him out of a long phase of stagnation and induced a new definition of basic physical laws, as an intellectual fluke. As he sat in the Cornell University cafeteria, watching two students tossing back coat of arms inscribed plates like Frisbees, a new idea occurred to him of how to combine the hitherto separate fields of electrodynamics and quantum mechanics. The inspiration derived from playful observation meant a breakthrough for Feynman to a new thought, which ultimately – as he wrote about it himself – almost on its own coalesced into a convincing theory of quantum electrodynamics: “It was effortless. It was easy to play with these things. I almost tried to resist it! There was no importance to what I was doing, but ultimately there was. The diagrams and the whole business that I got the Nobel Prize for came from that piddling around with the wobbling plate.”1 Now looking back in that way one could easily get the impression that a creative gain in insight is a matter of coincidence, a personal as well as structural contingency. But several new studies which pursued the question as to why there are far more groundbreaking insights obtained under one set of institutional contexts and not another show that is not the case. Rogers Hollingsworth, an American researcher of scientific discovery, has for instance investigated why there are many more breakthroughs at mid-sized research universities than at facilities which are financially much better endowed. He came to the conclusion that in addition to a clear strategic orientation and an overall research friendly climate, the balance between a sufficient amount of diversity of disciplines and the greatest degree of communicative interaction had to be guaranteed.2 If the facility is too small and homogenous in orientation, the potential for extra-disciplinary stimulation will be missing. If the institution is too large and heterogeneous, there are hardly any opportunities for personal contact. Narrow disciplinary focus leads to monotony; all encompassing breadth transforms a desire for a degree of diversity into unproductive heterogeneity. In both extremes intellectual creativity is ultimately stymied and along with it the generation of new knowledge. As that makes abundantly clear, new ideas require a dense matrix of communication in order to develop. But the example of the Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman also shows us that really seminal insights will not occur without “coming back empty handed “.3 This is even more the case when the insights based on a new way of seeing and understanding, and the knowledge that is thereby generated, are intimately connected with additional creative processes like those of designing and shaping in landscape architecture; that is, in a sphere, in which the fine perception and sure grasp of the actual conditions coincide directly with powers of imagination dedicated to creativity and design and finally also with the changes caused in reality. Conversely we can observe how already the first steps toward new insights are by no means located only in the sphere of abstract and logical thinking, but are often accompanied by attempts to first make visible a revolutionary thought in the form of a drawing, even a very tentative one.

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With Brains, Heart and Hands

Notes 1 Feynman, Richard: Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman! New York 1985, p. 167 f. 2 comp. Hollingsworth, J. Rogers et. al.: Foste-

ring Scientific Excellence. Organizations, Institutions, and Major Discoveries in Biomedical Science. New York 2003 3 comp. also von Seggern, Hille/ Werner, Julia: „Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge“ in this volume (s. p. 59–80) 4 Bredekamp, Horst: Darwins Korallen. Die frühen Evolutionsdiagramme und die Tradition der Naturgeschichte. Berlin 2005 5 comp. Krull, Wilhelm: „Tak­ing the Initiative: Risks and Opportunities in Research Funding.“ In: Perspectives of Research. Identification and Implementation of Research Topics by Organizations. 7th Max Planck Forum. Munich 2007, pp. 29–45

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The art historian Horst Bredekamp showed in the cases of extraordinary thinkers like Galilei, Hobbes, Leibniz and Darwin, that each of them worked out their groundbreaking insights just as much by visualizing the new thoughts in drawings as by theoretical analysis and conceptual definition. At the point when eye and hand first work together, the new insights apparently gain the clarity and precision, without which no real breakthrough in science is possible. This is even true for a rather lacklustre draftsman like Darwin, especially in the phase, as he was about to free himself from the tree metaphor in favour of the coral-like evolutionary model: “Both sketches are devoid of artistic merit, and Darwin regretted during his life that unlike many of his colleagues like Hooker he had no talent for drawing. It is all the more impressive that in spite of that he visualized his epochal insight. The drawings of Darwin’s perhaps boldest idea emerged in the mutual groping between written notes and sketches, whose significance, despite their unaffected design, was compellingly evident.“4 The development of another picture symbolism that went along with Darwin’s roughly outlined evolution diagrams makes clear at the same time, how very much the logical faculties are already bound up with those of visualization and representation in the creative process of understanding. The circle thereby closes among the initially seemingly linear array of (new) acts of seeing, understanding, knowing, designing and shaping. They all contribute to the productive grasp of reality and the capacity for creatively changing the world. A willingness to innovate and to take risks together with the courage to stake out unknown territory, the confidence in the relevant powers and competences, and an extra portion of stubbornness in the pursuit of the goals of insight and design are the most important requirements for achieving breakthroughs in science and design.5 Making the latter possible to a far greater degree than before is the great challenge for research in theory and practice in the 21st century. If we are to take seriously the challenge of the editors of this volume, that seeing and understanding are already based on creative achievements, and that design, not least in landscape architecture, is the result of an integrative process of seeing, understanding, knowledge and drafting, then the answer can only lie in a holistic, real world oriented, scientific and cultural way of acting. To exaggerate in order to make the point, our future motto should be: To knowingly change the world, with Brains, Heart and Hands!

Helga Nowotny The pathways leading to the creation of new knowledge are manifold and never straightforward. They arise out of numerous local practices. They are interwoven and share common patterns that can be discerned from the beginnings of modern science to the current dynamics of scientific-technological developments. Technologies play a great role as mediators and facilitators, expanding the range of what can be achieved. So does the combination of different methods and means of gaining insights. These diverse points of access have in common that the objects of knowledge are created in the process of their emergence. How this is achieved varies, but the knowledge that is thereby generated and further developed must itself work. It must function. John Pickstone, a historian of science, calls the knowledge and practices that were developed in the history of science, technology and medicine over the past three hundred years working knowledges. They range from observation, reading, writing, from measuring and experimenting, to the elaborate simulation and computer models of today and the production of artificial, synthetic phenomena that do not occur in nature.1 The knowledge and practices which are described and evoked in this volume also represent working knowledges. They include the knowledge that works and knowledge with which one works. Work connects knowledge to the world, and work produces effects on our external environment. Working knowledge leaves its mark on those who create and follow the deployment of knowledge and on those who create and apply it in different contexts. By combining practices with context, the objects of knowledge assume form and stability. Working knowledge therefore means working upon an object, which is created by knowledge. Throughout these processes precise observation is required, as well as the interpretation and explanation of that which is being observed. This involves comparison and analysis, whereby artificial constructs or syntheses may arise, which might then lead to larger coherence or systems, or conversely, which slyly escape this classification in order to live out their creativity in a defiant vagrancy that leads them into the most diverse contexts. But how does working knowledge arise, or more precisely, the working knowledge, that originates and has its own form of expression in the Designing dealt with here? How is the object of knowledge, the designed and to be designed objects, uncovered or indeed discovered? How is it brought to light, so that its contours and shadings of color make it recognizable in its spatial environment? How is the subject matter of knowledge of the design stabilized so that it can take its place in spaces that expand from perceptual spaces to cognitive spaces and later to spaces of intervention that change landscapes and transform themselves by becoming a changed landscape? These are some of the questions addressed by the essays in the volume at hand. The starting point is working knowledge of a particular kind: Designing. It is an ancient cultural technology, related to drawing, on the border between what goes on in the head and in the imagination, and what the hand is able draw out from there, at first on paper or in some other material, which in turn becomes the design medium. Designing is hand and head work at the same time, a hybrid working knowledge, which indissolubly connects the two. Certainly, the disciplines which are implicated in the process, from philosophy to the neurosciences, have constructed and separated their own objects of cognition, but they need to be put back together again. This is achieved by the processes of seeing, observing, analyzing and synthesizing, guided by the hand, that thus rejoins what has been separated before. The Designing hand (now aided by the computer) accompanies, checks, corrects and intervenes in the process of Designing until,

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Designing as Working Knowledge

Note 1 Pickstone, John: Working Knowledges before and after c. 1800: Practices and Disciplines in the History of Science, Technology and Medicine. In: ISIS 98 (September) 2007, pp. 489-516

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yes, it is declared as being sufficiently complete. The creative moment is over, at least for the time being. Designing implies working within the tacit limits of perfection and closure, while celebrating the incompleteness and the preliminary, imperfect nature of its results. And yet, in its avowed incompleteness it foreshadows the idea of perfection and completeness that the mind had from the very beginning. It thus collapses endings and beginnings which give rise to new endings and beginnings. While the mind moves the hand, the hand tells the mind when to stop. By accepting its own incompleteness, it turns the preliminary into the final result. In focussing on the process of Designing in the context of landscape architecture, a specific working knowledge comes into play which gives rise not only to new objects of knowledge, but to entire knowledge landscapes. It would be utterly simplistic here to contrast an artificially created world with a naturally occurring one, since it is obvious that landscape itself represents the result of previous interventions. The gesture of the hand, of Designing, and the result, the design, are thereby the continuation of a complex mutual involvement, by which the creativity of an idea is thrown into space, where its force of change is being put to the test. Originally, the working knowledge was confined to the two dimensional surface of the paper and the models it allowed to construct. Today, the space is mostly three dimensional, representing virtual spaces and dynamic process modulations, which sophisticated software, computer models and simulation technology put at our disposal. The durable result, by which the new is created, expresses itself, in the sense of exprimere, in the potential of an idea on the way to realization, which ultimately must prove itself through a sustainable, durable effect. Two types of constraining conditions can be observed: temporal and spatial ones. The temporal conditions consist of the different rhythms that combine in the process of Designing. They range from the faster transmission speed of the nervous system to the slower muscle activity, from human neurophysiology to its interactions with the electronics of the machine. Moreover, the creative act knows its own time, its Eigenzeit. The second constraint arises from having to connect the internal space inhabited by the power of human imagination with the external space of landscapes or cities. Both have their inbuilt resistance against change and both are continuously changing. Spatial and temporal constraints interpenetrate each other. They are mutually connected through movement and mobility. Movement aids the world of thought to find the materiality of the body and other material objects, and in the process it can use the most various media. Designing is therefore a powerful movement, connecting time and space, the internal and the external world. Designing is itself a creative act. It requires an agens, a mover, that acts. Its movements are dynamic, but they also know pauses and moments of reflection. In the end, the agens has to decide: now is the moment when the design is complete. The process of Designing is finished, yet the knowledge acquired in the process continues to do its work.

Designs with experiments

EXPERIMENTS are empirical investigations in RESEARCH PROJECTS.

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Example: “U-DJ” – Can a subway station also be a “stage” for the youth and their music? Situational experiment in the framework of the research project Urban Surfers, Neighbourhood Fans, & Co. Young people constructing cities and the network of urban public spaces (commissioned by the Wüstenrot Foundation, Development: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHSCHAFTEN Team: Hille von Seggern, Anke Schmidt, Börries von Detten, Claudia Heinzelmann, Henrik Schultz, Julia Werner. Advice: Ulfert Herlyn, Timm Ohrt, 2005–2007). The design by Marco Ploeg which was chosen from a student competition was the basis of the experiment.

Each EXCURSION contains a joint EXPERIMENT. Example: Cella Halle – Hello, Halle – 1000 tulips …To transform, enchant, waste … Excursion on the theme of “Projects in transition, their role and strategic inclusion in the planning,” September 2003. As a thank-you present the students planted 1000 tulips at a location they selected in Halle. The basis was a design principal that was adapted on location. Counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Ulrike Pongratz, Margit Schild

Questions are answered EXPERIMENTALLY in DESIGN PROJECTS. Example: Margret Köthke, Berit Mielke, Andrea Schönbeck: experimenteLL. The participants investigated prejudices about the Hanover city districts of Limmer und Linden with an experiment: How separate do people want to live? (Design project in the main course, Framework subject: Off Camp II – How can one think of urban spaces as landscape?, summer semester 2005. Counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner)

Every LECTURE has EXPERIMENTS. Example: A Bathing Resort at Conti Limmer. In the last “lecture” of the semester a bathing resort was furnished, opened and dedicated by the students at the Lindener Stich Canal. (Main course, summer semester 2003. Instructors: Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner)

Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Lucia Grosse-Bächle The term landscape usually awakens positive associations of “beautiful landscapes”; meadows, forests, mountains, oceans, a few buildings, people, animals. Reference is always made to the natural “ground” of an area, and in many cases past ways of life and types of agriculture are romanticized. The word urban in the title of this book is more than just a descriptive accessory – it binds landscape to current and future human ways of life and to the urban promise of (individual) freedom linked to that. However, it also incorporates an increasingly complex human-nature relationship, “When we write of man’s influence on nature, we should be aware that we are dealing with the interaction of two dynamic systems.”1 Urbanization processes express themselves through modified spatial coexistence and modified relationships between built and open spaces. Nearly all areas of life have come to be organized in large systems; people and energy are constantly in motion, often over large distances. The industrialization of agriculture and forestry and the continuing technological optimization of large infrastructure are required. Climate change is accelerating; water and soil are becoming threatened resources whose sustainable use has come to need extreme levels of management. Urban processes create just as many great opportunities for ways of life as they do contradictory and threatening ones. In this book, these performative processes, of which human beings are also a part, are called urban landscapes. It is we humans who produce images of landscape in our minds, who simultaneously construct landscape and form a part of it, so that landscape is an integrative term – in contrast to the term environment, which usually excludes us humans. Our attitudes towards the familiar phenomenon that is landscape, which is often perceived as being threatening, must therefore be extended and differentiated. Productive paths of interpretation, development potential and methods of dealing with space could then be sketched. Without a doubt, all disciplines must look for new strategies with which to design complex development processes in a liveable and lovable manner. Landscape architecture and open space planning, whose subject is urban landscapes, play an important part there. What can our discipline – traditionally based between the arts and building, planting and designing space – contribute to embracing and improving urban landscapes? Design strategies are the main mode of activity within landscape architecture, thus making it a creative discipline. Its everyday “products” from gardens to public squares to landscapes distinctly connect it to the real world, and it is also a part of the sciences. This book proposes that it is precisely within this “as well as” that its strength and ability to initiate development processes lie, thus – generally speaking – supporting successful life and promising a good future. Just as the title of this book heralds, our reflections focus on the action of designing and performances to be designed, urban landscapes. For many years we have been working on matters relating to understanding large-scale landscapes and the feasibility of developing and shaping their potentials. Our work also incorporates scales traditionally related to regional planning and development that usually remain quite far removed from design processes. How must idea-finding processes and ideas – designing and designs – be structured if they are to serve landscape development in such dimensions and in such fundamentally novel initial conditions? The essence of design possesses the potential to innovate and the ability to act, particularly when complex, non-linear systems, whose developments are difficult to predict, are involved. Designing is a highly integrative process of thought and modes of activity; it interprets, produces functional solutions and formulates aesthetically touching expression. It thrives on the interaction of intuition and rationality, ranging from the engineering sciences to the natural sciences to the humanities and art. Design is essentially always experimental as neither

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Introduction

The origins of this book

This book reveals a network of knowledge gained from a process of work and realization spanning many years and involving a great many people. Without a doubt it was Hille von Seggern who initiated the project; as professor and practitioner of urban and open space planning and design she contributed the knowledge and the experience she had gathered over many years to the project. Her path led from “classical” architectural, urban and open space planning and design topics through systemic planning to experimental, situational and large-scale landscape design. Her design approach gradually developed from her experience of experimental design strategies within both the practical and university research contexts; she directly links creative production, cognitive theory and experience-based knowledge to each other on the basis of a transformed, hermeneutic concept of understanding. The STUDIO concept has been growing step by step since 2003 as a result of Julia Werner and Hille von Seggern’s collaborative efforts to pursue and establish this approach to design in both practice and theory. They conceived the field of research Innovation Strategies for Designing Landscape on the basis of knowledge gathered from their joint teaching of design. The above-formulated questions regarding design as idea-finding and realisation processes were developed in various ways through teaching, research and practical projects. At that time, the working term understanding was developed. It was first put up for debate by Hille von Seggern und Julia Werner in 2005 at an interdisciplinary symposium titled Understanding – A Dialogue2. This led to the international lecture series Creating Knowledge with contributions from the disciplines of philosophy, neurobiology, psychology, philosophy of science, landscape architecture and art, which took place at the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. Collaboration with the curator Gabriele Sand enabled debates on the connection between knowledge creation, creativity and understanding to be taken out of the university context into the city and into Hanover’s art and cultural scene. The success of this series, which revealed the general public’s interest in searching for bridges between disciplines and, above all, in a new understanding of science, gave the courage to take further steps; the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN (see p. 54/55) was founded towards

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the development of the designed matter nor its adequacy can be entirely tested beforehand. Design requires just as much lay knowledge as it does professional expertise; it always acts at the centre of society. Design is an independent form of knowledge – a Creating Knowledge – which unites various different approaches to knowledge, making it impossible to classify it within common fields of knowledge production. It is of particular relevance today precisely for that reason. The objective of this book is to shed light on this enthralling subject. Borrowings from other disciplines have always been productive in generating new access to knowledge within landscape architecture. How do other disciplines design and form “their” knowledge and what part does creativity play therein? Our examinations were driven by a desire to understand design as a creative cognitive mechanism that feeds from multifaceted sources of knowledge. We wanted to know how the idea-finding process works and what role contemporary understanding, in a hermeneutic sense, plays therein. We have produced a book that has simultaneously involved experiment, adventure and certitude. We have united contributions and topics from such very diverse disciplines as philosophy, philosophy of science, science of art, neuroscience, design theory, landscape architecture, urban planning and psychology. Initially these disciplines may appear to have little in common, yet together they provide the “components” of a contemporary, cross-disciplined design understanding. Creating Knowledge is a collection of different approaches to knowledge, which together enable interaction on a highly inventive level with the complex phenomenon that is urban landscape.

Urban landscapes

Topics and authors

Having initially broached the in-between positions of landscape architecture and design, this book shows that through a specific understanding of urban landscapes and integrating, creative ways of gaining knowledge by designing, both can be ascribed to practice, science or art, depending on context. In his contribution to this book, Wilhelm Krull, general secretary of the Volkswagen Foundation, illustrates the future scientific potentials of design if it can establish a deliberate connection between science and creativity. Helga Nowotny’s3 publications form the definitive basis of our categorization of design as a Mode 2 scientific understanding that combines different approaches to gaining knowledge. Her formulation of her perception of Design as working knowledge in this volume particularly inspired us. Hille von Seggern and Julia Werner examine the design process as an integrative knowledge process, asking what role intuition, body and emotions play in idea-finding within design. Their significance is still underestimated within the spatial planning disciplines, while disciplines such as neuroscience, philosophy and psychology have long since recognised the relevance of these approaches, which are often considered to be unscientific. The comprehensive and inspiring lectures held at the Sprengel Museum by the philosopher Jean Grondin, the philosopher of science Hans Poser, the art historian Beatrice von Bismarck, the neurobiologist Gerald Hüther, the psychiatrist and philosopher Hinderk M. Emrich and the psychotherapist Gustl Marlock have been worked through for this book and combined under the title Exploration: Creativity and Understanding. These were complemented by a paper written by literature scholar Anne Peiter on “understanding” in the work of the painter Trude Fumo. A connection between knowledge development and creativity is intrinsically demonstrated by these contributions as is the interaction of intuition, emotion, intellect, body and mind in the creative process of understanding. They form a decisive part of our transdisciplinary path, the basis of our understanding of design. We return to our own field in the second part of this book, placing the focus on urban landscape design strategies with papers from landscape theory, landscape architecture, urban planning and art. In theoretical reflections and concrete projects, Martin Prominski, Thomas Sieverts, Peter Latz, Markus Gnüchtel, Undine Giseke, Henri Bava, Chris Reed, Daniela Karow-Kluge and Boris Sieverts demonstrate how close scientific, design and artistic activity are to each other and how the new can emerge by consolidating observation, presentation, interpretation, ideas and determined work. In this part of the book the editors examine the topics of their own specific focus and interest. Hille von Seggern looks at understanding as an idea-generating process, unfolding the various facets of her hermeneutically-founded approach to design. Julia Werner uses STUDIO projects to show how an “understanding-driven” approach to design can be taught and how it can lead to ideas in designing large-scale urban landscapes. Scattered among the various expert contributions, teaching, research and practice, examples from the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN show how its specific approach to design works in practical application. In the chosen examples, aspects of design which have been formulated on a theoretical level consolidate vividly. Lucia Grosse-Bächle examines one aspect that is of particular relevance in

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the end of 2005 as an interdisciplinary network for research, teaching and practice, while the idea to publish a book of the contributions to Creating Knowledge was also born. At that time Lucia Grosse-Bächle, a member of the STUDIO, well known and appreciated after long years of collaboration, joined the team as co-editor. She brought with her experience of publication and became responsible for editing. With her focus topic Design for Processes within Landscape Architecture she worked on a core theme of the design position outlined in this book.

We would like to thank …

This publication has given expression to a long project that has called for courage and much perseverance. We would like to thank the many people who contributed to the success of this book in many different ways. Special thanks for their support in the development of this publications goes to those, both inside and outside the discipline, who have taken part in dialogues over the years, to the many students who were willing to get involved in experimental methods of teaching with both curiosity and skepticism and whose products and reflections enriched our intellectual development. Special thanks goes to the members of the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN for their manifold cooperation in teaching, research and design practice, for their suggestions and for our productive exchanges of thought with them: Börries v. Detten, Claudia Heinzelmann, Sabine Kunst, Sigrun Langner, Nikolai Panckow, Sabine Rabe, Carsten Scheer, Anke Schmidt, Henrik Schultz, Thomas Sieverts and Antje Stokman. We thank the authors for being open to getting involved in working along the borderlines of their fields and in interdisciplinarity and we are delighted that these encounters have led individual preconceptions of disciplines to be corrected and extended. We have been able to contribute to expanding the widespread image of landscape architecture as a garden and parks designing discipline and to add the dimension of urban landscapes to it. We would like to thank Sabine Kunst for her outstanding transdisciplinary courage over the course of many years, which has enabled us to strengthen our approach. We would further like to thank: Ebba Stoffregen for her acute corrections, Corinna Haberkorn for her patient financial management and her competent integration of the project into a notalways-uncomplicated university administration system, Patricia Kaufmann, Margit Schild and Christian Gottwald for their constructive advice on the emerging texts. Without a competent publishing house we would surely never have been able to combine such heterogeneous contributions in text and image to form this complete work: we would like to thank Philipp Sperrle from the editing department and Susanne Rösler from the graphics department not just for their good work, but also for their commitment. Various degrees of intensity of work, interim vanishing into sticky matters and emotional ups and downs are only some of the “side effects” that we were not always able to leave behind at the university at the end of a working day: we would like to thank Timm Ohrt, George Vrastaminos and Wolfgang Bächle for their support, enthusiasm and patience.

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landscape architecture: design using processes. Her contribution specifies design strategies for the appropriate handling of the dynamic media water and vegetation. We have been fascinated by the well-reflected and passionate attitudes to urban landscapes inherent in the theoretical observations chosen for this book and by the example projects by renowned experts from science and practice. We were enthralled by their subject-specific brilliance as we wondered from what understanding of design it had emerged. We had already felt a kind of affinity before we discovered their proximity to our own approaches to design and research that led the contributions to form a multifaceted field of coherence. This publication is primarily aimed at professionals and students of the spatial developing and designing disciplines. However, the interdisciplinarity of the contributions also makes the publication relevant to neighboring disciplines insofar as they are interested in working on the thematic fields touched upon here. We also wished to give those outside our discipline and interested lay people access to these topics using descriptive presentation and explanation.

STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN is an interdisciplinary network for teaching, research and practice at the faculty for architecture and landscape at Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany. There are currently sixteen members from the areas of landscape architecture, urban planning, architecture, civil engineering, biology, sociology and water management who are working in research, teaching and office practice (most are active in several areas). The STUDIO is the joint platform for questions of perception, planning and design of urban landscapes, ranging from regional strategies to local projects. In 2003 the STUDIO emerged as a model dedicated to teaching landscape design theoretical and always based on experience and dialogue. The lack of space for a creative, design-oriented work led to a temporary use of space for four years “off campus” in a nearly abandoned university building with large rooms, which were well suited for this experiment. In 2008 the STUDIO returned to the faculty building. Teams that are assembled according to task and schedules work experimentally, “with their own signatures” on different focuses. At any rate, there is a conceptual and methodical shared approach: the STUDIO concept. It is characterized by a comprehension of designing that combines rational, intuitive and experience-orientated accesses to knowledge in the fields of theory, methodology and implementation. It uses both design and artistic modes of work. The STUDIO concept is based on a “translation” of a hermeneutic understanding for design processes and features a focus on creative idea-finding. The meshing of concept and personnel makes possible a productive exchange among teaching, research and practice: Research as design, design as research in academic, research, and practical projects as exciting interplay. Inter- and trans-disciplinary network strategies are the precondition for the design of complex urban landscapes. Design itself and appropriate communication and working forms become the bridge-building modes of activity of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN.

The STUDIO at work, in dialogue, in exhibitions or at project presentations …

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The STUDIO at work, in dialogue, in exhibitions or at project presentations … Members: Dipl.-Ing. Börries v. Detten, Dr.Ing. Lucia Grosse-Bächle, Dipl.-Sozialwiss. Claudia Heinzelmann, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Dr.phil. Sabine Kunst, Dipl.-Ing. Sigrun Langner, Dipl.-Biol. Nikolai Panckow, Prof. Dr. Martin Prominski, Dipl.-Ing. Sabine Rabe, Dipl.-Ing. Anke Schmidt, Dr.-Ing. Carsten Scheer, Dipl.-Ing. Henrik Schultz, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille v. Seggern, Prof. em. Thomas Sieverts, Prof. Antje Stokman, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner, Dipl.-Ing. Susanne Zeller (May 2008)

Through Creating Knowledge we have managed to understand quite a bit more about the creativity that is inherent in designing. This book itself can be understood as a design, directed by intuition, tested with expertise, accompanied by feelings of enthusiasm and despair, of curiosity and commitment. We were repeatedly challenged by the topical spectrum of this publication; in our multiple readings of the various contributions we discovered new approaches and ideas, which expanded our own understanding of design. Rather than providing a finished picture, designing opens up perspectives and visions. This book is not a finished project; it strives to open up new perspectives. Notes 1 Blackbourn, David: The Conquest of Nature: Water, Landscape and the Making of Modern Germany. London 2006, p. 94 2 21st April

2003: Interdisciplinary workshop: Understanding – A dialogue. between representatives of art, landscape architecture, philosophy, psychology, sociology and urban planning 3 Nowotny, Helga/Scott, Peter/Gibbons, Michael: Wissenschaft neu denken. Wissen und Öffentlichkeit in einem Zeitalter der Ungewissheit. Frankfurt 2004

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A book as a design

Cliches, prejudices, stereotypes

Favorite locations in the box

Winter semester 2005/06, Basic course; 2nd Exercise: My favourite location in the pizza box “Which location or open space in Hanover has a special attraction for you ? One is most often not at all aware of such a place. Perhaps it is not even a concretely defined open space, but more a kind of ‘feeling for the place’. … Gluing, drawing, folding, baking, modelling or photographing it inside and with the pizza box. The result should be combined with the box. Therefore use its bottom, sides and lid. …” Models: clockwise from the left: anonymous; Ruby Glauberstein: My Favourite Place: The Big Garden; Josè Manuel Rodrigrez: Through the Park; Daniela Riekenberg: Oasis of Silence in the Middle of Hanover; Irene Hahn: Dancing Bar; anonymous; Helen Meyer: “Memory;” Sonja Schäfer: (no title); Julia Schulz: “Have You Arrived?!” – Herrenhäuser Allee; Rebekka Jakob: (no title). Instructors: Hille von Seggern, Börries von Detten, Sigrun Langner, Sabine Rabe (Original idea comes from Pam, an architecture group in Pfaffring, Amsterdam and Munich.)

Designing as an integrative process of creating knowledge

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Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner Design is when we succeed in achieving something new through creatively bringing about change.

Leaving aside for a moment its meaning in the professional context, design is a funda­mental human activity that takes place in our everyday context: design is a creative skill that each one of us possesses. From one moment to the next we plan and design our everyday activities in all their functional, material, emotional as well as social and aesthetic dimensions. We change our current or earlier plans, make split-second decisions, adapting them constantly. And this although we cannot possibly be aware of all that has been, or is, and even less what is still to come. We do most of this intuitively, as a subconscious activity. Much of this is habitual, follows familiar patterns or is a routine that ensures the “fruition of the design possibilities”1 – as the philosopher of science Hans Poser has described it. Variations result through the “sampling” of what we already know. Ideas follow one another often imperceptibly and sometimes something (unexpectedly) new emerges. Although rarely described as such, design is an inseparable part of our everyday activities. In a broader sense, Poser describes “design as a way of life,”2 and characterises “design [as] the thinking up of a promising and feasible possibility […] aimed at bringing about something new.”3 As such design is an evolutionary human activity fundamentally oriented towards development. It is only in a professional context that designing is explicitly declared as a mode of activity, as a skill that is consciously practiced and developed. For the craftsman, design and realization were one and the same activity. Today almost every design exists initially as a possibility, independent of its realization, even where this is its declared aim. Every design hinges around an idea that is simultaneously the focus, aim and structure of the design process. To design means to search for ideas, for the new. In this sense designing is closely related to invention. To design means to draw up a hypothesis of possible answers to a question: this applies equally to a single object, such as a chair, as it does to a gigantic city to be erected from the ground up in modern China. The translation of an idea into something that can be read and understood and the testing of its validity is an intrinsic part of designing. The means with which this is realized varies from discipline to discipline. The above is true for all forms of (professional) design. The process of designing can be described as a series of iterative4 stages. A design never appears from nowhere, it always connects at different levels with something pre-existing (spatial, experiential, social, technical or related to particular people) and transforms these in a broad sense that allows room for future possibilities and potentials, into something new – regardless of whether fundamentally new or (just) new in that context. The “new” is at first imagined abstractly, as a vision, an anticipation of a near or distant future. This future can range from more or less simple things or gadgets whose suitability can be “proven” through repeated testing, to highly complex conditions that can neither be fully defined in terms of their initial conditions nor reliably predicted, to “means”5 whose possibilities cannot be foreseen in their entirety. In our deliberations, we are interested in the “tricky”6 nature of these complex conditions, and here we have reached the realm of spatial design: space is highly complex, and thus “tricky”,

Hille I Julia von Seggern I Werner

What is design?

Designing is integrative in two ways: the process and the subject

In this book we discuss designing as an integrative process of creating knowledge. Cognition and the creation of knowledge are always understood as process and result, but in general a differentiation is made between intuitive and discursive cognition. We are interested in the synthesis of both threads of cognition. We have two planes of reference. Firstly, design always draws on both intuitive and rational knowledge, combining emotional, personal and objectively reasoned components. This applies equally when searching for ideas, during the design process itself as well as the evaluation of the results. Secondly, space itself, the subject of the design process discussed here, has an integrative character. We describe space as a multidimensional performative process (Geschehen)10. This definition regards space in terms of more than its physical constituents, as something that encompasses not only its physical and topographic characteristics but also integrates its historical, cultural, aesthetic, economic or social dimensions. For us, people are as much part of this space as those who through their actions, memories and perception create it. Only through the integrative interaction of these many dimensions does the full extent and manifold character of space become apparent.

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and directly concerns our lifeworld (Lebenswelt7). Spatial design as we describe it in this book, searches for interpretations, for development possibilities and a spatial Gestalt8 which is able to unite multiple requirements – from function, to process, aesthetics, construction, material, symbolism and ageing – in a convincing whole. A product of the design process could be proposals for tasks such as the “revitalisation of inner-city wastelands” or alternatively a “waterside residence for an artist”. And in recent years the search for approaches to dealing with unresolved large-scale issues at a regional scale has intensified, a topic for which design strategies have long been lacking.9 Using a variety of specific approaches and tools – from pencil to computer – designs are usually developed, represented and communicated in the form of drawings, diagrams, models, films, texts or calculations. Spatial designs (whether a plan for a back garden or master plan for a region) are subject to ongoing development during the process of realization as well as during later use. Designing cannot be fully described in rational terms and its results too – even once realized – cannot be explained and evaluated entirely objectively and rationally. Neither the process nor the product can be adequately described by the cognitive and analytical approaches of the natural sciences or traditional engineering. At the same time, the products of designing are directly present in our everyday lifeworld and have a relevant influence on whether our (spatial) living conditions are good or difficult, stimulating or satisfactory. In our view, designing, in the sense of what is generally recognised as the core creative activity of the (spatial) design disciplines, is fundamentally appropriate for the generation of (new) ideas. This applies regardless of whether we are dealing with “simple” or “tricky” problems. The specific quality of the activity of design lies in the conscious combination of analytical, intuitive and emotional faculties – which is the basic assumption of the conception of design and designing we discuss here – in order to grasp complex relationships and consequently to formulate possible solutions. But how does the process of designing bring about such integration?

That technical-functional and formal skills are fundamental to design goes without saying. While intuitive and emotional aspects are often acknowledged as contributing to the design process, their meaning and relevance remain diffuse and unqualified. As such their potential remains largely underutilized; they are regarded as unpredictable factors better left out of the equation and treated as a kind of “black box”. At the same time, all attempts to objectify the design process – in a classical sense to reduce it to a science – have failed. The neurosciences, however, have been investigating intuition, feelings and the interplay between mind and body for quite a while (see box p. 63). Research has been conducted into the relationship between thought and emotion and the role of intuition and creativity in decisionmaking and cognitive processes. Using imaging techniques, it has not only been possible to identify the different functional areas of the brain for logical, analytical and rational thought, intuition, emotions, creativity and spatial imagination, but it has also become apparent that these never act independently of one another. As such there are “neither purely rational nor purely intuitive decisions. All rational decisions are also intuitive decisions, as they are based on subconscious thought processes.”11 While much still remains to be discovered through brain research, cognitive sciences and psychology, the discourse on precisely how thought processes take place in the human brain, on the significance of the role of emotions and the opinion that “creativity is based on a ‘fusion of intuition and reason’”12 is already in full swing. One thing is already certain: the rational and the intuitive are not independent cognitive realms. An obvious consequence is that the (at long last) rediscovered connection between intuition, emotion and reason now needs to be examined more clearly in other disciplines outside of the neurosciences and the synthesis of these faculties consciously applied in practice. The findings of brain research even suggest that intuition, driven by emotions, has a greater influence on thought and cognitive processes, that it plays so to speak a “leading” role.13 “Feelings mark [italicized in the original] particular aspects of a situation or particular results of possible actions. Such markers can be explicitly felt, for example as a ‘gut feeling’, as an instinctive response, or remain hidden, communicated via signals only perceptible beneath the threshold of consciousness. Knowledge that we draw on when thinking can likewise be wholly explicit or partially hidden, for example when we intuitively arrive at a solution. In other words, feelings are a part of intuition, that rapid cognitive process by which we arrive at a particular solution without having consciously reasoned all the logical steps involved. The intermediary stages are not necessarily hidden, however, feelings present us with a conclusion so directly and instantly that we are barely conscious of the knowledge drawn on.”14 The current flood of publications15 on the nature of the interplay of feelings and thought – or emotion and cognition, affect and logic – and the inseparable connection between mind and body “indicate that, taken together all these developments are bringing about a fundamentally new understanding of the relevance of emotional factors for thinking as a whole, which no doubt will not be without consequence for our understanding of ourselves and of the world.”16

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The design process integrates different kinds of knowledge

Hille von Seggern: Wallpapers at a passage through a house in Hamburg, since 2006. Hommage to Konrad Lueg. Process: mirrors in a grid, graffiti drawn by strangers, framed with crayon, patterns rolled up the wall, framed graffiti highlighted with colour

Emotions and Feelings

In daily use the terms emotions and feelings are most often used interchangeably. However in the philosophical, neuro-scientific and psychological literature definite distinctions are made between emotions and feelings, although there is no unified allocation of terms and definition. In general one can assume the following distinction: “An emotion (from lat for ex ‚out of’ and motio ‚movement, excitation’) is a psycho-physiological process, which is triggered by the perception and interpretation of an object or a situation and which is associated with physiological changes, specific cognitions, subjective experience of feelings and a change in behavioural disposition.”1 One assumes a limited number of basic emotions, like fear, joy, anger, sadness (the number varies according to the author). The abundance of emotions occurs from the mixture or derivation of primary emotions. Feelings by contrast are inner experiences and may differ from outwardly expressed emotions. The term “feeling” designates a subjective sense, which provokes a subject to action and which is of fundamental importance in life.2 In contrast to emotions, which trigger and include understanding, it is often not clear with feelings what exactly happened and what caused them. Feelings are mainly divided into pleasure and pain. Additional classifications are excitement and reassurance or tension and resolution3. Other sub-classifications include sensual or mental, simple or compound, intellectual, ethical, aesthetic or religious feelings.4 Brain research has intensively investigated the connection between emotions, feelings and the body in the last few years. The neuro-scientist Antonio R. Damasio5 is one of the leading scientists in the area of the relationship of feelings and thought processes and their interactions with the body6. He shows that each apparently rational decision or action can not be made without feelings and that the separation assumed since the Enlightenment between mind and body is an error. Emotions are a means for the assessment of the outside world, in order to react accordingly. They form an interface between the environment and one’s own body. Emotions become accessible to thinking via feelings and are thereby the basis for self-consciousness. The capability to consciously perceive and recognize the emotions and feelings of ourselves and others, gains in significance for one’s own consciousness and the capability for cognition and action. It is designated as emotional intelligence and competence7. Goleman subdivides emotional intelligence into five sections: self-awareness, self-motivation, self-control, social competence and empathy. Conversely emotions and feelings represent the link to intuition and creativity, because “the quality of the intuition depends on the level of our previous thought, how well we have classified our previous experiences in connection to the feelings which preceded or followed them, and how exactly we estimated the success or lack thereof of earlier intuitions.” 8 9 Intuition

Intuition describes a form of cognition, which operates with inspirations – an intuitive grasp.10 Etymologically, intuition derives from the latin verb intueri and means to observe, to ponder, to closely inspect11. In philosophy the cognitive-theoretical controversy over the phenomena of intuition has a two and a half thousand year tradition which has produced a multitude of terms and theories of intuition. All of the attempts at explanation share the juxtaposition of intuition and discursive thought, which is also designated as reason, rationality, and the methodical, analytical, rational, logical, and causal procedure. In contrast, intuition is designated as unpredictable, immediate, not controllable, complex, skittish, non-linear, and irrational.12 Eggenberger distilled the following summary from various dictionary descriptions: “Intuition is a capability, not to be confused with the feeling, for a direct, comprehensive and holistic grasp, cognition and perception of intellectual contents, connections of meaning and essences, but also sensory data and facts and circumstances. One thereby experiences them as creative, i.e., inspirations leading to insights and ideas, which accompany evidential experiences and are often based on non-discursive procedures. In part they are unverifiable for methodical thought. They are classified among the intellectual as well as sensual processes of the human organism.”13 Intuition is closely bound up with the creative and unconscious processes of information processing and judgement formation14. It can be described as a basic human characteristic and capability. For a long time the scientific evidence for how intuition developed and could be transmitted was lacking, because it was neither accepted as a subject for scientific investigation nor considered a scientific cognitive gain. In addition to philosophy,

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definitions of terms and intuition theories were also developed in psychology, pedagogy, brain and creativity research15, which are clearly more oriented towards pragmatic (the world as it is lived) application. Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that it can not be arrived at methodically intuition is increasingly recognized as a valid component of the cognitive capability,. It follows that intuition can not be directly taught and learned. A methodical approach can therefore not focus on the immediate, planned inducing of intuition, but must rather create the most advantageous conditions for its occurrence. This means that in order that knowledge not miss out on intuitive insights, it must first recognize, take seriously and be conscious of and continue to work discursively with intuition. That presupposes an equal recognition of intuitive and discursive modes of cognition and the expectation that comprehensive insights will only occur in the synthesis of the two. Notes 1 Definition from: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotion, 10.04.08 2 Dorsch, Friedrich/Häcker, Hartmut/Stapf, Kurt-Hermann

(pub.): Dorsch: Psychologisches Wörterbuch. 13., revised and expanded ed., Berne 1997, p. 308, henceforth quoted as: Dorsch 1997 3 See Wundt, Wilhelm: Einführung in the Psychologie. Bonn 1950 4 See Dorsch, 1997, p. 307 5 See Damasio, Antonio: Descartes’ Irrtum. Fühlen, Denken und das menschliche Gehirn. Berlin 2007 (5th ed.); henceforth quoted as: Damasio 2007; also: Stamm, Isabell: Zwischen Neurobiologie und Sozialethik. Oldenburg 2007, pp 101–125 6 See also: Storch, Maja/­Cantieni, ­Benita/Hüther, Gerald/Tschacher, Wolfgang: Embodiment. Die Wechselwirkung von Körper und Psyche verstehen und nutzen. Berne 2006 7 The designation of emotional intelligence originates first of all from: Salovey, Peter/Mayer, John D.: “Emo­tional intelligence”. In: Imagination, Cognition and Personality. 1990, 9, p. 185–211. It became known, discussed and recognized worldwide in: Goleman, Daniel: Emotionale Intelligenz. Munich, 1997 8 Damasio, 2007, p. V 9 Additional literature about emotions and feelings that has not been quoted: Ciompi, Luc: Die emotionalen Grundlagen des Denkens. Entwurf einer fraktalen Affektlogik. Göttingen 1999 (2nd revised edition); Weber, Andreas: Alles fühlt. Mensch, Natur und die Revolution der Lebenswissenschaften. Berlin 2007; Wollheim, Richard: Emotionen. Eine Philosophie der Gefühle. Munich 2001. Wulf, Helena: The Emotions: A Cultural Reader. Oxford/New York 2007; Krause, Rainer: “Affekt, Emotion, Gefühl“. In: Merten, Wolfgang/­Waldvogel, Bruno (ed.): Handbuch psychoanalytischer Grundbegriffe. Stuttgart 2000, pp. 30–36 10 Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag (dtv). 8the ed. 2005, p. 590. 11 Dorsch 1997 12 Hänsel: Intuition als Beratungskompetenz in Organisationen. Doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg. Undated 13 Eggenberger, Daniel: Grundlagen und Aspekte einer pädagogischen Intuitionstheorie. Die Bedeutung der Intuition für dasAusüben pädagogischer Tätigkeit. Berne/Stuttgart/­ Vienna 1998, p. 65; henceforth quoted as: Eggenberger 1998 14 Hänsel: Intuition als Beratungskompetenz in Organisationen. Doctoral thesis at the University of Heidelberg. Undated 15 For more detail see: Eggenberger 1998; Gigerenzer, Gerd: Bauchentscheidungen. Die Intelligenz des Unbewussten und die Macht der Intuition. Gütersloh 2007 (Gigerenzer is the director of the Max Planck Institute for Educational Research in Berlin); Hänsel, Markus: Intuition als Beratungskompetenz in Organisationen. Doctoral thesis. Heidelberg. Undated

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In the light of these insights a question arises: what conclusions can be drawn for the design of (scientific) processes of cognition, to which designing can be attributed? In an academic context, however, the activity of design as a means of cognition, in a broader sense as a means of creating knowledge, is still rarely acknowledged and often met with resistance or dismissal. Why? This is probably due to its openly creative nature, its inclusion of emotion, of evaluation and integration as opposed to specialization. Depending on the context, design is either attributed to the arts, to engineering or to practice. In fact, this is true not only for the outside perception of design, but also within the spatial design disciplines themselves. This can be seen throughout the different design approaches and schools, as described comprehensively by Gänshirt17 for architectural design and by Prominski18 for landscape design. Here we will present and discuss a selection of such approaches in the context of our line of inquiry. Martin Prominski outlines the theoretical development of design from a craft and drawing process, which is entirely personal and intuitive and therefore regarded as unscientific, via the radical swing of the “design theory pendulum”19 from the “subjective” to the exclusively “objective” side. Only after this “swing” did a design theory discourse arise in the seventies that attempted to situate design between these two “worlds”, for example by recognising that the kind of problems design deals with are “tricky” and resist purely objective and analytical resolution. It becomes apparent that “dealing with factors of uncertainty, processuality and specificity are in a manner of speaking the ‘bread and butter’ of design.”20 Prominski, therefore, clearly views design and its “tricky” subject as epistemological, though the question of “how” is left largely unanswered. In particular, the necessary integration of intuitive and rational knowledge in the design process is only mentioned cursorily. A study by Hassenewert examines the discourse of design in architecture textbooks from 1945 to 2004 and concludes that, “in particular the elementary principles of design […] consist for the most part of standard, repeating elements, such as the application of geometric and arithmetic techniques for determining dimensions, that have little to do with creative-artistic expression.” Furthermore: “In contrast to teaching practice itself, in which the personality and individual character of the student can be included in the design investigation, the design textbooks communicate only teachable content, i.e., those aspects of the design process that lend themselves to objective description.”21 In the book Tools for Ideas, Gänshirt begins by describing different theoretical approaches to defining design in architecture. The relevance of models, i.e., of learning from persons as well as projects (best practice examples), is a valid approach. Similarly, the development of typologies from projects is also useful. In their ongoing adaptation through application and resulting re-adaptation, they represent a kind of aggregated historical knowledge. Just how new ideas come about through the transferral to new conditions is, however, not revealed. Approaches that define the principles of solutions and/or the principles of expression can also offer a way of approaching a solution. However, as both of these principles are subject to (changing) societal conditions they can be neither universally nor permanently valid. Theories offer a further means of orientation but bear the usual problem of their differentiation into approaches derived from the natural sciences, arts, life sciences or cultural studies. 22 Their integration in the design process is in our view the key step forward. The approach that Gänshirt23 then elaborates proposes taking the tools of design such as the sketch, language, models, photos or computer simulations as its starting point and is similarly promising, encompassing as it does the essential stages of the design process. However, it fails to explain how their application leads to the formulation of ideas. Although he chooses a broad definition of tools, which includes gestures or criticism, the roles played by intuition and

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Design in academic discourse

Body awareness

Found object

Exhibition discussion

Professional discussion

Workshop

Presentation

Mapping

First model

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emotion remain largely unexplained. We are doubtful that the “correct” application of tools is all that is required to generate design ideas. In Opening Spaces. Design as Landscape Architecture, Loidl and Bernard24 attempt to define a clear language of design for landscape architecture and to develop design principles from an analysis of landscape architectonic elements. The authors restrict themselves – as they freely acknowledge – to that which is “‘feasible’, to what the left-hemisphere can manage to say”, and “reduce the phenomenon of ‘landscape architecture’ to make it ‘tangible’, ‘comprehensible’, in other words morphological.”25 In the context of urban landscapes, we are particularly interested in design approaches that deal with the complexity of large-scale conditions. However, land-use and regional planning, which is traditionally responsible for the large scale domain, concentrates on rational-analytic planning methodology and statutory participation or governance models and has long neglected design approaches and those that employ visual means of shaping their subject. “Regional planning at the scale of the urban region […] is still not regarded as a design task,”26 and consequently there is no design tradition in this field. Only in the last decade has a gradual openness towards design come about in response to the problems of the expansion of (urban) regions. The notion of the Netzstadt27, a design model based on a trans-disciplinary approach, attempts to decode, analyze and assess urban complexity as a system and network using morphological and physiological instruments that are “interwoven in a trans-disciplinary workshop.”28 Only once urban quality targets have been established does the design work begin, a process that incorporates wide-ranging participation and decision processes. The personal experience and values of the user of the design model are explicitly excluded citing the need “to ensure rationality and enable regional comparability through the use of operationalizing indicators.”29 In the 1990s Thomas Sieverts challenged the idealized notion of the compact European City with his concept of the Zwischenstadt.30 Through his sympathetic description of the Zwischenstadt, he brought it to the attention not only of the profession and politicians but also the public in general, and created the “conditions [necessary] for a productive and critical examination as a basis for the progressive qualitative improvement of the Zwischenstadt.”31 This in turn became the subject of an interdisciplinary research project entitled Mitten am Rand: Zwischenstadt – Zur Qualifizierung der verstädterten Landschaft32 (In the Center of the Fringe – Towards the Qualification of the Urbanised Landscape) which undertook a comprehensive analysis of the character and structure of the Zwischenstadt, breaking new ground in the process. The project demonstrated clearly that it is time that we addressed the question of a constructive, creative and design approach to dealing with the complex realities of contemporary space, both scientifically and in practice. Initial design responses were elaborated in subprojects. Exactly what the corresponding design response to Sievert’s sympathetic interpretation should look like is not detailed. In the subproject entitled Zwischen Stadt Entwerfen (Designing Zwischenstadt) the authors remark: “The question of appropriate design tools and methods remains an open experiment with no clear outcome. […] We are no longer concerned with designing final formal or spatial solutions but rather the development of spaces of possibility that are both special, characteristic and distinctive as well as general, adaptable and open to further interpretation and development. Not ‘anything goes’ but also not ‘that’s how it is going to be’.”33 But for this we first need to attain a new perception: “One must learn to see the new. And one must want to see it,”34 or else we risk examining new spatial realities through “sepia-tinted spectacles”. In its fundamental approach, this subproject comes close to our own understanding of design, but here too the mechanics of “how” one acquires this new perception are not elucidated.

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In the context of this essay, we can only touch upon the approaches to designing mentioned. All authors agree that the design process cannot be entirely objectified, however, the way in which they are not entirely objectifiable, i.e., the role of intuition, emotion and creativity, remains largely unaddressed. As a result, this form of knowledge – the essential counterpart to rationalanalytical, logical knowledge – is neglected, or at least not equally elaborated. If intuition were to be regarded as a self-evident component of designing, it would obviate the need to describe those enigmatic, “in many respects mysterious”35 aspects of design that cannot be proven. Intuition would then be an equally descriptive part of design and could contribute productively to the process of creating knowledge, to evaluation or objectification. The “concerns” about that which we are unable to grasp would be eliminated. Designing must be emancipated from this “either-or” to an “as-well-as” mindset. To comprehend design as a way of thinking and a trans-disciplinary, i.e., integrative mode of activity means that one has to acknowledge that on the one hand there are limits to rationality and on the other that there is a certain “mystery” to creativity. The evolutionary character of design becomes apparent in its ability to bring together these means of cognition. Herein lies the special contemporary relevance of design activity. At the large scale in particular, it is intuition that enables us to remain able to comprehend and make decisions in the context of the chaotic “jumble” of complexities. Here, the emphasis is not only on the ability to creatively respond to the unpredictability and relationalities of space despite increasing complexity but precisely with increasing complexity, the ability to still see the whole regardless of the fuzziness. Consequently, design, as an approach that specifically incorporates

Wall of questions. Created in the context of the STUDIO event for the summer semester graduation in 2006: Will I live in the woods? (provoked by the question project by Peter Fischli and David Weiss: “Will happiness find me?”, Cologne, 2003)

intuition and emotion, allows us to identify an “image of the whole” at a relatively early stage in spite of the degree of complexity, and thus to formulate a first idea. For the second level of integration a corresponding understanding of the subject of the design process discussed here is required: a notion of space.

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Here we describe space topologically, as a system of relationships of the arrangement and relation of elements and dimensions in space. Spatial development is a multi dimensional performative process. From where does this definition derive? In addition to its physical constituents, space is also defined by historical, cultural, aesthetic, economic or social components. We as people are part of space and at the same time construct it through our memories, perceptions and actions. Societal processes and their temporal dimensions are as much a component of space as (relatively) independent natural processes. It is through the intersection and integration of these dynamic systems that space first acquires its manifold dimensionality. 36 Space is therefore one way of describing multi dimensional, nonlinear life processes. Furthermore, space is not simply always there but a construct that we constantly create anew from one moment to the next; we design it and are at the same time part of it. In addition to this perception of space and its reference to topological geometry as formulated by Riemann, there is also a Euclidian notion of space and of space as a container, as it is commonly understood by the layperson and indeed for a long time dominated the spatial design disciplines, particularly for small-scale spaces. The performative nature of space, so we argue, is currently characterised above all by mankind’s urban way of life. Urban ways of life with their social relationships lead not only to the expansion of the city into the surrounding countryside and their agglomeration but also impact on the character of the so-called rural areas. The effects of increased mobility in particular and the concomitant fundamental changes to work patterns, nutritional and cultural habits now affect all realms and have had a profound impact on the complexity of space. In its essence, our conception of space bears similarities to other positions in the now animated professional discourse on space. It relates, for example, to Dieter Läpple’s call for a social conception of space in his well-known Essay über den Raum37 (Essay on Space). Since then, Foucault’s opinion, published in 1984, has also been cited repeatedly: “The present epoch will perhaps be above all the epoch of space. We are in the epoch of simultaneity: we are in the epoch of juxtaposition, the epoch of the near and far, of the sideby-side, of the dispersed” – most recently to be found on the cover flap of a collection of cultural and philosophical texts on spatial theory published in 2006.38 Social sciences and geography now speak of a “spatial turn”, the cultural scientist Sigrid Weigel coined the term “topographical turn”. She posits “the assumption that space does not simply exist, but is produced. Parallel to the received notion of space as a natural, physical or […] pre-existent ‘container’, a new perspective has arisen that views space as culturally determined and historically changeable.”39 The sociologist Martina Löw also views space as something that is constituted, distancing herself similarly from the image of space as territory and place yet without negating this aspect. She describes the formation of space as a “social […], and accordingly also a processual phenomenon. Space is constituted as a synthesis of social goods, other people and places in one’s imagination, through perception and memory, but also in the spacing and situating (erection, building or positioning) of these goods and people in relation to other goods and people. The constitution of space (synthesis and spacing) is in many cases a routine everyday activity.”40

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Space as the integrating moment of design

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Although published in 1974, the French philosopher and sociologist Lefebvre’s theory of the social construction and societal production of space41 remains highly topical. Thirty years after it was originally written, Christian Schmid brought it (back) into the public eye in his dissertation.42 Lefebvre’s theory of space formed the basis for Switzerland – An Urban Portrait, a study undertaken over the course of several years by the ETH Studio Basel. In the context of our investigation of design as a process of creating knowledge, what is particularly interesting is that Lefebvre’s theory of space was applied empirically to design. A series of integrative concepts were found that encompass both the societal construction of space and its spatial and physical aspects: “boundaries”, “differences” and “networks”, each themselves a multi dimensional approach of describing space. A series of characteristic features were identified for each of these that went on to form the basis for a comprehensive interpretative and design-oriented cartography. It is through this “new” way of seeing, through the “juxtaposition”43 of often familiar facts concerning the state of Switzerland and their corresponding “translation” into pictures, maps and diagrams, that the public first became aware of the real extent of the drastic expansion and encroachment of urban structures into supposedly rural areas and their contribution to the emergence of “Alpine wastelands”. The visual representation used in this portrait graphically demonstrates the integrative role of space. This leads us to the question of how one can approach space through the activity of designing. A primary approach for us in this respect is landscape, from which further individual approaches can be derived.

Body and space

instant sculptures – instant Movements

Summer semester 2003, main course, 2nd exercise in the framework of the Studio-lecture: “Stroll once through the entire ContiLimmer grounds. Then start in with your people-space-sculptures: Pick out a spatial situation, which for any reason at all looks interesting and start talking about a possible sculpture…How would it be, if… only arms and legs were looking around every corner?… if you act, as if many people were there? The body in relation to space is the most important. Materials carrying with you by chance or found materials can supplement the work. The sculptures can be bizarre, witty, interesting, beautiful, serious, sad or absurd. What is important is the relevant people-space-connection.” Sculptures left page: Mieke Bellingrodt, Jonas Heimke: Vienna 2003 ; top right: Christian Berger, Ulrike Wolf: Gripping; above right:: Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner: Cloning. Below: Simone Kühtke: Sinking into the Ground.

Clockwise (from below): Ulrike Wolf: The Guards in the Closed Portal, Anonymous: In the Office; Hanna Heitkamp: Connection, Christian Berger, Christian Berger, Daniela Bänder: Seen Through; Ulrike Wolf: Monster.Instructors: Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner (inspired by Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures)

In the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, our specific approach to looking at space is through landscape (as the overarching perspective). What we mean by this first of all is that we see landscape as one possible means of understanding space. This means not only that natural spatial conditions and nature processes are considered alongside and on an equal footing with human and man-made processes, but also that we abandon the categories of natural and artificial. By considering space from the viewpoint of landscape, we stress both the way in which landscape is perceived as a whole that integrates many aspects yet is still not clearly definable, as well as the fundamentally positive connotation of landscape.44 The perspective of landscape also emphasises the relevance of the “ground” and the long-term effects of climate, water, soil and vegetation dynamics. The ongoing discourse concerning a scientific and theoretical consideration of the topic of landscape45 – in particular within the landscape architecture profession – shows that landscape has long progressed beyond being about attractive meadows, valleys, parks, gardens or recreational areas. Landscape has become a central way of looking – also at the regional scale with which we are concerned here. On an international level too, the examination of urbanization processes is likewise connected to the question of the role landscape should play. Landscape Urbanism,46 which was established in the USA and is now being more widely adopted in Europe, describes a disciplinary approach, which, through scientific as well as project-related work, takes the view that the development and planning of cities must in future be considered from the viewpoint of landscape: “Landscape has become both the lens through which the contemporary city is represented and the medium through which it is constructed.”47 This view corresponds to our own chosen terminology of urban landscapes, which likewise encompasses the process of urbanization but, in contrast to Landscape Urbanism, does not elevate it to the aim (which the -ism implies). Whether performative space or the positive connotation of the concept of landscape, from a design point of view we are most interested in its integrative capacity. The ability to comprehend space in this way is in our view crucial, as only then are we able to understand the complex conditions that govern the constitution of space and to use this as the basis for our design activities. The respective way in which we approach space, or urban landscapes, is of key importance. The specific approach represents a choice of a suitable topic and method that is relevant for the respective spatial development, is strategically compatible with the overall development and moreover can be formulated as a design impulse. It is essential that a chosen approach allows one to consider the multi dimensional nature of the space or landscape without needing or having to deal with all the dimensions at once. Timewise, the respective approach is chosen before any precise task is defined, taking the place of a declaration of scope (the park, residential area, small town) or a program, as a result allowing one to discover the task from the respective spatial constellation. This involves the simultaneous application of intuitive, subjective and creative viewpoints. The specific choice of approach already represents an idea and cannot be derived purely rationally. A suitable approach could be a situation, a theme, a concrete project or a system (for example of waterways) – and always encompasses a combination of spatial dimensions. In this way the integrative aspect of the design process is brought to bear on the subject, and at the same time is born out of the subject as its corresponding partner or counterpart. Design is therefore the appropriate means for developing complex spatial constellations.

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Landscape as a way of looking at space

Urban landscapes

If we are to speak of designing as a process of cognition, of creating knowledge, we must also consider the question of how scientific the process of design is, a notion that is met with great scepticism in the academic realm. The process of designing has been researched in terms of its techniques and in its application of systemic, algorithmic, constructive or aesthetic dimensions, but design as a means of research, as a specific “working knowledge”, as Helga Nowotny48 has called it, has not yet joined the ranks of the “indispensable plants in the garden of knowledge production” as Martin Prominski49 has rightly demanded. It is time to call into question the universal appropriateness of natural scientific or engineering-led comprehension and to recognise the independent cognitive contribution of design. Prominski50 has taken a significant step in this direction by attributing design to the so-called “Mode 2 sciences”, as described by Nowotny et al.51 In contrast to the causal knowledge production of Mode 1 sciences, Mode 2 describes knowledge that is typically contextual or relational, that is inseparable from society, economics or culture and often the product of trans-disciplinary inquiry. As such, the discussion is not about either-ors but rather the need to extend the canon of sciences that deal with the complexities of the real world. For a while now, a shift is afoot (once again) in the world of science theory and the question of the formation of knowledge and the corresponding identification of what is not knowledge is more topical than ever. Similarly, the call to (finally) unite the long separated worlds of cognition at a new level is growing louder: “Cognition [knowledge], in as far as it relates to the world is a combination, even a congruence, of thinking and being. This congruence has yet to be fully explained. We are talking about two fundamentally different dimensions, neither of which can be reduced to the level of the other, but which nevertheless form the basis of human life in the world, of our understanding of the world. […] The unity of the world we must take for granted, as cognition is possible, but only through the combination of two principally heterogeneous dimensions, which are, in some way that we have yet to make sense of, compatible with one another.”52 Design is integrative and creative

Despite his own attempts to objectify design, Christopher Alexander has noted that “enormous resistance to the idea of systematic processes of design is coming from people who recognize correctly the importance of intuition, but then make a fetish out of it which excludes the possibility of asking reasonable questions.”53 Here, Alexander expresses precisely our sentiments. It is our intention to examine, to apply, to unite – to integrate – all the facets of design activity. Let us consider the process of design itself. If one believes that designing as a professional activity, born of the principles of human creative capacity, is able to bring about evolutionary development – if design is a way of life – then design must be understood as an interaction of the rational and the intuitive, of mind, body and emotions and thus including creative potential. Then design must accordingly be practiced and propagated in its synthesizing capacitiy in professional use. Of particular interest for us here is the integrative capacity of design as the central aspect of generating ideas. In this “emotional-intellectual immersive process”, the how of creativity is, of course, the key. It is therefore no surprise that the topic of creativity is currently being passed around in numerous publications54 and congresses55 as the social commodity: the creative class, creative cities, creative industries, creative spaces.56 This shows (us) that we need to learn more about creativity. Through our own experiences and observations, through experiments and theoretical reflection we have developed a hypothesis which we call creativity as understanding. Understanding refers here to a hermeneutic process that encompasses questions of the future and with it the search for ideas. In this essay we examined the integrative aspect of design; we view understanding as a part of this, an activity

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Design as a scientific activity

Excavation of the Mittelland canal, utilization of the sand for construction purposes, ecological succession and use as a recreation park (Initial exercise: Process mapping, in the framework of the student design project Layer Change, summer semester 2008) (Design: Julia Schulz)

Notes 1 Poser, Hans: “Entwerfen als Lebensform. Elemente technischer Modalität” in: Kornwachs, K. (Ed.): Technik – System – Verantwor-

tung. Technikphilosophie Vol. 10. Münster 2004, p. 563; henceforth cited as: Poser 2004 2 Poser 2004, p. 561–575 3 Poser 2004, p. 561 4 Iterative: a sequence of repeating steps that grow more complex with each step. 5 cf. the term “means” in: Poser 2004, p. 271–272;

means can, for example, be rules, algorithms or alternatively software. 6 cf. Rittel, Horst/Webber, Melvin: “Dilemmas in einer allgemeinen Theorie der Planung” in: Reuter, Wolf D. (Ed.): Horst W. Rittel: Planen, Entwerfen, Design. Stuttgart 1994, p. 13–15. In the English original, Rittel speaks of “wicked problems”. In the German translation, this was first translated as “evil problems”. Martin Prominski terms what Rittel described as “wicked problems” as “tricky problems”. We adopt this term as more suitable. cf. Prominski, Martin: Landschaft entwerfen. Reimers, Berlin 2003, p. 95ff.; henceforth cited as: Prominski 2003 7 We use the term lifeworld (Lebenswelt) which refers to the phenomenology described by Edmund Husserl. 8 Gestalt is understood here as a holistic expression that can also encompass process and movement, not exclusively a materially fixed form. 9 cf. Seggern, Hille von/Sieverts, Thomas: “Die Gestaltung der Stadtregion als Landschaft” in: DGGL (Ed.) Region als Garten. Munich 2006, p. 14–19 10 cf. Seggern, Hille von: “Raum + Landschaft + Entwerfen” in: Eisel, Ulrich/Körner, Stefan (Ed.): Befreite Landschaft. Moderne Landschaftsarchitektur ohne arkadischen Ballast? Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur, Vol. 18. Munich 2008; henceforth cited as: Seggern, Hille von 2008 11 Traufetter, Gerald: Intuition. Die Weisheit der Gefühle. Hamburg 2007. p. 15 12 Salk, Jonas: The Anatomy of Reality. New

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that “structures” the process and which requires as well as stimulates creativity. In other essays in this publication we examine in greater detail how understanding, creativity and designing are connected to one another.

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York 1985. Cited in: Damasio, Antonio R.: Descartes’ Irrtum. Fühlen, Denken und das menschliche Gehirn. Berlin 2007, 5th edition, p. 258; henceforth cited as: Damasio 2007 13 A more detailed discussion of the findings of brain research would exceed the scope of this text. The text is therefore necessarily a generalization. We are aware of the more detailed discourse on this topic in the neurosciences which cannot be detailed in the brevity of this text. A more detailed examination of the connection between current findings in neuroscience and the process of design can be found in Julia Werner’s dissertation (currently in preparation). 14 Damasio 2007, p. V 15 cf. further reference literature in the “Intuition” text box, p. 41 16 Ciompi, Luc: Die emotionalen Grundlagen des Denkens. Entwurf einer fraktalen Affektlogik. Göttingen 1999 (2nd edition), p. 12 17 Gänshirt, Christian: Werkzeuge für Ideen. Einführung ins architektonische Entwerfen. (Tools for Ideas: An Introduction to Architectural Design) Basel 2007; henceforth cited as: Gänshirt 2007 18 Prominski 2003 19 Prominski 2003, p. 95 20 Prominski 2003, p. 116 21 Hassenewert, Frank: Lehren des Entwerfens. Eine Untersuchung über den Diskurs des Entwerfens in Entwurfslehrbüchern der Architektur von 1945 bis 2004. (Doctrines of Design - A critical Survey about Strategies and Theory of Design in Architecture Textbooks from 1945 to 2004) Technische Universität Berlin, p. 7, URL: http://opus.kobv.de/tuberlin/volltexte/2006/1258/pdf/hassenewert_frank.pdf, [25.02.08] 22 Gänshirt 2007, p. 33ff. 23  Gänshirt 2007, p. 81ff. 24 Loidl, Hans/Bernard, Stefan: Opening Spaces. Design as Landscape Architecture. Basel 2003; henceforth cited as: Loidl 2003 25 All quotes from: Loidl 2003, p. 9 26 Sieverts, Thomas: “Von der unmöglichen Ordnung zu einer möglichen Unordnung im Entwerfen der Stadtlandschaft”. In: disP 169, 2/2007, p. 12; in the citation Sieverts refers to the urban region. In his contribution to this publication he extends the scope to the urban landscapes. 27 Oswald, Franz/Baccini, Peter: Netzstadt: Einführung in das Stadtentwerfen. Basel 2003: henceforth cited as: Oswald/Baccini 2003 28 Oswald/Baccini 2003, p. 8 29 Ante, Ulrich: “Ein Beitrag zum (rational(er)en Verständnis von Stadt”. In: disP 156, 1/2004 30 Sieverts, Thomas: Zwischenstadt. Zwischen Ort und Welt, Raum und Zeit, Stadt und Land. Basel 1999 (3rd improved and expanded edition with afterword) 31 Sieverts, Thomas/ Koch, Michael/Stein, Ursula/Steinbusch, Michael: Zwischenstadt – inzwischen Stadt? Entdecken, begreifen, verändern. Wuppertal 2005, p. 8 32 Ladenburger Kolleg der Gottlieb Daimler- und Karl-Benz-Stiftung „Mitten am Rand: Zwischenstadt – Zur Qualifizierung der verstädterten Landschaft“, 2002 – 2005, interdisciplinary team of scientists and academics from town and regional planning, sociology, cultural studies and political sciences; cf. Sieverts, Thomas (Ed.): Schriftenreihe Zwischenstadt. Vols 1–12, Wuppertal n.d. 33 Bormann/Oliver, Koch, Michael/Schmeing, Astrid/Schröder, Martin/Wall, Alex: Zwischen Stadt Entwerfen. Wuppertal 2005, p. 42; henceforth cited as: Bormann et al. 2005, p. 175 34 Bormann et al. 2005, p. 11 35 Loidl 2003, p. 6 36 cf. Seggern, Hille von 2008 37 Läpple, Dieter: “Essay über den Raum”, In: Häußermann, Hartmut/Ipsen, Detlev/Krämer-Badoni, Thomas/Läpple, Dieter/Rodenstein, Marianne/Siebel, Walter (Ed.): Stadt und Raum, soziologische Analysen. Pfaffenweiler 1991, p. 157–207 38 Dünne, Jörg/ Günzel, Stephan (Ed.): Raumtheorie. Grundlagentexte aus Philosophie und Kulturwissenschaften. Frankfurt am Main 2006 39 from: Arbeitsgruppe „Raum – Körper – Medium“ der Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Munich: Gegenstand und Ziel der Arbeitsgruppe. URL: http://www.raumtheorie.lmu.de/#erstens, [21.03.08]. The editor of the Raumtheorie collection of essays (cf. previous footnote) is a member of this work. 40 Löw, Martina: Raumsoziologie. Frankfurt am Main 2001, p. 263 41 Lefebvre, Henri: La production de l’espace. Paris 1974 42 Schmid, Christian: Stadt, Raum und Gesellschaft – Henri Lefebvre und die Theorie der Produktion des Raumes. Stuttgart 2005; henceforth cited as: Schmid 2005 43 Diener, Roger/Herzog, Jacques/Meili, Marcel/de Meuron, Pierre/Schmid, Christian: Die Schweiz – ein städtebauliches Portrait. (Switzerland – An Urban Portrait) Basel 2005, p. 136 44 Franzen, Brigitte/Krebs, Stefanie: Landschaftstheorie. Texte der Cultural Landscape Studies. Köln 2005 45 For example: Corboz, Andre: Die Kunst, Stadt und Land zum Sprechen zu bringen. Basel 2001; Franzen, Brigitte/Krebs, Stefanie: Landschaftstheorie. Texte der Cultural Landscape Studies. Cologne 2005; Eisel, Ulrich/Körner, Stefan (Ed.): Befreite Landschaft. Moderne Landschaftsarchitektur ohne arkadischen Ballast? Beiträge zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur, Vol. 18. Munich 2008; Franzen, Brigitte/Krebs, Stefanie: Mikrolandschaften. Landscape Culture on the Move. Cologne 2006; Haber, Wolfgang: “Vorstellungen über Landschaft” in: Busch, Bernd 2007 (Ed.): Jetzt ist die Landschaft ein Katalog voller Wörter. Beiträge zur Sprache der Ökologie. From the series “Valerio” 2007/5, Darmstadt 2007, p. 78–85; Sieferle, Rolf-Peter: “Die totale Landschaft”. in: Topos 47/2004. Munich, p. 6–13 46 Waldheim, Charles (Ed.): The Landscape Urbanism Reader. New York 2006; henceforth cited as: Waldheim 2006 47 Waldheim 2006, p. 11 48 Nowotny, Helga: “Design as Working Knowledge”. In this volume, p. 42 49 Prominski 2003, p. 116 50 Prominski 2003, p. 105ff. 51 Nowotny, Helga/Scott, Peter/Gibbons, Michael: Wissenschaft neu denken. Wissen und Öffentlichkeit in einem Zeitalter der Ungewissheit. Frankfurt 2004 52 Stamer, Gerhard: Von Nutzen und Nutzlosigkeit der Philosophie. Eröffnungsvortrag zur Tagung „Das Jahr der Geisteswissenschaften“. Kritischer Rückblick. 19th November 2007. URL: http://www.stamer-reflex.com/node/83 [Stand: 24.05.2008] 53 Alexander, Christopher: Notes on the Synthesis of Form. Cited in Sieverts, Thomas: “Wiedergelesen: Kevin Lynch und Christopher Alexander. Das Aufbrechen und Wiedererfinden der Konvention – auf der Spur des Geheimnisses lebendiger Räume und Städte”. In: disP 129, 2/1997, p. 52–59, citation p. 53 54 For example: Hentig, Hartmut von: Kreativität. Hohe Erwartungen an einen schwachen Begriff. Munich/Vienna 1998; Holm-Hadulla, R. (Ed.): Kreativität. Heidelberger Jahrbücher 2000 XLIV, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo 2000; Holm-Hadulla, Rainer M.: Kreativität. Konzept und Lebensstil. Göttingen 2005, 2007; Joas, Hans: Die Kreativität des Handelns. Frankfurt 1992; Kaufmann, James C./Sternberg, Robert J.: The International Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge 2006; Nachmanovitch, Stephen: Das Tao

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der Kreativität. Schöpferische Improvisation in Leben und Kunst. Frankfurt 2008; Navratil, Leo: Die Überlegenheit des Bären. Theorie der Kreativität. Munich 1995 55 For example the XX. Deutsche Kongress für Philosophie 2005 on the topic of “Kreativität”; Congress proceedings: Abel, Günter (Ed.): Kreativität. Sektionsbeiträge, XX. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie, 26.–30. September 2005, 2 Volumes. Berlin 2005 56 Ebert, Ralf/Kunzmann, Klaus: “Kulturwirtschaft, kreative Räume und Stadtentwicklung in Berlin”. in: disP 171, 4/2007, p. 64–79; cf. also: Florida, Richard: Cities and the Creative Class. London 2005

Cult Glasses Island of 37 nations

Amalia Besada: Design in the framework of the main course “IBA Hamburg. The Elbe Island Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg: Urban Waterlandscapes”, Winter semester 2007/08. Counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Sigrun Langner

Typ Lust

Typ Hemmung i we

z

n

ue

fra

Typ Entdecken n

an

rm

e rud

Typ Träumen r

le ng

a

er

um

trä

xx

en entdeck nttdeck Ängste vor der Elbströmung oder der Verschmutzung des Wassers.

Lust auf all das Inselwasser! Rudern angeln und schwimmen.

Wasser zu dem man nicht immer den Weg findet und welches man auch neu entdecken kann!

Wasser, dass nur in Erinnerungen lebt und durch das Erzählen der Erinnerungen wieder „sichtbar“ werden.

From discussions on site four human types were determined (inhibition, desire, discovery and dreams) and based on them three development strategies were created: 1. A beach with swimming dock and a Winterpark as “celebrity location” 2. A toleration strategy for fishermen (and others) and 3. a literature bus, with which the histories of 37 nations are gathered and told.

1

orte die man sieht >

punktuelle strategie Promi- Orte werden “promiger” + neue Promi- Orte

2

orte die man sehen kann > gedankliche strategie Beschreibung der Sink-Orte

der angelplatz durchlässige grenzen entdeckungsreich

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orte die man nicht sieht > bewusstseins- strategie

Imaginäre Orte werden real

e uch t r o rb

geselhö i t s n

lu as i

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m

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8

promi-ort

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20 m

15 m

3d

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m

Exploration Creativity, Understanding and idea

Practising, Practising, Practising: Drawings, some left-handed, eyes closed, using different pens… the same but everyday new. Series of exercises Urban situations, People and Space in motion, a line through space. Studio-lecture 2005

Exploration: Creativity, Understanding and Idea1

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If one understands design as the creative capacity of human beings to take an active role in the evolutionary shaping of the world, then that implies a responsibility to comprehend and transmit creativity. As Helga Nowotny says, design is “obliged to the creative act,”2 because it depends on the skilful interaction between ratio and intuition and intellect, feeling and body. “At the moment of the highest creativity, intuition finally merges with comprehension and bears progress” writes Gerald Traufetter 3 and thereby underscores the extraordinary productivity of creative thought and action. But what is creativity? How are creativity and understanding related? The scientifically based principles are now at hand in the different fields of creativity research for this equivocal term4. For instance, Rainer M. Holm-Hadulla5 demonstrates the interaction between talent, motivation, personality and general conditions. He names the characteristics of creative people: Flexibility, associative thinking, self-confidence, goal orientation, intelligence, non conformity, transcendence, interest, originality and curiosity, and indicates the significance for early childhood and suitable living conditions for the development of a creative personality structure. Furthermore, he names the phases of the creative processes that have been proven, in part with other terms, in scientific investigations and practical experience: preparation, incubation, illumination, realization and verification. In my opinion, this now extensive knowledge can not simply be realized in creativity methods that are independent of context, be it brainstorming or the headstand method. They are thoroughly useful but compared with the “world changing bolt of mental lightning of famous men”, which is frequently the subject of creativity research (and which as a rule is preceded by extended processes of searching and work), the results are most often modest. In addition these methods are most often not simply applicable to design processes, because they need a conscious task and object related transmission and transformation. If one now more narrowly focuses the question of creativity on the design of landscapes, what sustains interest above all is the connection between the initial conditions or inventory status, how the existing conditions are handled and the development of an actual idea. But how one proceeds from the perception of the inventory to the design idea, is by no means clear. I would like to bring up two observations, which are repeatedly made in connection with creativity processes, because I suspect that they are especially revealing for the question of the connection of inventory and idea: 1. A highly motivated, passionate, constant circling around a question, a feeling of excitement and the almost “sense of getting lost” precedes the discovery of the idea. Hard work and many attempts which might lead to a solution, belong to this intensive process. Something other than pure industriousness, which as is already known does not produce ideas, is at work here. 2. Nonetheless the appearance of an idea is accordingly described as sudden and unexpected; it appears as a rule after a kind of (frustrating) emptiness. At the same time there is a certainty: The idea seems to be self-evident, simple and clear, as if it were always there, and its appearance is met with great joy.

Hille von Seggern

Hille von Seggern

“The part and the whole” a Design principle

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Winter semester 2005/06, Basic course; 3rd exercise: Open space systems_ Mapping: Understanding inventory “You received a random piece of a whole Hanover city map in a scale of 1:2.500. Explore it by foot or bicycle … if possible, every open space individually and the whole urban space. Make notes about uses, atmosphere, (striking) characteristics (buildings, height gradients, water gradients, streets, boundaries, materials, plants). Which structures do you find? Fill the city map with lines, coloured surfaces or words which describe your observations. Translate your mapping into a model made of paper: Use only newspaper (b/w) and model the landscape with it (also buildings and height gradients). Tear it, crumple it, stack it, snip it, fold it (but don’t cut it!) … and glue it to the map. When it is finished there should be no sign of the map left! Emphasize a single element or a striking structure. Use paper for that too, but this time use high gloss magazines. Tear it, crumple it, stack it, snip it, fold it and glue it again.“ Instructors: Hille von Seggern, Sigrun Langner, Sabine Rabe

Quadrants: B2: Dorothee Quester; B5: Josè Manuel Rodrigrez; E5: Britta Freise; E4: Vienna Gerstenkorn; C1: Franziska Schweiser; E1: Jia Sun

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The first observation, which I want to examine in more detail, concerns the connection between the new and the specific starting points, the existing situation, and therefore also with its history. In a process that is yet to be defined, the existing situation can be made fruitful and (therein) something new can be discovered, that is directly connected with that situation.6 This idea is relatively new for the spatial planning disciplines, as a short look back over the changes in the assessment of inventory will indicate. At the end of the 1970s the spatial planning and design disciplines had to finally give up the idea that inventory could be assessed objectively and completely and that valid statements about the future could be derived from the prognoses. In the 1980s one assumed a certain “planning security” and tried from the outset to define problems and goals, in order to be able to derive the necessary – from that point on – limited inventory survey. Based on this assumption, alternative future scenarios were and still are developed today. Although this action-oriented procedure is better, the dilemma of the two approaches remains: New, viable ideas and good designs do not automatically emerge from the process. A fundamentally different approach to the existing situation is the “inventive analysis” or creative inventorying, formulated foremost by Bernard Lassus.7 On the one hand this approach respects intuition, without consciously mentioning it, and leaves space for it. On the other hand the discovery is directly and explicitly brought into contact with the inventory. From this the development of a space is supposed to be stimulated. From this Lassus formulates the idea of the “minimal intervention”,8 from which the standpoint of the development of ideas this procedure is connected with two traditions: With the artistic, situative intervention of the Situationists9 and with the search for the “genius loci,”10 that is the spirit and essence of a place, the intended starting point for the design idea. Many current art and play practices, strollology11 or the lately formulated “Situative Urbanism”12 make use of both aspects. Observation of inventory, understood as creative, thoroughly subjective cartography,13 often summarized with the term mapping, or as a running investigation connected with the design process are (once again) in vogue. It is acknowledged that the perception of that which is and that which was may already involve a creative interpretation. All these interventionist approaches clearly follow more or less the principle “as in the small so in the large”.14 Although all these approaches resemble one another in the immediate connection between the inventory and the new, there are differences in dealing with history: If the Situationists wanted to “force” the new with a kind of extra-historical “leaping technique”, in the genius loci tradition it is seen as a harmonic extension of the history of a place. Lassus formulates a basically respectful attitude toward the existent and is thereby open for different kinds of interventions. The new cartography relies, to put it simply, on the appearance of an idea: “By showing the world in new ways, unexpected solutions and effects may emerge.“15 For the most part, how an idea originates remains thereby relatively vague. Understanding and idea

I refer here to the second observation, which addresses the connection between the understanding of a situation and the emergence of an idea. On the one hand the literature references astonishment about the suddenness of the idea, described by Arthur Köstler as a “divine spark,”16 and on the other hand, the related certainty, self-evidence and simplicity of a “that-is-the-way-it-is”. Without requiring God to directly take care of the matter, how can the “mystery” of the process of idea discovery be integrated in a contemporary understanding of science and a comprehensive world view? Perhaps by better understanding this “So, that’s it” phenomenon it is possible to shed a little more light on the “creative secret” of design and thereby promote the finding of ideas.

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Spatial inventory and idea

Mapping: site characteristics and sorting Exhibition of pictures from the chain of exchange

On-site animation from the quadrant Chain of exchange, starting with a potted linden tree

Summer semester 2008, main course, lecture, 2nd exercise: “Formulate your own approach for your chosen quadrant of Hanover. Collecting, arranging, discussing, and documenting (mapping) may lead you to a first idea. Test your approach in reality and document the results.” Work by Dorothee Quentin

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The often-described observation that after the emptiness comes a “So that’s what it is! Now I know, now I get it” and the amazement, that what has been understood was not clear earlier, indicates a process, an event, in which a “something” makes its own way and is suddenly comprehended. This is where brain research speculates, that just before the mind grasps the matter, the feeling was already there and we therefore have the impression, that what is new was always there.17 The process to that point is apparently neither purely cognitive nor neutral, but rather to a great degree accompanied by feelings, inklings, intuition, astonishment, empathy and appreciation. By familiarizing myself with texts by and about Hans-Georg Gadamer18 I was able to systematically locate this process and my own experiences and observations as a process of understanding and to advance a step closer to the “divine spark” as a confluence of mind and being. Gadamer’s hermeneutics as well as his understanding of history lead to the proposition that understanding and creative finding of ideas occur in one and the same process simultaneously: “understanding as creativity”. Research in other disciplines like psychology, neurology, complexity theory, mathematics, physics and scientific theory thereby built a “ bridge” to Gadamer’s cognition and modes of cognition. His discussion of “cognition as recognition” has parallels in the natural sciences, where, in connection with the new, the development of the “processes of unfolding of the potential inherent in the cosmos”, or the “emergence of the new from the existing”19 is discussed. Can design be put on a theoretical foundation with this viewpoint and my own as well, as observations of creative processes of understanding? Could understanding, with its different facets, also be thought of as a bridge between disciplines? This might be a courageous undertaking, because on the one hand understanding has a long tradition in the vernacular, while on the other hand as a description of a specific process of cognition it has a far flung history extending into philosophy, psychology and the social sciences. In natural sciences and engineering understanding is used differently, namely in the sense of “objective” explanation. However let us take the step and make understanding fruitful for the design of space as well as look for a bridge between the disciplines via understanding. A “test run“ to check the validity of this idea was the interdisciplinary workshop jointly developed with Julia Werner, with representatives from philosophy, psychology, sociology, urban planning, landscape architecture and art in April, 2005: Understanding: A Dialogue. Our questions were: Can a “theoretical frame of reference for the process of design” be formulated with hermeneutic understanding, based on Gadamer? Does a successful understanding, understood as a creative process of cognition, indicate an objectively new step of development for the relevant situation, the location, the time, the question posed, and the persons involved? Can a theory and modes of proceeding be thereby developed from the understanding, making the idea a likely candidate for the new? Can understanding operate as a bridge theory for interdisciplinary collaboration?20 Great interest, many misunderstandings and convergences in transdisciplinary understanding showed that the ball had to be first played back to the individual disciplines. That is the genesis of the lecture series Creating Knowledge in the Sprengel Museum in Hanover. Starting from designing and planning in the disciplines of spatial design we posed the questions: How does new knowledge enter the world? How does one move from non linear, complex initial inventory status to ideas? Can the process of understanding be grasped as creativity, and is it suitable as a “bridge”? How do different disciplines find, discover, design, and shape knowledge? Is daily knowledge, knowledge of the lifeworld, separate from scientific knowledge? What does experience mean, or explanation or understanding? How does a natural science understanding of knowledge relate today to philosophical or psychological knowledge? What role does the body play? How does the discovery and shaping of the new manifest itself in landscape architecture, art, psychology and philosophy?

After being reworked by their authors the following texts emerged from the presentations, which we have assembled under the title of Understanding and Creativity: The Gadamer expert Jean Grondin from Montreal demonstrates how understanding according to Gadamer develops and sounds out parallels, points of overlap and points of contact to current understandings of science. The literary scholar Anne Peiter explains the artistic process of understanding of the painter Trude Fumo using two of her pictures and relates that proc­ess to Fumo’s etymological interpretation of understanding. The theory of science specialist, Hans Poser integrates creativity in the complexity sciences as a “new world view“. As a neuro-scientist Gerald Hüther shows how the potential and desire to learn and design something new develops, is lost and can be found again throughout life. The special meaning the body has for cognitive processes is what the psycho-therapist Gustl Marlock calls the “knowledge of the body”. The neurologist, psychoanalyst and philosopher Hinderk M. Emrich explores in depth the questions of the emergence of knowledge and sounds the chords of a philosophy of cognition, neuro-science, mimesis and art to confirm the thesis: Understanding is creativity and is thereby a means of creating knowledge. The art historian, Beatrice von Bismarck, demonstrates the problematic extension and economic appropriation of the creative person and taking the example of curatorial acting, shows which strategies could be suited, to retain (and reclaim) freedom for the creative view in the current social organization.

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Notes been developed since 2003 in collaboration with Julia Werner. A joint understanding of design began to emerge, as we develop it in this book. 2 Nowotny, Helga: “Designing as Working Knowledge”, on p. 43 of the present volume. 3 Traufetter, Gerald: Intuition. Die Weisheit der Gefühle. Hamburg 2007, p. 249 4 See also Krull, Wilhelm, on p. 40 of this volume 5 Holm-Hadulla, Rainer M.: Kreativität. Konzept und Lebensstil. Göttingen 2005/2007 6 Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: „Verstehen. Oder: Wie kommt Neues in die Welt?“ In: Anthos 04/03, pp. 48–51 7 U. a. Lassus, Bernard: “Die Erfindung des ‚espace propre’” In: Weilacher, Udo: Zwischen Landschaftsarchitektur und Landart. Basel/Berlin/Boston 1999, pp. 105–120 8 Lassus, Bernard: The Landscape Approach. Philadelphia 1998, p. 50; Lassus first speaks of minimal intervention in 1981, inspired amongst other things by the discoveries due to the chaos theory. 9 Ohrt, Roberto: Phantom Avantgarde. Eine Geschichte der Situationistischen Internationale und der modernen Kunst. Hamburg 1997 (2nd ed.); also: Levin, Thomas Y.: “Der Urbanismus der Situationisten”. In: arch plus 139/140 pp. 70–82 10 Norberg-Schulz, Christian: Genius Loci. Landschaft, Lebensraum. Stuttgart 1982 11 Ritter, Markus/Schmitz, Martin (ed.): Warum ist Landschaft schön?: Die Spaziergangswissenschaft von Lucius Burckhard. Berlin 2006 12 archplus 183: Situativer Urbanismus. Zu einer beiläufigen Form des Sozialen. Aachen, May 2007 13 See Bunschoten, Raoul/Doherty, Gary: „Comhrá Karten, Conmany, Irland“. In: Topos 47/2004, pp. 70–78 14 See: Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung (ed.)/Seggern, Hille von et. al: Systemische Planung. Materialien zur Raumentwicklung Nr. 82, 1997. The principle of “in the small as in the large” is a component of our understanding of design. See Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Focus: Innovative Strategies in Landscape Design”, on p. 152–163 of the present volume 15 James Corner: “The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention”. In: Cosgrove, Denis (Ed.): Mappings. London 1999, p. 217 16 Köstler, Arthur: Der göttliche Funke. Berne/Munich/Vienna 1966 17 See among others: Singer, Wolf: Der Beobachter im Gehirn. Frankfurt 2002; also: Roth, Gerhard: Aus Sicht des Gehirns. Frankfurt 2003 18 Dostal, Robert J. (Ed.): The Cambridge Companion to Gadamer. Cambridge 2002; Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Wahrheit und Methode. 1960; Grondin, Jean (Ed.): Gadamer Lesebuch. Tübingen 1987 19 Seggern, Hille von: “Entwerfen lehren: Bestand verstehen oder die Frage: Wie kommt Neues in die Welt?“ In: Eckerle, Eberhard/Wolschke-Bulmahn, Joachim (ed.): Landschaft – Architektur – Design. Munich 2006. pp. 255–261 20 Excerpt from a invitation leaflet for a workshop on April 21, 2005

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1 The thoughts expressed here concerning creativity, understanding and the connection to the idea-finding process in design have

People create space Choreography

Summer semester 2007, Bachelor in the 2nd semester, 4th exercise in the framework of Studio-lecture “Open space and designing:” Choreography on the Küchengartenplatz: A dance through space. “Choreography I: Form as exactly as possible a diagonal from the checkpoint over the surface with the whole group; looking in the direction of the theatre…” “Choreography II: Everyone leaves the position, which had been created in the previous choreography and the group spreads out over the entire ‘stage’ of the Küchengartenplatz…” Instructors: Hille von Seggern, Sabine Rabe

Choreography I: standing diagonal, running diagonal , Choreography II: Corridor diagonal, the plaza diffuse

Choreo I graphy. Chore, from the Greek, chora “open place, space, surface, land” 1. A unified landscape, which is distinguished from its environs. 2. The line surrounding the chore, chorea “dance in chorus” and so on. Choreography 3. Artistic design and establishment of the steps and movements of a ballet. (from the DUDEN, the great foreign word dictionary, Mannheim, 2000)

What Does Understanding Mean?

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The Perspectives of Heidegger and Gadamer

Those who use the word “hermeneutics” today run the risk of losing their listeners or readers. Too often, it is limited to a circle of specialists. Yet, its scope is enormous since it deals with all forms of understanding. So it might be useful to give a brief sketch of this discipline. Since antiquity, the study of understanding and “Auslegungslehre” (lit., laying out, or interpretation) has been called hermeneutics. In general, it was the study of the correct interpretation, especially of texts. Three different hermeneutics conceptions, which developed in the history of ideas,1 can be distinguished: First there is or was, what one can call the classical conception of hermeneutics. It goes back to antiquity and was at times known as ars interpretandi, the art of interpretation. This teaching or art was developed within the disciplines that were concerned with the interpretation of texts, especially with authoritative texts which therefore always had to be reinterpreted. There was a hermeneutica sacra in theology for the interpretation of the bible, a hermeneutica juris in law for the correct interpretation of legal texts and finally a hermeneutica profana in philology for texts of the classical study of antiquity. Hermeneutics was thereby understood as a helping discipline in the sense that it was used to aid an already existing practice of interpretation, for instance the explication of ambiguous passages, the so-called ambigua. This kind of hermeneutics was for the most part normatively oriented: it sought to provide rules and canons for the correct interpretation of texts. Most of these rules originated from the more established discipline of rhetoric, within which hermeneutics could often be found. That is more or less the case with Quintilian (30–100), who treats the exègèsis (enarratio) in his De institutione oratoria (I, 9), but also Augustine (354–430), who collected rules for the interpretation of the bible in his De doctrina christiana (396–426), a work that has exerted an enormous influence on the history of hermeneutics. This rhetorical hermeneutic tradition enjoyed an important revival with the rise of Protestantism, which produced many new hermeneutic handbooks, which were mostly located in the rhetorical tradition of Melanchthon (1519). This tradition, for which hermeneutics is a normative and methodical scientific aid, was maintained until Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834). Schleiermacher still belonged to this tradition, but his draft of a universal hermeneutics is the precursor of a second basic conception of hermeneutics, which is especially associated with the name of Wilhelm Dilthey (1833–1911): Dilthey of course knew the older hermeneutic tradition, which he presupposes2, but he adds a new task to it: if hermeneutics had been involved with the rules and methods of the science of understanding, it could now be called upon to serve as a methodological basis for all the humanities (therefore for philology, history, theology, philosophy and the group of sciences which one sometimes calls the social sciences, which however Dilthey still knew under the curious sounding name of “Staatswissenschaften” (political sciences). That meant a migration of the sphere of activity for hermeneutics. It was no longer conceived as an aid for the interpretation of texts, but rather as a basic methodological reflection of the humanities which was intended to secure its claim to truth. This assumes that the humanities require a unified methodology. This need for a methodology must be seen against the background of the triumphant march of the natural sciences in the nineteenth century. Are the humanities as scientific as the natural sciences? This seemed then (and still seems

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today) to be more than doubtful. If they want to be scientific, they should satisfy the basic conditions of any science. What was then the basis of success for a science? The answer from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was almost unanimous: the stringency of its methods. In comparison to the natural sciences the humanities come up relatively short from this standpoint. If they want to establish themselves as respectable sciences, they should base themselves on a method, whose elaboration draws on the old and at the same time the new discipline of hermeneutics. The third, distinct hermeneutics conception arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, in part as a reaction to this methodological view. It fundamentally embraces the form of a universal philosophy of interpretation. Its basic idea (which is already sketched out in the late work of Dilthey) is that understanding and interpretation are not just methods that characterize the humanities, they form rather fundamental processes one encounters in the midst of life. Understanding is therefore not just the name for the understanding of scientific interpretation of texts; it is also the common denominator of our experience of the world, in that we are creatures of understanding. Understanding and interpretation appear on the one hand as a basic characteristic of our “being-in-the world.” This unheard of expansion of the meaning of interpretation is responsible for the increase in significance and visibility of hermeneutics as philosophy in the 20th century. The advancement of hermeneutics has two great inspirators. One is an anonymous spokesman named Nietzsche, who is anonymous because he did not speak a lot about hermeneutics, although he elaborated a general philosophy of interpretation. The other and official representative is Heidegger, who represents a completely new conception of hermeneutics: for him hermeneutics does not deal primarily with texts, but rather with existence itself, which always unfolds in the midst of interpretations, which are also susceptible of being sorted out. In other words, existence is already hermeneutic, as Heidegger explains: “it is capable of being interpreted, in need of being interpreted and interpretedness belongs somehow to its existence.”3 A large scale “hermeneutics of existence,” which aims to draw the attention of existence to itself, to invoke itself and its possible authentic existence is at stake here. Most representatives of the new hermeneutics are located in the continuity of Heidegger (one thinks here of Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900–2002), Paul Ricoeur (1913–2005) and their heirs), to the extent that they represent a general, philosophical conception of hermeneutics. As a rule they have not directly taken Heidegger’s path of a “hermeneutics of exist­ence” and its possible authentic existence. Rather, they have renewed the dialogue with the humanities that was initiated by Dilthey, which Heidegger had more or less left behind. They are thereby renewing the tradition of Schleiermacher and Dilthey, without, however, subscribing to the idea that hermeneutics has a primarily methodological function in that regard. That was the guiding idea of Gadamer’s main work Wahrheit and Methode (1960): A hermeneutic conception that only treats the understanding as a process subject to method, is missing its object. Because understanding is not primarily a process of cognition, but is “existential,” one that is a main determinant of our existence. After this explanation of the three possible hermeneutics conceptions I would like to now raise the question: was heißt verstehen, or what does understanding mean? Bearing in mind the nice double sense that Heidegger brought to the formulation “was heißt …?” (what is (it) called), when he gave one of his books the title: Was heißt denken? “Heißen” (to be called) was thereby understood in the sense of: “Ich heiße sie willkommen” (literally, I call you welcome, or I welcome you). Therefore, the sense of Was heißt denken? should be: What brings us to understanding? What does understanding mean, then? I would like to focus here on Gadamer, the great representative of philosophical hermeneutics. Gadamer speaks at first very generally about un-

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derstanding. It is “the original form in which our existence unfolds,”4 he says. Since that is a conceivably vague formulation, I would like to attempt in the following to explain his conception of understanding, and thereby make it more understandable, and in conclusion to make some reflections considering the problem addressed in the present lecture series. In a first approximation one can view “understanding” as an “intellectual grasping.” This involves a comprehensive or cognitive procedure. If one understands, one grasps something, in the sense that one sees more clearly, as when a dark spot becomes illuminated, or when one is able to locate something in a greater whole. In the vernacular one then says that one “gets” it. I would like to call this the elementary or cognitive view of understanding, because it was considered as self-evident in traditional hermeneutics. Dilthey for instance understood understanding as the procedure, which is common to all the understanding humanities: in understanding an expression is referred back to an experience, which is relived in the understanding. His hermeneutics wanted to provide a methodology of just this understanding. Gadamer asks here whether what is really needed is a methodology of this understanding. Because intellectual grasping actually has something subtle about it (the tradition speaks of the subtilitas intellegendi). It is also this subtle sense of understanding that one presupposes when one sees that someone does not understand something. I think of the nice English expression: “He doesn’t get it” or “I get it.” In German one says: “Er kapiert’s nicht”. That is also a part of understanding: either one understands something, or not, and all the rules in order to achieve that are for naught. Therefore, a methodological doctrine isn’t enough for Gadamer. This kind of understanding stands in the continuity of the latin intellegere, whereby the intellectual grasping of meaning is meant. I cannot avoid evoking in this context the popular etymology, which Thomas of Aquinas casually suggested for intellegere. It is wrong, but expressive and has something illuminating. “Intellegere,” he says, “est quasi intus legere”5: Understanding is something like “reading in the inside.” If one could read something from the inside out, then one had understood it. Two aspects are important for that: first the inside. One must penetrate to the inside of something (like a landscape or landscape architecture), in order to understand it; secondly, one must “lesen” (to read, but also to pick or glean), i. e, go through it slowly and to innerly “wiederkäuen” (ruminate), to use a word that the philologist Nietzsche liked a great deal. And Lesen also harbors the Gärenlassen (to let ferment), which is especially well known and practiced by vintners. One must allow wine to ferment and the result is a good Auslese (selection). Traditionally, understanding the intellegere was mostly viewed as the consequence of the act of interpretation (explicare); if one was confronted with an obscure passage, one made use of an interpretation which was intended to provide understanding. Therefore, there was a teleological relation (which the hermeneuticist Emilio Betti especially emphasized), or an endsmeans relationship between the interpretation (explicatio) and the understanding (intellectio): the one was viewed as a consequence of the other. If one confronts an obscure passage, which causes difficulty in understanding, one says “I don’t understand,” in the sense of “I can’t see the point.” Then one looked for an interpretation or someone that would “explain” it, so that one could finally “understand”: “Now I get it,” I can continue reading, I see the point. In the vernacular one speaks of a “so, that’s it” experience (“aha”, in German). I “can” understand. One notices thereby, that the understanding is connected with a Können (to be able). The nice German figure of speech “sich auf etwas verstehen” (to be very good at something) expresses that. One is good at dancing, the other is good at this or that. What is envisioned here, is not that one knows something theoretically, but simply that one “can” something, like one can speak a language, or swim. The understanding is therefore not purely cognitive, it is also a capability.

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How does understanding arise, when one says that one is good at something? That is the crucial point. Gadamer’s answer here is that understanding has more the character of an “event” and less of something that can be learned. Understand just “occurs.” This idea is so important for Gadamer, that at first he played with the thought of giving his book the title Verstehen and Geschehen (Understanding and Event). He wanted to make clear, as he wrote in Wahrheit and Methode, “how much occurrence is effective in all understanding,”6 and therefore how little the understanding can be systemized and made to conform to rules. In order to emphasize this aspect, at the end of his life he said occasionally: “Understanding means being incapable of explaining.”7 Therefore, what is meant is that when one understands, one is so taken with it, so swept away, that one cannot really explain what happened. It is as if one were in a spell. The formulation leads almost to a reversal of the classical usage, according to which one must at first explain in order to understand. Understanding only happened, according to this traditional conception, as the consequence of the interpretation. Gadamer stresses the opposite: in a certain sense, understanding is an inability to explain. That means that one is so taken up by an understanding than one cannot explain what is happening. We all know the experience that we sometimes have in sleep. My best ideas come to me during the night, the best formulations, the most appropriate words, etc. Everything is so clear that one is certain that there is no need to write it down, because one will, of course, remember it the next morning. Some readers will have had the same experience: early in the morning one has forgotten everything and searches in vain for a vestige of the insight, which had been so illuminating. Understanding has something to do with illuminatio, illumination. It also happens when we jot down notes about our ideas. One places a notepad next to the bed in order to record the nocturnal insights. But the next morning one can hardly decipher them. That is how it is with the event of understanding. We cannot really explain something unless we have understood it. Perhaps one will reply that that is “unscientific”, purely intuitive, and that this does not help at all to explain the scientific nature of understanding, where there are rules and one can follow a methodical line of argument (always this “can!”). That may be, but Gadamer would then ask: is scientific understanding itself as scientific, as it appears? Is it simply methodical? Gadamer has nothing against method as such. It would of course be foolish to prescribe for science how it should proceed. In the case of understanding, the point is to be clear about the limits of the method and that which can be subjected to method. More important is the idea that this by no means entails a loss for the experience of the truth. Gadamer’s main concern in Wahrheit and Methode, was precisely to justify and make perceptible experiences of truth, which are located beyond the area of control of modern methods and which can even perhaps be found within the methodical knowledge. (As is known, the founder himself of the modern method idea, Descartes, referred to an inner experience: “cogito, sum,” which is in itself evident and doesn’t depend on a method.) Therefore, there are experiences of truth or models of understanding, which lie beyond the method, but which guarantee the truth. In order to make this clear, Gadamer glady appealed to the model of art. We can of course “understand” art, at least in part. But that certainly does not mean an understanding that one can methodically subject to rules. There is of course expertise, and supposedly there are experts, who understand more about art than others. But it would be foolish to maintain that only they understand something about art. There is another nice German figure of speech: “Ich verstehe etwas davon” (I understand something about that). What is meant is: I understand something about it, but not everything. This pertains especially to art, about which Adorno has written: “One can not say that someone understands art, at the most, that he understand something about art.”8 For art has about it something mysterious, which is also part of its attraction. What does one understand, if one understands music, if one can follow a poem or a novel or if one looks at a

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beautiful garden? Gadamer’s answer here is insightful: One shares in something that appeals to us, and that demands an answer. In this answer, Gadamer contends, lies the understanding of art. One shares in something, but one masters nothing. It is the modern conception which compels us to equate understanding with a form of mastery. In French, grasping and understanding are not differentiated as they are in German. They are both called comprendre, from the Latin comprehendere: “zusammenfassen”, or sum up. For Gadamer, understanding is anything but a mastery or being the master of something. Understanding is much more the participation in something sensible that appeals to us. Who could ever say, that he masters À la recherche du temps perdu or a painting by Dürer or Velasquez? Nonetheless, one understands something “about it.” Something appeals to us. There is a book by Gadamer with the title Gedicht and Gespräch (1990: Poem and Dialogue): Something is “dictated” to us by a work of poetry and we thereby enter into a dialogue. We answer, and the result of this answer is the understanding of art. Therefore, there is a truth experience in understanding, which has something to do with the fact that we allow ourselves to be appealed to. Gadamer thereby disassociates himself from the idea, that one be detached from oneself, in order to view things purely objectively. That was the “old recipe” of the older hermeneutics; in order to guarantee the objectivity of understanding, one should shut out the subjective aspect as much as possible.9 Gadamer views this as somehow non sensical: one wants to understand, yet without being a part of what is understood. But one only always understands when one is present to what is understood, when one is there, that means when one is affected or appealed to. Gadamer refers here to the so-called “hermeneutic circle”, which is a key element of the hermeneutic philosophy. This circle assumes different forms for hermeneutics (part/whole, understanding /construing). In the case of text interpretation, the circle is the circle there is between the understanding and the drafts of meaning that guide it. To make it somewhat clearer: one always understands with certain preconditions (or even prejudices), which cannot be completely shut out, because they articulate what has been understood. I am always there with my prior knowledge, with my experiences, when I understand something. Heidegger speaks here about the Vorhabe, the Vorsicht and the Vorgriff (fore-having, foresight, and fore-conception) that guide every understanding. Therefore, there is no understanding without Vorhabe (pretraining, prior experience), Vorsicht (in the sense of a preliminary draft) and Vorgriff (hypothesis); in short, without anticipations of meaning. According to the old recipes of objectivity in the humanities, one should refrain from this predisposition as much as possible, in order to view the matter as freely of prejudice as possible. Not only is that out of the question, according to Heidegger and Gadamer, it involves a deformation of the understanding. The conclusion of Heidegger’s analysis is famous: the point is not so much, “to get out of this circle, but rather to enter it in the proper way.”10 But what does that mean? For Heidegger it meant that one should make an effort to work out the right preconceptions. According to Heidegger the understanding can become conscious of its preconceptions (in an understanding of the understanding which he called “interpretation”). According to him, in every understanding a possibility of myself is implied, which awaits to be unfolded. Therefore, the task is to work them out specifically, in the name of an ever more original understanding. From his standpoint Gadamer emphasizes less the possibility of a critical working out of one’s prejudices. Our finiteness forbids the dream of a final explanation of our bias. He draws another conclusion from Heidegger’s analysis of the hermeneutic circle: the circle belongs so much to the structure of understanding, that it would be misguided to want to suspend it entirely. It is much more important to recognize that this circle represents an indispensable characteristic of

every understanding. The understanding then reveals itself as a dialogue that we share with our questions, cares and interests. In this dialogue, Gadamer says, the horizon of the understanding person “fuses” together with that which he understands. That is the key to his famous notion of a “fusion of horizons”. With understanding, the point is not to “project” oneself in the horizon of a distant time. Understanding can better be described as the occurrence of a “fusion of horizons”, in which the present and the past continuously coalesce11: I can not understand Plato, Rembrandt or even a landscape, without understanding it from my present. In the understanding one cannot really distinguish what comes from us and what comes from the matter that we understand. As is the case with the experience of art, the horizon of the understanding person fusions here, as it were, with what fulfills him. With Gadamer the understanding appears as a “being taken into an event of tradition.” In one of his most famous texts he writes: “Understanding itself is not to be thought of so much as an action of the subjectivity, but rather as a being taken into an event of tradition, in which the past and the present continually determine themselves. That is the point that should be stressed in hermeneutic theory, which is ruled far too much by the idea of a process, a method.” The understanding is then characterized as a “being taken into an event of tradition.” The question then arises about about the problem of the creating of knowledge, which indeed is the subject of the publication.

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One first has the impression, that Gadamer’s conception yields little for the problem of creativity. Its accent appears to lie more clearly on the past and the event of tradition, so that creativity appears to come up a bit short. Understanding is less the new discovery of meaning, as the being taken up by an event (or a “play”) of tradition. However, a closer look yields something that can be gained from Gadamer’s conception of understanding for the creation of knowledge. Very briefly I would like to sum up these teachings that can be derived from hermeneutics, and offer them for discussion: 1. Gadamer maintains that the past and the present coalesce in every understanding. Therefore the present always has a say. That is the aspect where the creation of knowledge comes into play: The knowledge is only in the present, in the current event of understanding. Gadamer calls that the application or the applicatio, which formerly was an important component of hermeneutics. One spoke of applicatio, when the interpreter of Holy Scripture had to apply the meaning he had understood to the present situation of his faithful, or when the judge had to apply a law and a jurisprudence to a concrete case. No application is like another, in that the understanding means an encounter, that is, a unique fusion between the past and the present that is my present. Understanding is always unique and occurs in the first person, which is to this extent always “creative,” i.e., to the extent that it unfolds its understanding out of its own possibilities and presuppositions, which can be meaningful, or eye-opening, for those who understand out of other presuppositions. “Therefore,” Gadamer writes, “understanding is not a just reproductive, but always productive behavior.”12 2. Furthermore it seems important to me to emphasize the other side, namely, that understanding is always a fusion of present and past. That means: there is no creation of knowledge without a constitutive connection to the past. This is important in two ways: first every creation of knowledge must have some past as a backdrop, in order to be visible as a new creation; secondly, since we are not gods, it is hard to imagine a creation to imagine that would have nothing to do with the past. That is often forgotten in our time, modernity, whose notion is predicated on the idea of a new beginning. Is it all that matters? Perhaps the new is not really so new or creative, as it looks or believes itself to be.

jean Grondin

Consequences for the creation of knowledge

3. I would like to give a more concrete twist to Gadamer’s idea of a “fusion of the present and past”. We saw that understanding always means to come into a dialogue with something. There is no understanding without this “dialogue” which implies a back and forth. This dialogical element is an appeal to our creativity: we have to find a new language, or a relatively new language, for something if it is to be understood. Understanding not only derives from tradition, it originates in the understanding of our present, which through its own language creatively contributes to the formulation of meaning. 4. According to Gadamer, understanding is an event which cannot entirely be mastered methodically. That is also probably the case for the creation of knowledge itself. If one would like to design a purely methodical process for this creation of knowledge, there would be the danger that one would suffocate the power of imagination and freedom. Without them, there is no creation of knowledge.

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Notes 1 Comp.: Grondin, Jean: “L’herméneutique.” In: Que sais-je?. No. 3758, Paris 2006; Grondin, Jean: Einführung in die philosophische

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Hermeneutik. Darmstadt 2001 2 Comp. Rodi, Frithjof: „Drei Bemerkungen zu Diltheys Aufsatz ‚Die Entstehung der Hermeneutik’“. In: Revue internationale de philosophie. Nr. 57, 2003, pp. 425–438 3 Heidegger, Martin: Ontologie. Hermeneutik der Faktizität. Complete Edition, vol. 63. Frankfurt/Main 1988, p. 15 4 Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Wahrheit und Methode (1960). Collected Works, Vol. 1. Tübingen 1986, p. 264; from now on cited as: Wahrheit und Methode 5 Aquinas, Thomas: De veritate, I, art. XII, responsio. 6 Wahrheit und Methode, p. 3 7 Cited from: Grondin, Jean: Einführung zu Gadamer. Tübingen 2000, p. 23 8 Adorno, Theodor W.: Ästhetische Theorie. Frankfurt/Main 1970 9 Comp. Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Hermeneutische Entwürfe. Tübingen 2000, p. 42 10 Heidegger, Martin: Sein und Zeit. 11th, unrevised edition, Tübingen 1967, § 32, p. 153 11 See Wahrheit und Methode, p. 311 (highlighted by Gadamer): “Understanding is much more the process of fusion of such putatively independent horizons.” 12 Wahrheit und Methode, S. 301

Artistic Processes of Understanding Among Language, Sign and Image

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Selected Pictures by Trude Fumo

Anne D. Peiter

The work of the German-Italian artist Trude Fumo (1939–2006) moves between two poles: on the one hand, characters, words, derivations gleaned from the semantic history of the German language, and, strikingly, whole texts – for example, notes on dreams or literary quotes – pervade her canvasses; on the other hand, painterly material in the narrower sense is proffered in which the human body, often dissected and split up into individual organs and extremities, predominates. As a third, additional element, large swathes of color appear that hark back to a palette of primary colors, especially red, blue, yellow and black. 2 Mere enumeration of the building blocks from which Fumo’s pictures are put together makes one aware that the viewer must operate on different levels at the same time, making connections which the painter in a manner withholds from him. For Fumo’s pictures know no center, nor do they proceed from a midpoint to which the other elements are respectively subordinate. On the contrary: characteristic of her painterly idiom is a radical decentralization effected through a multiplicity of contiguous unities that, prima facia, appear to remain entirely independent of each other. This means though that the viewer must become active in a specific way in his endeavour to render the pictures legible. Here, legible means two things. First, the viewer must not understand the picture to be the antithesis of script and text; second, he must comprehend the transitions arising between image, sign and script, as they each debouch into the other. One could say that on Fumo’s canvasses we are met with a condensation of the entire history of writing and script, in so far as the stages which run analogously through various cultures are here invoked once again as a synchronous event. This also explains why signs and scripts from different ages and countries can become sources of inspiration for Fumo: whether they are Egyptian hieroglyphs or Neolithic symbols, the Latin alphabet or Chinese pictograms, picture and script overlap time and again, challenging the viewer to bid adieu to those habitual modes of perception that would present as separate worlds the levels of language picture and picture language mentioned above. In contrast, the complexity of Fumo’s painting consists of a paratactic order (i.e., the juxtaposition of “and”, “and” and “and”) which, in a first step, is doubtless to be taken seriously, but which, in a second step, can not remain mere propinquity. Swathes of color and lines involuntarily sponsor connections, correspondences establish themselves between word and picture elements and, in the end, an oscillatory motion is initiated, whose effect on the pictures is to endue them with a decidedly hypotactic structure. Hypotaxis means here though that sometimes the script, sometimes the symbol, sometimes the picture dominates, depending on what the viewer is concentrating on at any given moment and which narrative order he wishes to create between the multiple pictures within the one picture. These fundamental considerations on the development the viewer undergoes in confronting Fumo’s painting – from the impression of a logic of disconnectedness, of chaos even, to an intricate interlacement of realms which initially insist on their autonomy – are of importance for an approach to Fumo’s concept of understanding, or, in the German, “Verstehen.” “Verstehen” constitutes the thematic core of both pictures reproduced in this volume. As elsewhere in

Anne Peiter

“Don’t always press on to the last. There is so much in between.”1

The present tense in MHG, OHG of stēn, stān are probably influenced by the corresponding MHG, OHG forms of gēn, gān (from h go). In contrast the forms of the simple past (NHG, stand, gestanden) belong to the Proto-Germanic root *stand- “stehen” […]5

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her work, Fumo’s pronounced interest in the history of language is evident. In the first picture (s. p. 100, above) the painter repeats the process that precedes what I have designated as “interlacement” and “the sponsoring of continuities”: she takes apart, she disassembles, she strips down. That which distinguishes the picture as a whole is repeated on the level of the language elements, i.e., in the microstructure of the picture: the elements which comprise the word “verstehen” are separated from each other, and their individual meanings are unpacked. Not without justification is the prefix “ver” of central importance: its connection to the indogermanic “per” is underscored and its meaning in the Duden etymological dictionary3 – and by turns in Fumo’s picture – is paraphrased as “hinübergehen” (“to go or cross over; to die”). Fumo does not simply confine herself to writing this word as “information” on her picture. She rather surrenders herself to a species of redundance: the repetition of the prefix at different locations. From a visual standpoint, it is precisely these locations that are especially significative: the “ver” along with the verb “hinübergehen” represents a demarcation, or, more precisely, the prefix moves in the direction of the demarcation, it makes the demarcation porous. Thus, one sees on the left side of the picture the contours of what can be made out as a female figure (a vagina symbol borrowed from medical books is discernible), lying, it seems, in a kind of sarcophagus. This sarcophagus encloses the body in such a manner as to make every step towards the outside a thing of impossibility. The prefix “ver” is written in red, luminous script on the box and is, as it were, defying the existing demarcation. In this way, language stands in opposition to the image of being enclosed or locked in. What one must also bear in mind is that both prefix and the verb circulate freely in the space of the entire picture. Sometimes they can be read in a horizontal position from left to right, sometimes they are upside down, sometimes they describe a vertical line from bottom to top. One could say the script rotates. This observation makes reference, then, to the creative process that accompanies the genesis of the picture. Not only does the script rotate, the painter rotates too, while working on various sections of her picture. In the moment she approaches her picture, which is lying on the floor in front of her, in the direction which corresponds to the way the picture will later hang, she gains, in the next moment, a completely new perspective, she sees her picture “the wrong way around.” For Fumo, the direction in which the picture is facing is no longer clear already before the picture is really “there.” The picture turned around is turned around and turned around in turn, simultaneously drawing the person in who causes this movement in the first instance. Painting is not just an intellectual process, but becomes a physical experience: one that dictates that, to be able to paint, one must stand on the picture and walk around on it in order to see to what extent it can grow in a new, serendipitous direction. In point of fact, the outlines of her feet, primed in luminous blue, can actually be seen on the second picture: they mark the spot where she stood on the picture (s. p. 100, below). In this relation, then, more connections gather themselves to the word “verstehen.” The verb “stehen” (to stand) describes, according to one's general feel for language, a state. Whoever is standing, is not in motion. However, by virtue of the fact that Fumo does not subordinate the prefix of the word “verstehen” to its root, indeed one is of the impression that the relation is inverted and that it is the prefix that is more important, a state is adjudged to include a significant aspect of movement. “Verstehen” and “stehen” share to a certain degree a self-identity with the “gehen” (to go) and “hinübergehen”, but state and movement are even more selfreferential: they are dependant on each other.4 This is also how the Duden describes it:

Understanding I – 2001 acrylic, chalk on canvas 1.40 m x 2.50 m

Understanding II – 2003 acrylic, chalk on canvas 2.60 m x 1.00 m

My work deals with the concept of “comprendere”, in German, verstehen, a word that is composed of two parts: the verb stehen, which means that one occupies a specific point, and the prefix ver, which means to go over (hinübergehen). Verstehen means, then, “occupying a position,” followed by “leaving behind all expectations and knowledge, creating an empty space” and, finally, “going over.” These three steps make quite plain what it is I am doing. Between the moment of standing and that of going over, there is an empty space into which something new can enter. Were I not to utilize this space, I would always be carrying around with me that which I already know, and no process would occur in which I understand something new. I also utilize the dimension of the empty space on the canvas in order to give the viewer the opportunity to enter into it. Moreover, there is no hierarchy on the canvas. On the contrary, it can appear chaotic at first glance. This supposed chaos serves in my opinion to render the viewer insecure so that he can’t immediately rely on what the canvas is saying; he is forced probe himself, his own stehen, in order to initiate his own process of verstehen.6 Here, a further element comes into play, namely the emptiness which traverses the different phases into which Fumo organizes the process of understanding. Emptiness presupposes a moment of calm, of standing. Were the “going over” to set in right at the beginning of painting, then, according to Fumo’s conviction, the same painterly cosmos would come into being. In order to be surprised by one’s own pictures and in the same moment to be also able to transmit the experience of something new to the viewer, it is necessary to take the canvas as a blank sheet seriously. To arrive at this state, Fumo sets great store in the beginning of the painterly process: the preparation of the canvas. While she used pre-stretched and pre-primed canvasses in her early works, she later developed very different systems of hanging and priming that are all characterized by a certain degree of provisionality: the interim arrangement, the not-yet-fixed gets foregrounded. That in these details, which at first glance appear to be mere “technical” questions, inheres an unimaginably great creative potential, is shown when one follows Fumo’s work through the years. She works with a system of hooks by which the canvas can fall downwards in a loose and wave-like fashion. Out of this renunciation of smoothness there arises in what follows the idea of inserting metal rings in the upper edge of the canvas at intervals such that the canvas can actually be folded. In other pictures a metal rod runs through the upper edge, with a similar result.8 The picture becomes a compact object that not only occupies a surface, but also becomes three dimensional. The dialectic of “folding” and “unfolding” now becomes a determining interest.9 In a further step the canvas frees itself completely from the wall and, fixed by a hook hanging from the ceiling, floats as a regular sculpture in the room: with the aid of safety pins of different sizes the folds are fixed and kept from unfurling. The symbol of the vagina, which has heretofore appeared as a painted element in the pictures, now becomes palpable: a sculpture one can walk around and look into.10 In sketching these different techniques of dealing with the canvas, I do not intend to establish a hierarchy among them, rather I would like to make clear what Fumo alludes to in her interview when she says that the creation of an empty space is fundamental for the genesis of the new. What applies to the oeuvre, applies to the individual picture. This is borne out quite nicely in the example of the second picture (s. p. 100, below). Numerous arrows originating in the figure marked with the number one lead us to the aforementioned blue circle with the feet. Prior to making their way to the rim of the bright blue square, they have not yet morphed into arrows; rather they form layers of garments about the female body. When they begin to travel out from

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This ambivalent flitting back and forth between two opposing meanings allows one to comprehend anew how the picture comes into being. In an interview published in the catalog of a collective exhibition in which Fumo participated in 2005, she expresses herself, in answer to the question about the interaction between her and the viewers, thus:

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the body and, traversing the menacing black swath, advance, with the intensity of their colours still intact, towards the point of standing, that is towards the feet, this is tantamount to the arrows annulling their contract with prescribed forms and venturing forth into emptiness. Asked about her frequent use of clothing symbols, Fumo said: “L’abito è l’identificazione. Si nasce già con l’abito, e a mio avviso la vita è una continua ricerca di non indosssarlo.” Clothing is identification. One is born with clothing and in my opinion life is an ongoing attempt not to put them on.11 When the arrows in this picture first strive towards the feet, feet that deflect them as though by means of magnetic influence, to then refuse to make specific elements in the picture their destination points, then this is commensurate with awarding emptiness and the interstices with renewed tremendous importance. For the arrows appear in part to lead right out of the picture and to point at things that until that moment, neither the painter nor the viewer were cognizant of: further departures into the unknown – the continuation of the attempt to strip off the made-to-fit, form-accentuating clothing by transforming them into something dynamic, something which points beyond the known. The picture is closed off on the left and right edge by two neologisms that are intimately connected with the uneasiness of the “already-being-born-with-clothes”: one could translate “Entrare fuori” as “going in towards the outside,” and “uscire dentro” as “going out towards the inside.” In the same manner as the clothing in the picture no longer exists as such, losing rather its rigid form and opening itself up as an arrow to the entire space of the picture, both verbs question whether going in and going out, whether inside and outside must always already structure the perception of space. In the same moment that both concepts are mixed together by sleights of linguistic hand, they become intermingled and the viewer is reminded that “verstehen” is also a compound of two elements: the state of “standing” and the dynamic of “going over,” the finding-oneself-on-a-point and the crossing of pre-established borders, which artificially separate the permissible from the impermissible, the conventional from the new.

Notes

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preference for primary colours by saying that she wanted to avoid mixtures. “Per me hanno una forte espressività. Il significato del rosso, nero, blu, dell’oro ed giallo, il rosso esprime qualcosa di vitale ed di doloroso, il blu rimanda all’aqua, è qualcosa che ha a che fare con la tranquillità e la vita. Ci si può immergere nel blu, rilassare tutte le tensioni ed emozioni.” Trude Fumo in discussion with Micaela Nardi, in: Pisilli, Antonella (pub.): Viaggio in Italia. Identità di dodici artisti contemporanei internazionali. Rome 2005, pp. 27–32, here on p. 28; from now on quoted as: Viaggio in Italia – “For me these (the primary colors) have a great power of expression. The meaning of the red, black, blue, of the gold and the yellow; the red expresses some­thing vital and painful, the blue alludes to water, and is related to calmness and life. One can lose oneself in blue, and let go of all tensions and feelings.” 3 “In the prefix ver… (MHG ver-, OHG fir-, far-, MLG vör-, vor-) several prefixes have flowed together, which in Got. as faír- ‘out’, faùr ‘before, over’ and fra- ‘away’ are still separated […]. The basic Idg. forms *per[i] , *pr-, *pro belong to the Idg. root nouns *per, which means roughly ‘leading out across or over …’ and which forms the basis for many adverbs, prepositions and prefixes. […]The word groups which belong to the same family and which are ultimately classified with to go (actually ‘to lead or come over , to translate’) […] Idg., have meanings that were already formed independently early on.” Duden: Das Herkunftswörterbuch. Etymologie der deutschen Sprache. Vol. 7. Mannheim [et alia] 1989, keyword “ver,” p. 777; emphasis by Anne Peiter; from now on quoted as: Herkunftswörterbuch 4 On the opposite of understanding, namely misunderstanding, comp.: Peiter, Anne: “’… representing in their separateness individuals driven to extremes.’ Interkulturelle Missverständnisse im Werk von Balzac und Canetti.“ In: Reinhardt-Becker, Elke/Iljassova, Olga: Interkulturelle literarische Hermeneutik. Kultur, Literatur, Verstehen. Publication date, 2008 5 Herkunftswörterbuch, keyword „stehen,“ p. 705 6 In the original Italian: “I miei lavori hanno a che fare con il concetto del comprendere, in tedesco ver-stehen, composto dal verbo stehen che tornando all’etimo vuol dire mettersi in un punto, e il prefisso ver che significa andare oltre. Quindi comprendere significa prendere posizione, poi fare un vuoto di tutte le aspettative e conoscenze, e infine, andare oltre. Questi tre passi spiegano abbastanza bene quello che faccio. Tra il momento di mettersi e l’andare olte c’è un vuoto in cui può affluire qualcosa di nuovo. Se non utilizassi il vuoto mi porterei dietro ciò che sapevo prima e non avverebbe un processo di comprensione del nuovo. Utilizzo la dimensione del vuoto anche sulla tela, cosi’ garantisco al fruitore la possibilità di entrare. Inoltre non c’è gerarchia sulla tela, anzi a prima vista può sembrare caotico. Questo apparente caos mi serve a rendere insicuro il fruitore, cosi’ non potendosi appoggiare immediatamente a cosa gli dice la tela, è costretto ad indagare su se stesso, sul suo stehen, per iniziare il suo processo di comprensione.” ibid: p. 28–29 7 Comp. The works in the estate in Rome (in private hands) 8 The picture with the title Ich bin kein Bild (I am not a picture) is exemplary for this phase. Comp. ibid – Trude Fumo commented on this sentence in her interview. Comp. Viaggio in Italia, p. 30–31: “La realtà esterna presuppone l’altro, che può immaginarsi ciò che vuole; io posso rappresentare identificazioni create da altre ma non è detto che centrino il sé. Sin dall’infanzia gli altri decidono la tua immagine; quindi alla fine siamo in somma delle immagini che gli altri ci rimandano. In realtà, l’essere umano non vuole creare un’immagine dell’altro, però è un fenomeno esistenziale basilare, non fosse altro per incasellarlo, ridurlo e nella migliore delle ipotesi capirlo. Alla fine, rinchiusi in una visione che gli altri hanno di noi, passiamo una parte della vita a scoprire il sé attraverso l’eliminazione delle immagini, per arrivare a una propria immagine; ma per fare questo bisogna mettersi in movimento, mettere in forse le identificazioni per arrivare ad un cambiamento.” – “External reality presupposes the other, who can imagine what he wants; I can represent the identifications which originated in others, but that does not mean that they pertain to the self. From childhood on others decide on your image. It is for this reason that we are, in the end, the images which others give back to us as a mirror reflection. In reality a human being does not want to create an image of another, yet we are dealing here with a fundamental, existential phenomena, and even if it is only to classify a person, to make him smaller, and, at best, to understand him. Enclosed in the perception that others have of us, we effectively spend part of our lives in the discovery of our selves through the elimination of these images so as to arrive at our own image. But in order to do that, one has to set oneself in motion, cast doubt on the identifications and bring about a change.” 9 Comp. the programmatic picture Entfalten in the estate in Rome (in private hands) 10 For this phase comp. once more the untitled picture-sculpture in the form of a vagina reproduced in the aforementioned catalogue Viaggio in Italia, p. 32 11 Viaggio in Italia, p. 31 (translation: Anne Peiter)

Anne Peiter

1 Canetti, Elias: Die Provinz des Menschen. Aufzeichnungen. Frankfurt/Main 2003, p. 242 2 In an interview Trude Fumo ex­plained her

Creativity in the Balance Between Action and Complexity

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Hans Poser We relate to creativity as Augustine did to time: as long as no one asks us, we think we know what it is, but if we are asked, we find it difficult to provide an explanation. This is not astonishing because creativity can not be defined. If it could be defined, that is, referred to something else, then there would not be anything that was really new. Yet the emergence of the new constitutes what is its essence. Notwithstanding the terminological fuzziness, creativity has been highly esteemed at least since Renaissance times. It was the impetus of all of the arts, including the “mechanical arts,” as technology was formerly called, and the root of the development of completely new structures, as we encounter them today in mathematics and logic. It has spawned things of utmost complexity that were never seen before, which were partially planned and intended, like the interaction of the most heterogeneous elements in an oil refinery or an artistic installation, or unplanned, like the internet, which, although it is based on the actions of individuals, can not be grasped as having an overall intention as a consequence of its openness and its dynamics. Creativity can not be planned, so that its products, be they poems or patents, are not predictable; nevertheless it is evident in actions that range from the activities of craftsmen and intellectuals, to the deployment of entire technologies. That indicates a three-fold problem: — Actions are based on schemes, but there cannot exist a scheme concerning a creative innovation. What then, constitutes a creative action? Actions are based on schemes, but there cannot exist a scheme concerning a creative innovation. What then, constitutes a creative action? — Creativity is not definable, but we need a certain understanding of it, in order to comprehend how the emergence of the new is possible at all. — Complexity theories, which today are considered the solution for the problem of creativity, offer a new creative view of the intellectual as well as the material world, linked to the evidence that completely new structures of order (that is, something creatively originated) can arise, but are not predictable. Could it be that the attempts to explain creativity that are based on such theories are circular? These questions should be pursued step by step.

The explanation scheme of an action has been known since Aristotle as a “practical syllogism.” Assuming we see someone come out of his hut during the winter, go behind it and return with an arm-full of wood, we may explain what we have observed as follows: Person P wants to heat his hut. In order to heat a hut, one must fetch wood. Therefore: P fetches wood. That can be described in a general scheme: P wants to (is obliged to) convert a state A to a state B normative premise In order to convert A to B, one must do C cognitive premise P does C conclusion: action The first premise is normative, because it expresses a value or a norm, since our intentions are always based on evaluations. That becomes immediately apparent when one asks: why? The answer with reference to the first premise will always consist of an evaluation (P wants to heat the hut because he is freezing, or he wants to heat it because it is more comfortable that way …).

hans Poser

Action

The second premise is cognitive, because it expresses knowledge about how the desired condition may be reached. But the matter is a little more complicated, because one must first possess this knowledge and secondly, be in a position to realize it in action. Therefore, one is compelled, as the case may be, to learn the necessary knowledge and acquire the necessary skill(s). The conclusion that can be drawn from the two premises in the explanation of the action, is not a logical one, but rather a practical one drawn from life: that is just how we act. An action is based on a goal-oriented intention; it makes use of means that one must know and know how to use; both are then combined in the action. That being said, we have still not explained what an action is. First of all, we can not observe an action, only a behavior that is interpreted as intentional; that will only succeed when there is a reliable scheme as the basis for the interpretation. Therefore an action proves to be an interpretational construct.1 Secondly, neither the goals nor the means are fixed: our freezing friend could use coal instead of wood or an oil fired stove; he could just as well change his goal and instead of wanting to heat the hut, could strive for the more general goal, to no longer freeze. That would admit completely different means, like drinking schnapps, doing deep-knee bends or going to the next tavern. The goal could also be modified, by wishing that freezing would become irrelevant by adopting a stoical attitude toward it or defining it as a bearable test of stamina. In a given situation an unlimited number of means as well as of higher order goals, themselves connected to other means, are in principle possible. The horizon of action is therefore open, and this is where creativity comes into play. As the saying goes “necessity is the mother of invention,” because generally speaking, openness makes it possible to reach out for solutions to problems that never appeared in an action scheme, either by devising and applying new means, or pursuing new goals with familiar means. However, one condition must be fulfilled: the new connection which was never thought of and generated, must not only be apparent to the actor, it must also (in any case in art, in daily life and in the sciences) be transmittable and thereby understandable, which in turn requires that the new, in spite of its unexpectedness is connected to the old and familiar.

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The possibility of becoming creative is characterized by the openness of goals and means of action. With the requirement of an ability to connect the new with the old, the problem of understanding the new is narrowed down. This is also shown by a precondition brought to light by Daniel Schleiermacher: it is indispensable that the human is capable of the creativityrepeating “divinatory” act in order to understand what someone else says or writes, because we could otherwise never comprehend anything and would always only see the old. However, that requires nothing less than the capacity of every human being to grasp the new, expressed by someone else in an utterance, that is, to re-create it: thereby, creativity proves itself to be an essential characteristic of the human being, without which not even our daily understanding would be possible, because a sentence that has already been heard receives new meaning in a different situation, never mind something that has not at all been heard before. Creativity truly becomes important at the point when the new, with which it is concerned, is groundbreaking and trend-setting, where rules and forms of thought and expression and patterns of behavior that are overcome lead to radical realignments and extensions of the existing order.2 How we are capable of overcoming our dependence on instinct to actually devise something new and realize it is by no means explained by that, but simply established as a matter of fact. Now the fact of creativity can be well described in its phenomena and its preconditions, e.g., mental openness and curiosity, as well as a capacity for the creation of metaphors and symbols, innovative combinations, knowledge transfer and rule innovation; psychology has specified conditions and techniques like brainstorming or mind-mapping, with which new ideas can

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Creativity

be more easily created; philosophers have referred to the connection with free will (which in turn is considered an illusion by some neurologists), the link between creativity and rules vs. rule violations has been seen in a similar light as is the importance of open spaces of possibility. These short sketches show how profoundly the creativity problem is woven with tough scientific and metaphysical problems: the problem of freedom pertains to the mind-body problem and along with it the question of how the worldview looks that underlies it. Assuming a continuous causality, as was dominant since the Renaissance, all that happens is determined. This vision of the world led to a gigantic upswing in science; but if creativity is to be posited under this condition as a possibility, additional profound metaphysical assumptions are required. In the case of Leibniz this led him to a kind of a Platonism, due to which creative ideas and techniques of each individual have long been established in the divine plan of the world and thereby are virtually determined. Kant relocated all conditions in the cognitive subject and based his solution on the assumption of a further form of causality in addition to the natural one, namely the “causality by freedom” as an opportunity for humans as rational beings to begin a new causal chain. Now the question here is not the problem of freedom, but rather which world view allows for the integration of creativity. Alfred N. Whitehead undertook an extensive effort to integrate it in 1929. He sees creativity as a central ontological category and makes it the basis of the process of cosmic evolution up to the ideational historical evolution of human thought schemes:3 this is where the process of becoming has its root. Whitehead provided the inspiration to not only draft such theories in the framework of a speculative metaphysics, but also to give it an empirical scientific core in connection with a formal theory. That is exactly the task of today’s theories of complexity, which shall be discussed now.

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Complexity theories represent a completely new type of theory, even more, they are well on the way to present a completely new world view whereby everything in the universe has a history, every event is completely unique and in its complex connections non-repeatable. These theories attempt to interpret the appearance of self-organizing and of completely new structures. This is exactly what we use to call creativity in the area of human thought and action. Consequently, complexity theories should be considered in light of the problem of creativity, since up to now the phenomenon of creativity has been seen as constituting some of the tension present in the mind-body problem and in ontological-theological theories. Complexity theories will address the need to bridge this gap in the framework of a new global view. Complexity theories have a prehistory and are based on an extension of the physical chemistry of open systems.4 When the complexity and historicity of our cosmos is placed in the foreground, they lead in many ways to a new vantage point from which to observe the present problem. The development of these theories will be sketched briefly so that they can be better understood: The prehistory begins around 1900 with Henri Poincaré’s insight that the three-body problem (for instance of the mutual attraction of three masses) does not possess a closed mathematical solution; in contrast, only approximation solutions on the basis of initial and boundary conditions are possible. Our planetary system is one such many-body problem, which is why Poincaré’s result implies that neither the planSimple pendulum Double pendulum etary nor the asteroid orbits can be calculated with any desired accuracy at any desired time in

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the future; they are not predictable. This contrasts with the centuries old idea that the planetary system involves an eternally uniform motion, which because of its lawfulness allows for such prediction without any constraints. Another simple example is the double pendulum, consisting of one pendulum hung from another. With a simple pendulum (in the ideal case a non-extended point of mass swinging without friction on a thread without mass) the matter is very simple. The pendulum has two degrees of freedom; it can swing in two directions, so that with a well determined starting point and a well determined impulse it describes a completely lawful and predictable orbit, which when projected on a plane looks like a bloom. It looks completely differently if one hangs one pendulum from another with another impulse. The resulting movement appears as a chaotic fidgeting to the viewer, although it is completely lawful. That has led to the descriptive, but at the same time, misleading, denotation of deterministic chaos. These associations become clear in a drastic way when one attempts to use simulation models for the prediction of weather. It is shown that changes in the initial values (changes far to the right of the decimal) lead to completely changed forms of movement in a short period of time. Today’s weather will never be exactly the same as it was yesterday or throughout the whole of history. All systems of nonlinear differential equations share this characteristic: they are not solvable in a closed form and are highly sensitive to the slightest changes in their initial boundary conditions; their motion is only predictable for conditions very close to those initial conditions. Methodologically speaking, the old basic rule that similar causes lead to similar effects proves to be invalid. Epistemologically speaking, the idea that the conditions of the world for the past as well as the future may be calculated for any point in time on the basis of a complete knowledge of the laws and a complete description of conditions is no longer valid. That shows that all processes occurring in the world have a history that is not repeatable, and which can not be described by simple laws, even if they all follow these laws. Nevertheless, because of the continuing causal determination in the area of deterministic chaos there is still no place for creativity. A further step toward complexity theory goes back to an observation made by Henri Bénard at around the same time as Poincaré. If one observes a layer of water between two plates of glass, the water is in a state of rest; but if it is slowly heated from underneath, the warm water rises, cools at the top and sinks back down again. In a short period of time, caused by the supply of energy, a stable structure arises completely independently, which consists of a rolling movement (s. p. 108, above). By the addition of energy, that is, in a situation beyond the thermodynamic equilibrium, a new order arises! This result can also be generalized. It was Ilya Prigogine, who coined the concept of dissipative structures for the relevant phenomena.5 Beyond thermodynamic equilibrium in open systems (therefore in systems with an exchange of energy as well as of matter and information with the environment), in contrast to the law of entropy governing closed systems, new structures of order are capable of forming.6 These structures of order are in particular irreversible in the sense of a non-reciprocity of the time direction: a billiard ball, seen as a classical physical model, by reversing the direction of impulse at the end of its course, would follow exactly the same path back in the opposite direction. In contrast, for example with the Bénard cells, there is no reversal of direction by which one could extract the stored heat energy; the process is irreversible. This phenomenon of the formation of completely new orderings, is designated as emergence. Furthermore, the conditions, as in the case of the Bénard cells, resemble each other but are never identical. Their respective basic form is characterized as a strange attractor. Attractor, because the system, metaphorically speaking, feels itself “attracted” to this relatively stable state of motion; it is strange, because only in those most simple examples like the Bénard cells, is the phenomenon predictable. But even the Bénard cells can have other forms and instead of the rolls they can exhibit a honeycomb in vertical cells. In that case when the fluid is warmed

it climbs up to the middle of a comb that is forming and then sinks back at the edges. Accordingly, both the roll and comb conditions are attractors. These structures stabilize on their own within certain limits. Therefore, they equalize external variations, as for instance happens in the case of the regulation of our body temperature, which stays relatively stable with respect to the outside temperature, as long as it is not too hot or cold, in which case an instability would occur. In the case of the Bénard cells, there is a certain area of the heat input in which the appearance is stable; when the input is increased the movement becomes turbulent, which in turn is also an ordering structure with self similarity. There is another important element, which was already shown with the attractors of the Bénard cells. It is called bifurcation and concerns the solution set of non-linear equations. In those

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Bénard cell in a honeycomb form, seen from above

cases a branching point in the solution points of an equation can occur (s. ill. on this page, below le). In the case of the roll formation of the Bénard cells a roll can turn to the left or the right. This is not determined by any experimental conditions, and both are possibilities. Now, a process in nature cannot go two ways; after a short oscillation of instability at the branching point one of the two ways is pursued. A prognosis about which way will be taken, even as a general statement about the probability is only possible in a limited fashion. This represents the final departure from the causal scheme, which still characterized deterministic chaos. The basic idea behind the perspective developed in the non-equilibrium dynamic consists of the view that the emergence of life from non-living matter was made possible by a series of instabilities, which with ever newer branchings and new parameters created completely new, relatively stable states of order. What was involved was not only a simple addition of energy, as previously discussed, but rather an exchange of material as metabolism, and information intake about the condition of the environment as perception. To put it in a different way, the self-

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organization at issue here is a creative process, because the unexpected new has been created from the dead physical-chemical structure in an unforeseen order of metabolism and reproduction: nature itself, as Whitehead said, proves to be creative, however without the human-based intentionality, and therefore without a pre-announced goal. Furthermore everything which occurs in such a process has a history, which as a precondition, in contrast to the world view of a Spinoza or Leibniz, is itself an open world, in the sense of a non-determined and therefore unpredictable processuality. The research by Manfred Eigen on the formation of prebiotic, self-reproducing structures can also hardly be referenced here as the theories of the self-organization and autopoiesis, which were developed by Humberto R. Maturana and Francisco J. Varela in connection with the biotic realm. But the guiding principle is already established, because in general the insights of non-equilibrium dynamics mean that structured systems can not be comprehended as purely combinatorial in their internal connections. This is the point of entry for Hermann Hakens’ synergetics, the science of ordered, self-organized, collective behavior, from physics to society. In order to develop a mathematical model of self-organization, one can not cling to the thoughts of historicity of evolution or emergence processes. One must first distinguish between organized systems and covering systems, between which an exchange takes place. Since all systems are open, the initial system in turn is embedded in a meta-system. Systems are also open underneath, and therefore contain sub-systems. Secondly a structure must be included. Assuming a feedback system, Haken designated the “long-lasting” elements or parameters of a system as “organizers”, which promote changes in the macro-properties, in that (i) they are connected among themselves, and that (ii) on the micro-level they “enslave” “short-lasting” elements.7 A minimal change in the dominant organizers then leads to a new structure of the dependant parameters, and thereby the entire system. This does not allow for the prognosis of newly forming orderings in general; but thanks to the reduction in complexity due to dependence among the parameters, successful mathematical simulation models for processes and the formation of new ordering structures can be developed, including the considerations of how such complex systems (like markets) can indeed be managed.8 By the representation of internal control functions in this model, a theoretical framework has been created, which approaches very closely the description of structures of consciousness. Complexity theories have also gained a footing in neurology. Their applications there range from models of a deterministic chaos to network models, which can be dynamically formed and extended and which can establish new structures that are not preprogrammed by contouring and feedbacking, analogous to that which is understood as human actions under conditions of creativity. Such an approach allows one to integrate the whole occurrence of evolution from the big bang to the formation of the first, tiniest particles, to their consolidation in the simplest, and then the heaviest atoms, and from there to molecules, self-reproducing molecules, the simplest organisms, and then on to perceptual procedures and psychic processes up to the formation of consciousness as a sequence of ever newer, more complex ordering structures. Thereby structures are involved, which become increasingly independent from purely physicochemical determination procedures by the assimilation and processing of information. In this way these processes are bound up in complexity theories in a unified model, even if for the time being there is no unifying theory, but just pieces of theories. However it becomes apparent that the alternative of physicalism and dualism, as it is expressed in the mind-body problem and the associated discussion of consciousness, freedom and creativity that underlies it is not fruitful: hierarchies of gradually self-organizing ordering structures do not fit in the one or the other concept – they bridge them.

Our excursion to theories of deterministic chaos and self-organization still seems too far away from the desire to better understand human creativity. In general, complex structures in nature or society are understood immanently and the appearance of something new leads to a figure of speech like “discoveries of nature,” whereby the nature or the society are treated as an acting and creative subject. Now, the appearance of the unforeseen and unpredictably radically new is a constitutive part of the process ontology; moreover, it is not fixed how the new is bound in the system. That the new appears is seen as an empirical fact; but it is urgent to answer the question of how the new can be recognized and understood at all. Since it is not possible to give a definition of creativity that is relevant for the radically new, although we have no difficulties dealing with the term, it must be assumed that we as human beings are disposed to understand what is at stake here. Leibniz would have had to see the term of the new as a fundamental, absolutely simple term, if it weren’t superfluous for him, because in the realm of ideas in the divine knowledge everything has its place. The post-Kantian philosophy hesitated to make such far-reaching metaphysical presuppositions, although Kant’s categories are of the same indispensable type. One of the consequences of the Kantian transcendental reflections was that epistemic contingency implies ontic contingency; this is exactly what Niels Bohr picked up in the context of the Copenhagen explanation of quantum theory. If one applies Kant to Whitehead’s ontological creativity category it will then become clear that in the subject of knowledge creativity as thought scheme must be presupposed: since we ourselves are able to shape the thought or idea of creativity, we can also apply it to nature and society. What now remains is to become aware of a decisive border of the new understanding of the cosmos that is related to that: All models of complexity are models of the cognizing subject. It is not that ‘nature is complex’ or ‘nature is creative’, but that we are the ones who interpret nature as complex and creative on the basis of a new model or thought scheme and thereby wish to understand it as an historical process. In another way the discussions about the mindbody problem come up short, because they do not recognize that human creativity as a thought scheme is indeed a presupposition for the construction of all theories. If one asks oneself why we are actually prepared to accept these new theories and the related new worldview, the answer would be that a secularized worldview needs an adequate image of itself in order to be able to classify its problems. The new thought scheme that complexity theories offer, allows temporal processes to be structured in a way that accesses human understanding as the genesis of new ordering structures. This thought scheme offers a conceptual instrument that appears to make it possible to comprehend the path from the high energy plasma of the big bang to living matter and the intellectual realm, and thereby to grant an important place for freedom, responsibility and creativity. These complex structures and networks have not only long been marked by historical processes in order to understand them. In complexity reduction as practiced by Haken, they lead to simulation models; likewise, they have long been adopted in the art world which has realized them as spatial installations. Since today we insist on being creative as human beings and possessing free will, so that we experience in every action how we like to creatively use the openness of goals and means, then we are ready to assume the profoundly changed preconditions of the new point of view, because: Complexity theories offer us a universal ordering of the cosmos, matter, life and society including the ideas of human freedom and creativity. That is exactly the source of their fruitfulness. As a metaphysical, therefore neither empirical nor formal-logical principle we are therefore ready to acknowledge:

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Creativity from the view of the complexity theories

Nature as a whole is creative on her way to the emergence of ever higher ordering structures. But it is we who designated creativity as a thought scheme. Creativity in the sense of a human, intellectual capacity to act is joined here. The thought scheme itself is the product of such creativity.

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Notes 1 This concept is introduced by Lenk, Hans in: „Handlung als Interpretationskonstrukt. Entwurf einer konstituenten- und beschrei-

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bungstheoretischen Handlungsphilosophie,“ Lenk, Hans (ed.): Handlungstheorien interdisziplinär. Vol. 2.1. Fink, Munich 1978, p. 279–350 2 Almost 3000 pages of the most comprehensive deliberations about such aspects of creativity are documented in: Abel, Günter (ed.): Kreativität. Kolloquienbeiträge, XX. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie, September 26–30, 2005. Meiner, Hamburg 2006; as well as in the relevant conference volumes: Abel, Günter (ed.): Kreativität. Sektionsbeiträge, XX. Deutscher Kongress für Philosophie, September 26–30, 2005, 2 vol. Meiner, Berlin 2005 3 Whitehead, Alfred North: Process and Reality. An Essay in Cosmology (1929). Revised Edition ed. by: Griffin, David Ray/Sherburne, Donald W. New York 1979 Comp. also Rapp, Friedrich/Wiehl, Reiner (ed.): Whitehead's Metaphysics of Creativity. State University of New York Press 1989 4 For a comprehensive representation of today’s complexity theories comp. Mainzer, Klaus: Thinking in Complexity. The Computational Dynamics of Matter, Mind, and Mankind (1994). Springer, Berlin 2004. For a treatment of the epistemological problems comp. Poser, Hans: „Wissenschaftsmodelle des Neuen und ihre Grenzen. Kreativität und die Theorien der Komplexität.“ In: Abel, Günter (ed.): Kreativität. Kolloquienbeiträge. Hamburg 2006, p. 966–982 5 Comp. Prigogine, Ilya: Introduction to Thermodynamics of Irreversible Processes. 3rd Ed. New York 1967; Prigogine, Ilya: From Being to Becoming: Time and Complexity in the Physical Sciences (1979). Freeman, New York 1980; Prigogine, Ilya/Stengers, Isabelle: Order Out of Chaos: Man's New Dialogue With Nature (1980). Bantam Doubleday Dell 1989; Nicolis, Grégoire/Prigogine, Ilya: Exploring Complexity. Freeman, New York 1989 6 The law of entropy is of course not overturned by that. Here, especially the addition of energy makes possible new orderings, while closed systems are characterized by the conservation of energy. 7 Haken, Hermann: Erfolgsgeheimnisse der Natur. Synergetik – die Lehre vom Zusammenwirken (1981). ND Frankfurt/Main 1990, p. 23 and p. 222; comp. also Haken, Hermann: Synergetics. An Introduction. Nonequilibrium Phase Transition in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Springer, Berlin 1978 8 Comp. Ludwig, Björn: Management komplexer Systeme. Der Umgang mit Komplexität bei unvollkommener Information: Methoden, Prinzipien, Potentiale. Sigma, Berlin 2001

The Neurobiological Preconditions for the Development of Curiosity and Creativity

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Gerald Hüther Creative people often do not even know exactly how they become inspired and arrive at their brilliant ideas. Sometimes it seems that their ideas or achievements spring from “gut feelings“ or from “deep down in the heart.“ Strangely enough, we are most creative under conditions, which according to conventional wisdom are not appropriate for high performance brain activity: in a dreamy or half asleep state. It seems that creativity is an activity that can not be attained by a special exertion of the thinking organ, in order to solve a certain problem. The really creative ideas actually come at the very moment when we are able to use our brains without pressure and without a targeted exertion. In a certain way, we resemble the best songbirds, whose singing achievements Konrad Lorenz so fittingly described: “We know very well that the bird song involves a species preserving performance in the establishment of territorial boundaries, the attraction of females, the intimidation of intruders and so on. However, we also know that the bird song reaches its pitch of perfection, and its richest differentiation, when these functions no longer play a role. A bluethroat, or a blackbird sings the most artistic, and for our sensibilities, most beautiful and objectively most complexely constructed songs in those moments of slight arousal when they poetically 'pour forth'. When the song serves a purpose, when the bird sings in opposition or struts before a female, then the finer nuances are lost, and all one hears is a monotone repetition of the loudest stanzas. It almost always amazed me, that the bird achieved its artistic peak performance in song in exactly the same biological state and mood as the human being, namely in a kind of psychic equilibrium, with a little distance, as it were, from the seriousness of life, in a purely playful way.“1 If in that sense we now ask ourselves, when were our brains working at their best “in a kind of psychic equilibrium, with a little distance, as it were, from the seriousness of life, and in a purely playful way“, then for most people in our efficiency acclimated world of ideas this condition of highest creativity will be the most memorable, where we had least suspected it: in early childhood. It is worth the time to pursue the question of why this is so and how it happens, that so many people lose this capacity sooner or later in the course of their lives.

During childhood people are so curious, capable of enthusiasm, and open for everything there is to experience in the world in a way that never recurs in later life. At the point of birth the brain is not yet finished. Only the circuitry and networks in the older regions of the brain that are absolutely necessary for survival are already fully functional at the time of birth. They control all those functions which contribute to inner physical order, and also those reactions which are set in motion, when this inner physical order is disturbed. Also certain experiences, which have already been made in the womb, as well as inborn reflexes, are stored in the brain in the form of certain connectivity patterns. Everything else, that means almost everything that is important in later life, must be learned additionally and stored as a new experience in the brain. The cerebrum, or more precisely the cerebral cortex, is that region of the brain where this new knowledge is lodged in the form of certain patterns of association between the nerve cells. It triples in volume in the first year of life and expands considerably thereafter, not because more nerve cells are formed there, but because at the point of birth already existing nerve cells grow out a multitude of processes and connect

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How the potential for learning and creating is shaped

each other by these processes in manifold ways. This genetically programmed development leads to a situation whereby in individual areas of the cerebral cortex a huge surplus of nerve cell connections and contacts is created. Since the infant brain (or the genetic program that guides its development) can’t “know“ what will be significant in later life and which connections will actually be used, a large surplus of connectivities is set aside for the time being. But only those connections which are actually used, that is, which are frequently activated, are stabilized and maintained,. The rest are simply dismantled. In a certain sense at the beginning of life everything is possible, but only a few connectivity patterns are already so well established, that they can be effectively used. Later, when more and more circuits and networks are well established and very effective, a lot no longer works, which in the beginning would have been possible.

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Where the joy to learn and create comes from

Children bring with them at birth not only the capability to constantly learn, but also the joy of always discovering the new. This is owing to the circumstance that the infant brain is dependent on the broadest possible spectrum of different stimuli for the formation of sufficiently complex connectivity patterns. The most suitable stimuli for the connectivities to be established and stabilized in the brain are those which the child develops on its own. This quest for the new initiated by the child has a decisive advantage over all stimuli working on the child from outside: on the basis of the skills and capabilities already learned and lodged in its brain, when the child determines for itself what is new and interesting, the learning experiences made under these conditions can be connected especially well with the already existing knowledge, and therefore the already existing connectivity pattern can be advantageously expanded and augmented. Whenever a child and also an adult are occupied with looking for something, a certain disquiet rules in its brain, an agitation and tension. It is suddenly resolved by the experience of success. It is always at that point, when order arises from confusion or calm from agitation, that a feeling of comfort and satisfaction sets in. The greater the initial arousal and irritation is, the greater the joy, when everything now “fits“. One then has even more desire to go looking again. Under these conditions a group of nerve cells is always excited and releases certain messenger substances at the ends of their long processes, which are also released when addicts take cocaine or heroin. That is an indication of how great this feeling of pleasure can become, when one discovers something, when one has “grasped“ something. Since for children in a world that is still strange for them there is so much that is new to be discovered and ordered in their treasury of experience, their joy for learning is normally only interrupted by the phases of exhaustion, which always occur and must occur, in order that everything that has been learned and discovered in the waking phase, can be processed, stabilized and integrated with the existing inner patterns in the brain in REM sleep.

All experiences that people gather about themselves, their bodies and their relations to the outside world, are anchored in the form of certain connectivity patterns of nerve cells in their brains as inner representations, most of them during childhood, and some already before birth. Every new perception, be it a new smell, a new tactile sensation, a new sound or a new sense impression, produces a corresponding brain activation, a “perceptual image“. An attempt is now made in the brain to activate an already existing nerve cell connectivity pattern (a “memory image“), that somehow fits with the new sense perception. If both images (the existing memory image and the new perceptual image) completely agree, the new impression is registered as taken care of and correspondingly (routinely) answered. If

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How new connectivity patterns arise in the brain

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there is absolutely no overlapping between the new image and any already existing one, then nothing happens. The new perceptual image is cast off, neglected or ignored. It always becomes interesting, when the memory image is called up and at least partially fits with the new perceptual image. Then the old pattern is opened, expanded and redesigned until the activation pattern created by the new perception can be integrated in the modified memory image. This is then kept as an expanded internal pattern and called up for comparison for future perceptions. This pattern now determines future expectations. Human beings never recognize everything that they are offered, but only that which somehow fits with their ideas and expectations (therefore with previous experiences). In this way, step by step, the complicated nerve cell connectivities are built up in different areas. The excitation pattern arriving from the sense organs is thereby used, in order to lodge increasingly stable and increasingly complex “inner images“ in the form of certain connectivity patterns in the various regions of the brain. This not only pertains to sight and the lodging of internal “sight images “, but also for the groping for and formation of internal “groping and body images“, for hearing and the creation of the corresponding “hearing images“ and the understanding and establishment of language that goes along with that, and finally for the interest to listen. In the same way the capability develops to lay out internal “olfactory images“, from what is smelled and to combine them with other sense perceptions and the internal pictures generated by them. Even signals generated by the change in muscle tone that are sent on to the brain are used in order to lay out internal representations of complex series of movements, certain internal “movement and action images“ in the relevant areas of the brain and on occasion to call them up. The region of the brain in which all these complex, use-dependant neuronal connectivities are finally drawn together, is one which develops the last and most slowly in human beings and which is much simplar developed in our nearest animal relatives. Anatomically it is called the frontal lobes. It is that region of the brain, which in a special way is involved in putting together an overall picture from the incoming patterns of excitation from other areas of the brain, and in this way from “beneath“, from deeper lying and earlier matured regions of the brain, to constrain and control incoming stimuli and impulses. Without a frontal brain no future oriented concepts of action and internal orientations can be developed, the consequences of actions can not be estimated, and one can not empathize with other human beings and share their feelings, and also have any feeling of responsibility. The frontal brain is that region of the brain, which most clearly distinguishes us from all the other animals. And it is the region which is especially structured by the process that we call education and socialization. In the course of this process all human beings learn, at first as a child and later as an adult, to use their brains in a certain culturally specific way. Thereby, within each of their communities they are required, encouraged and occasionally forced, to develop certain capabilities and skills more than others, to pay more attention to certain things than others, to allow certain feelings more than others, and therefore to gradually use their brains, as is considered useful and customary by their community. In the course of this process we acquire all those capabilities and skills that are especially appreciated for life in our cultural circle. And to the extent we do that, the neuronal connectivities that are thereby activated, become more strongly and intensively developed and stabilized. Our brains are therefore constructs structured by socialization and enculturation.

There is no genetic program that is responsible for the formation of the above mentioned, profoundly human capabilities. They are, as they develop with every single human being, the result of a highly complicated and therefore extremely disturbance-prone structuring process. This process begins before birth and on the basis of the course set during early childhood, continues over the entire education and socialization process to come. If at some point a certain use-dependent pattern is formed and becomes established which allows the brains’ owners to make their way after a fashion through the world around them, and in spite of disturbances and threats from the outside world to maintain internal emotional equilibrium, then the structuring of the frontal lobe is for the most part complete. Unless something decisive or shocking happens, which calls into question all previously developed strategies, the owner of this brain has reached the end of (brain) development. Those who have reached this state have ceased to be searchers. Whenever human beings have succeeded to so effectively stabilize and establish certain nerve cell connectivities in their brains with the same successful, but very one-sided use, so that in every situation they know what they have to do and how they should react, when such people think that they have everything under control, because they have created a world in which nothing unforeseen can occur, because they master and control everything, then they have lost their openness. They are compelled and constantly preoccupied with dividing the world according to the standards they have developed into good and evil, correct and false, and black and white. They can not perceive the world around them in its complete multiplicity, but only according to the established standards, until they finally lose everything that a creative human being needs: sensitivity, curiosity and spontaneity. The question of what drives human beings to go the path of using their brains in such a onesided fashion and thereby to structure them so simply that they can be used for very little, can be easily answered: fear. The feeling of fear always arises when the internal equilibrium of a human being is threatened, and this fear forces every human being to find a solution, which means the most effective strategy possible for the reconstruction of their internal equilibrium. Some people apparently consider certain strategies so effective, that once they find them, they use them again and again. In this way the nerve cell connectivities that are activated at the expense of other, more seldomly used connectivities, are always more effectively formed and established. As children, but also later as adults, we must try to connect every new perception and every new experience to something that is already there, that we already know and can use, that is therefore familiar to us. As with children, the readiness of adults to adjust to the new, to try out something new, is that much greater the more secure they are and the greater the confidence they have to confront the world. Every kind of insecurity, fear and pressure produces a spreading excitation and agitation in their brain. Under these conditions the incoming perceptual patterns can not be collated with the memories already stored there from the sense channels. In that way nothing new can be learned and lodged in the brain. The agitation and the associated confusion in the head can often be so great, that already acquired knowledge can not be recalled and used. The only thing that still works, are older, very early developed and very firmly rooted thinking and behavior patterns. Human beings then fall back into types of behavior which are always activated, when nothing else works: attack (screaming, crying), defense (no longer listening, seeing, or wanting to perceive, being stubborn, looking for allies) or retreat (submission, crawling, break-off of contact). They lose their openness, curiosity and trust – and thereby the capability to admit something new. This condition is difficult to bear for very long. We feel impotent and ashamed and react with rage, anger or even resignation to the disappointment that has been experienced.

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How the joy in thinking and creating fades

The less that human beings in the course of life find the opportunity to learn and master manifold strategies to conquer fear, the greater the danger they will consider an individual, occasional or adopted strategy more meaningful, important and efficient, than it really is in the long run. Under these conditions one-sided and rash path-making and channelling proc­ esses of the repeatedly activated neuronal connectivity patterns can all too easily occur. The earlier they occur and the more frequently that these neuronal connectivity patterns based on strategies of mastery are used and thereby activated, the more difficult they will be later to dissolve. The less a society is in the position to offer its children a feeling of security and protection, the more likely these children will be to adopt all those strategies which adult members of the society offer as apparently especially apt remedies for conquering fear: the striving for power and influence, wealth and status, the use of violence and oppression, the cultivation of diversion and excitement, and the taking of drugs and tranquilizers. If in society more and more people grow up whose thinking, feeling and actions are guided by the attempt to protect themselves from disturbances of their internal equilibrium with those kind of simple and short term strategies, then other more complex strategies for conquering fear will be increasingly forgotten. Instead of the complicated joint search for solutions which work for everyone, the simple striving for individual gratification of needs steps into the foreground. Subtle postures like attentiveness and caution, which can only occur with the activation of highly complex neuronal connectivity patterns, are supplanted by short term goal orientations and a corresponding lack of consideration. In this way the brains of those human beings, conditioned by use, are also correspondingly more simply structured. The capability to combine complex perceptions and to piece them together in subtle internal images of the outside world is just as lost on them as the capability to recognize such images in the form of works of art or even produce it themselves. Perhaps in the future there will be less and less really creative people, and correspondingly more “pseudo-creatives“, the performers and salespersons of their own special and just as dubious artistic virtuosities. Our cultural development and the development of our frontal lobes are apparently much more closely connected with each other and to a much greater degree dependent on each other, than we may have considered possible until now. However, even if this suspicion long harbored by the cultural and humanities professions has been supported in the recent past by a steadily increasing number of scientific results from the area of brain research, developmental neuro-biology, attachment research and developmental psychology, one may assume that it will take some time and that that considerable hurdles remain, until this knowledge is shared within society. There is nothing we human beings fear more than what this knowledge demands of us: to take responsibility for our actions, for the world that we shape and for all that which presently prevents children from using their brains in a way so that they do not deteriorate into a stunted version of what they might have been. Because at the point of birth, all human beings are artists of creativity.

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The brain is a construction site. In the course of a lifetime experiences can be made and the upper stories can be added. The firmer and broader the foundation is, the larger and more stable the structure can become. The more minimal and shaky the foundation is, the greater the danger is that the house built on it will lean or topple. Not many stories can be built on such weak foundations. The social dimension and the precise knowledge of the socio-cultural structuring of the human brain can be well described with the metaphor of the construction site: if everyone from a

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How the joy of discovery and creation can be reawakened

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certain cultural circle builds their house according to their tradition, the foundations the building heights and stability of the houses will be similar in the region. With this metaphor as a starting point, it can be envisioned under what conditions human beings would be in the position to use their brains differently and how they could succeed in changing their previous, routine and brain-stuck ways of thinking and convictions and to look for new, creative solutions for shaping the world they live in and their relationships: 1. Traditionally acquired, i.e., trans-generationally transmitted thought structures and ideas have not developed without reason, once they surface in a given cultural community. They originally had a particular function to ensure life and the cohesiveness of the community. It is therefore important to find out the reasons for the development of certain thought patterns in one’s own head and also in the heads of all other members of the affected cultural community, that is, the immediate and extended family, the locality, the region, and the country, in which one is born and in which one grows up. Those who take on this task, which is difficult and fraught with fear, will discover that some of these reasons have a current connection to reality, while others go back to causes involving long forgotten events and experiences of the affected community, which therefore have lost their former meaning and can only be understood historically. These old thought patterns are often not only completely useless for mastering new challenges, they can also represent a major impediment. Those who learn how to see through these patterns and differentiate them, are on the way to self-knowledge. They can fulfill the decisive precondition for the rediscovery of creativity, the joy of discovery and curiosity: letting go of adopted ideas that hold back their own thinking. 2. Those who want to let go and think something new need courage. As non-goal oriented as the clinging to old, worn ways of thinking may be, they nonetheless provide something very significant: they are trusted and offer security, especially when many other people who think like that have the same orientations and convictions. Letting go from that is fearful. Therefore people who want to think something new must overcome this fear. The only antidote to insecurity and fear, and brain researchers have become able to verify this objectively and empirically with the aid of modern brain imaging techniques, is trust. Therefore those who want to be creative need to trust in themselves, in their own capabilities, skills, and experiences and in their own knowledge. 3. Self-confidence is indeed a necessary but still not adequate precondition for the maintenance and revival of the joy of discovery and desire to create and thereby for the search for creative and innovative solutions. The individual joy of discovery and desire to create all too often stews in its own juices. It initially orients to its own interests and recruits primarily from its own resources, insights, experiences, and capabilities. Human beings really become creative when they succeed in merging the individual capabilities, insights, talents and ideas that they have acquired in their own world with those of others. Of course in order to do that an encounter and exchange based on trust must take place among human beings with the greatest possible socio-cultural experiences. In order that those kinds of encounters and mutual exchanges between very different human beings can occur, what bonds human beings over and beyond their different origins, their different educations and their individual, cultural specific types must be strengthened. And to do that we must overcome exactly that which has so fatally kept us together and determined our thoughts, feelings and actions as small groups: the fear of others. Therefore, the decisive precondition for the development of our creative potential is overcoming individual fear by strengthening mutual trust.

Note

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1 Lorenz, Konrad: „Die angeborenen Formen möglicher Erfahrung“. In: Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie. Vol. 5, 1942, pp. 16–409

Literature

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Hüther, Gerald: Biologie der Angst. Göttingen 1997 I Hüther, Gerald: Bedienungsanleitung für ein menschliches Gehirn. Göttingen 2001. English version: The Compassionate Brain. How Empathy Creates Intelligence. Boston & London 2006 I Hüther, Gerald: Die Macht der inneren Bilder. Göttingen 2004 I Gebauer, Karl/Hüther, Gerald: Kinder brauchen Spielräume. Düsseldorf 2003 I Prekop, Jirina/Hüther, Gerald: Auf Schatzsuche bei unseren Kindern. Ein Entdeckungsbuch für neugierige Eltern und Erzieher. Munich 2006

Body, Sense and Language

Gustl Marlock The following thoughts concern a very specific kind of knowledge which one could call “body knowledge”. Although they stem from a depth psychology perspective, they are special in that their depth dimension ventures beneath and before the verbal level which predominates in mainstream psychoanalysis. The before refers to experiences that go back to the earliest relations and thereby to experiences of the self and the world which human beings have, long before mentalization and the capacity for speech have formed; beneath refers to the levels of cognition and the processing of information, which are not symbolic in nature, but in the sense of the word “founded“ are substantially sensoric, motoric, and visceral, (gut level) information about self and consciousness. Terms like “body” or “gut” unavoidably come into play here, terms that philosophy only tries to use in marginal discussions to explain mental life as physical at the same time. Therefore, at least in outline, some statements shall be formulated as to why the relation to the body is essential, if we are to understand how consciousness of ourselves and the world emerges. In a following step I will show that personality and identity or – philosophically formulated – the “being in-the-world” manner of human beings can be understood not only in terms of their intellectual or psychological dimensions, but also as “embodiment”. Finally, from a therapeutic point of view we will look at what can be contributed to answering the question of how we can attain knowledge of ourselves and the world. That in this context the term maieutics – or midwifing in English – appears here, indicates that the author is located in a dialogical, hermeneutic and human scientific context and, as far as the self-inquiry of individuals and groups are concerned, he is resorting to arts of childbearing, which go back to the antiquity of Athens. The clues contained in the title of this essay certainly can not be counted among what one would normally meaningfully associate with understanding, cognizance and knowledge. Normally we assign knowledge to the mental realm. But on the way to the Modern, a loss of those depth-dimensions, which were called the soul, and a demystification of the cosmos took place. The ancient animated world became a simple natural body, and the cosmos was no longer thought of as a living, expressive being, but as simple nature, subject to mechanical, calculable, but goalless procedures. As a consequence with Descartes there is a division in the areas of existence and experience, of things, which are determined by the extensio – and thought, determined by the cogitatio. The momentous separation of a res cogitans and of a res extensa undertaken by Descartes is deeply anchored in our basic scientific as well as practical day-to-day living assumptions. Human beings divided themselves into beings that think, and beings that have a body, that belong in the realm of physical things and move according to mechanical laws. As a consequence, the objectifying of self and nature, upon which the modern natural science method is based, tries to eliminate everything subjective-sensual and intuitive-emotional from the processes of cognition. Even in the human realm the cognition procedures based on depersonalization have increasingly established themselves. Other perspectives survived only in marginal sub-cultures in the nineteenth and twentieth century as undercurrents of the Modern, which were crucial for the peak phases of the counter-culture, which left behind their footprints. Among these movements for instance was the Romantic movement of the nineteenth century with its nature philosophy, which is more indebted to a vitalistic and more qualitative than quanti-

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The Maiuetics of Knowledge

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tative kind of thought, and the life reform movement (Lebensreformbewegung) from the beginning of the twentieth century, with its connection to the visceral philosophical thought of Friedrich Nietzsche. Prominent figures like Nietzsche, Plessner1, Merleau-Ponty2 and Gabriel Marcel have lodged protests against the disembodied, de-sensualized and thereby of course de-eroticized wrestling over knowledge and cognizance in modern times. However, they were in the main unsuccessful. For the first time since then, from the area of neurobiology, i.e., from one of the “hard” sciences objections are being raised, which appear to be changing the situation. Neurobiology has actually formulated far-reaching and plausible models regarding the phenomena of the human intellect and spirit. This has led to increased discussion of the meaning of the emotions, the feelings and the body for human consciousness. In fact this is one of the central theses formulated by the best known living brain researcher, Antonio Damasio.3 In a paradigmatic attack on the Cartesian dualism, Damasio has demonstrated what the vegetative, senso-motoric and emotional levels mean for the emergence of consciousness and what that means for that which we designate as our selves. One of his central hypotheses is that consciousness – perception and awareness – begins as a feeling that takes place within the organism, when it interacts with its environment. Damasio locates this basic level of experience, as a “proto-self” designated sub-system, as he calls it, of the human self. Body functions are unconsciously represented and regulated in the brain vis-àvis the proto-self. The human emotions are assigned a decisive role in this regulation process. Emotions are specific, well-coordinated sets of biological answers which are elicited by stimuli. The answers of the organism can include physical as well as cognitive functions. Ultimately, they serve to maintain the organism within the narrow homeostatic equilibrium which it needs to survive. Among the possible physical functions is the activation of the autonomous nervous system or the activation of the musculature, which for instance can lead to changes in posture or facial expression. For instance stronger mental functions of the organismic answers can occur in the activation of behavioral patterns like bonding, play, exploration or in the acceleration or slowing down of information processing. Many of the physical functions of emotions are visible for third parties, regardless of whether or not we are aware of our emotional conditions. Among such functions, for instance, are blushing or turning pale, the tensing of muscles in fear or the motoric agitation we show when we are excited. In addition to these outward signals emotions have an inner-directed, quasi-“private” face; Damasio designates this side as feelings. Feelings have the potential to be consciously perceived by us and thereby to be recognized. At this point our knowledge can remain limited to physical aspects like pulse, dryness of the mouth, etc., or it can have more far-reaching meaning, which makes possible more complex replies for us. Knowing our feelings is a capacity of what Damasio calls the core-self. It includes a stronger sense of self than the proto-self, but is temporary and is continuously recreated in relation to every object with which the organism interacts. The autobiographical self, that is, what we normally mean when we speak of self, is formed on the basis of the first two self-systems. We experience it as extended in space and time, and it includes memories of the past and fantasies of the future. It is less senso-motoric and more mentalized and structured by language because an autobiographical identity requires a capacity to constitute itself in a coherent narrative. Nevertheless, it is built up from what Damasio calls “somatic marker” or “body loop” processes and dimensions of experience. This indicates that creative adaptation to the environment, or that, which according to the relevant emphasis of language is also designated as psychological maturity or the art of living, is dependent on how well these three levels of emotions, feelings and the mental are integrated.

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What happens, if they dissociate, that is if that which we consciously think about ourselves and our unconscious emotional reality falls apart? On the basis of the latest explanation models of human memory, the connection between physical and mental processes becomes clear. One assumes today that there are two memory systems, a so-called explicit or declarative, and an implicit, or procedural. In addition to language the explicit memory can also be connected with pictures. Its contents can relatively easily be called up and it forms a large part of the autobiographical memory. The implicit memory works differently. It represents a significant part of the human unconscious and is not so easily accessible to conscious attention. It contains no verbal or vis­ual contents, but is structured sensorically and motorically. It is an affective senso-motoric unity and as such inseparable from the body. The characterological actions and unconscious conclusions, which people for instance draw from earlier and difficult experiences, are anchored on this level in so-called affectivemotoric schemata. It is increasingly assumed that human beings process information, including emotional information, in two basal formats, a symbolic and a sub-symbolic, or as it is sometimes called, nonsymbolic format. The symbolic mode is familiar to us in the form of pictures and language. Symbolic unities are distinguished by their reference or correlation to something else and in combination with other symbols can generate new forms, as words qua symbols quintessentially do, thereby creating the myriads of linguistic forms. At least conceptually the sub-symbolic mode is less familiar to us and technically more difficult to describe, aside from the fact that it is highly evident in our daily lives. It organizes countless actions and decisions of our daily life: when we throw a ball of paper in the paper basket, weave our way into a line of cars or when we react to the facial expression or gesture of someone. It is traditionally described as intuition or wisdom of the body. Not without reason, because sub-symbolic processing of information does not take place in words and pictures, but rather in motoric, visceral and sensoric forms, as body perception and posture, and as sounds, odors and feelings. Concerning the German poet Hermann Broch, Elias Canetti said that his secret as an author was that he was connected with people and the times they lived through breathing. Broch, according to Canetti, collected respiratory spaces, with which he characterized people and deciphered their peculiarities and existential sensitivities.4 What Canetti meant was a specific physical kind of “knowledge.“ This capability is not so unusual as it might seem at first. We all know to some extent how centrally breathing is involved in our moods and sensitivities; how it feels when it is hard to breathe, because the sheer weight of existence weighs us down, or when we gasp for fear or when we are happy and our breath is light, expansive and elevated for joy and words fail us. This capability of a specific senso-motoric intelligence characterizes especially people, who give top performances in sport, or in the so-called creative professions like sculpture, music, dance, or in medicine. From these spheres of activity we receive tentative indications, about what human beings have at their disposal, in order to attain mastery of such activities. Next to industriousness, endurance, and talent, the capacity of sub-symbolic perception and processing seems to play a not insignificant role. We underestimate the meaning and the wealth of our sensual perception. We deceive ourselves as to how we sense things – delicacy of feeling affects our apprehension of the world – and the extent to which our intellectual capacity is based on the maturity and differentiation of our sentient capacity. We tend to overlook it for biographical as well as cultural reasons. We therefore only dimly perceive these connections among other reasons because we do not want to remember how much of our sensitivity and delicacy of feeling we have given up in the dramas and dark nights

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of our childhood, because in light of unbearable mortifications, pains and disappointments the world seemed easier to endure without them. At any rate, I tend to understand the dramas of childhood, not like Freud, as instinctual vicissitude, but more as the vicissitude of our psychic capacity to feel. Because our psychic, or if we want to narrow it down, our sensoric-emotional sensitivity, is truly and inseparably bound up with our vulnerability – especially when we grow up in relationships with bad feedback – we more or less forfeit this capability. We either harden, becoming deaf and dull, or our psyche dissociates in fragments of self that are badly or not at all integrated. The consequences of traumatic experiences are shown most clearly in the human reaction spectrum between dullness and disassociation. Next to the meaning of the development of sensitivity, therapeutic traditions point to an additional fundamental aspect, namely creativity. At any rate, in their more judicious forms those traditions comprehend creativity as a new beginning; as the exit from the unconscious continuity of bad or inadequate relationships and reality experiences and as the attempt to sound out and risk the opportunities and chances of life anew. The philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has pointed out that therapy is also located in a tradition of cultural phenomena, which are all based on the idea that new beginnings are possible for human beings. Among these phenomena are the religions that promise resurrection, poesy and its skills to counterpose better worlds with the inferior reality, and also the “pristine philosophy, with its intention to ease the departure from disfiguring opinions for thinking souls and to bring them to the light of true reflections.”5 However, now we find ourselves in the Postmodern in a mental large-scale weather pattern, in which creativity is pinned down in the context of self-conceit. What we see is that our world, and not just in the media, is shot through with high-grade, prefabricated look. The shadows in Plato’s cave of our time are computer generated high-tech pictures of Olympian beauty and perfection. And the willingness to move out of the cave, upon which Socrates and Plato could still rely, is therefore on the retreat, because postmodern caves have floor heating and skylights and because Eros, the former stalwart of Socrates, has gone astray from the philosophers and is working instead as a pampered slave in the ad agencies and designer studios in Paris or New York. Above all the sheer physicality of human beings in the Postmodern makes clear, that we are being subjected to the ongoing propaganda of the beautiful, of the ecstatic and of the successful life. The gleamingly gorgeous, erotically honed body has long become the norm. If chronologists are now talking about an age of narcissism, what is meant is the mass orientation to imagos and image; orientation to pictures, which reflect magnitude, strength, beauty and success, with a simultaneous loss of a real self-assurance based on a sensual- physical self-perception. Clinically speaking, this is called a defense mechanism against the perception of difficult and mortifying aspects of self and reality.6 For the narcissistic dynamic, which concerns us here, and which decisively left its mark on the socio-psychological climate of the Postmodern, a new beginning would mean deconstructing the imagos as such, exposing them as virtual realities, hatched from the head as attempts to compensate for the insults and fragility of human existence. That is the theme of the film, Matrix. It is a brilliant depiction of some of the main features of the human predicament in the Postmodern. Neo, the hero of the story, vaguely suspects that something in the world in which he lives is not exactly as it seems. The film shows us that we have to be ready to leave our trusted framework and to plunge into the oceanic expanse of not-knowing, about which Jaspers said, that it is like the sea, without a firm bottom, and precisely for that reason is the basic philosophizing mood. In the best case we experience the state of limbo when the previously secure definitions and fixed images of the self and the world dissolve; in the worst case we are overcome by a kind of bottomless horror

Transition of Neo into the “real world”

givens and validities of a trusted experience in the world and tradition dissolve, in which the limbo of not-knowing in a, one could say, foetal-regressive swimming motion must be endured, in which the New expresses itself more as something sensed and felt, a sensoric-motoric experience that something has developed. As the son of a midwife Socrates knew something about this basic structure of the cominginto-the-world of human subjects, of knowledge and truth. His often rude practice of deconstructing the false assurances and pseudo-ideas, and his insistence on not-knowing are indications of the maieutic orientation of his philosophy. By way of analogy, it is not wrong if one also understands creative and therapeutic processes as processes of childbearing and being born. There are good reasons to assume that human beings, who develop “creative knowledge”, are in possession of a special midwife’s knowledge, even if they have conceptual and other reservations, to be so intimately associated with such a female profession. Peter Sloterdijk made a decisive contribution to the acknowledgement of the human natality (Geburtlichkeit) as a philosophical magnitude. Concerning the connection between the state of being born and cognition he formulated it as follows: “Since the word natality (Geburtlichkeit)

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vacui, which we know from existential crises. Most authors overlook or underestimate what happens in this film in the transition from the world of appearances of the Matrix into the real world. One can read the unmistakable birth metaphor of this central transition scene on different levels: as projections of experiences of birth trauma of the director or as an indication of the structural identity of birth and initiations experiences. In the context of the questions of this book they provide a clear indication that the knowledge which is meaningful for us on an existential level, can not be downloaded from the internet or the delivered just-in-time by the stork. It is realized much more in crisis-laden and not always smooth transition passages, in which the

Notes 1 Plessner, Helmuth: Die Stufen des Organischen und der Mensch. Berlin 1975 2 Merleau-Ponty, Maurice: Phänomenologie der Wahr-

nehmung. Berlin 1966 3 Damasio, Anton R.: Ich fühle, also bin ich. Munich 2000 4 Canetti, Elias: Das Augenspiel. Lebensgeschichte 1931–1937. (Fiction, Poetry & Drama). Frankfurt/Main 1988 5 Sloterdijk, Peter: Zur Welt kommen – zur Sprache kommen. Frankfurt/ Main 1988 6 Kohut, Heinz: Wie heilt die Psychoanalyse? Frankfurt/Main 1989 7 Sloterdijk, Peter: Zur Welt kommen – zur Sprache kommen. Frankfurt/Main 1988

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is no longer concealed, it becomes clear for the first time what non-concealment as such means: after two and a half thousand years of European philosophy the truth concept has come nearer to its explanation in the reflection of the word natality (Geburtlichkeit). From the moment when human beings understand that they are not only those who have been born, but also in a state of being born, can they grasp that truth is a function of their coming into the world.“7

Neurobiology, Mimesis and Art

Hinderk M. Emrich In order to understand the origin of Knowledge, an overall concept – a kind of ”knowledge of knowledge,” – a philosophy of cognition is ultimately needed: how do we arrive at knowledge? In what follows this question will be pursued from the perspective of the origin of creativity. How do we find a connection between creativity and understanding? “Knowledge of knowledge” – Philosophy of cognition

With regard to understanding as a creative act, we approach two almost impenetrable characteristics of our intellect at once. First, there is the question of the “understanding”: Can we understand the understanding, or is this a circular approach? Then there is the question of creativity: What does it mean to create something new? How does the new arise, the new in us? Isn’t everything that is, that which it is, and not something else?1 But then how does something become that which it is? Is not becoming ultimately “becoming something else”? In this sense one could say, that in order to understand the understanding and to usher in the origin of creativity, the basic question is: How can we do justice to the impenetrability of what is real? Can we make do with the incomprehensibility of life? According to the view of the philosophers Reinhard Löw and Robert Spaemann, “what for?” questions2 have a genuine anthropological background. A rational explanation of what is not understood in the reality of our lives helps to reduce fear, because the explanation of processes of nature leads to predictability and demythologizing of the real. In this sense, the main question of this book touches upon “creating knowledge,” that is, the creation of understanding, a virtually evolutionary biological as well as psychological subject. At the same time, there are fundamental questions of philosophy, such as: What is the mind? Can the mind comprehend the mind? And if so, how? How does reason examine? (This is how the philosopher Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi poses the question in his, “Philosophie der vernehmenden Vernunft [Philosophy of Scrutinizing Reason].”3) What is the “scrutinizing reason”? What is the understanding of the understanding? These kinds of questions are not posed without peril; they tend toward the circular. In his Blue Book, Ludwig Wittgenstein says at one point about such questions: “Questions like ‘What is length?,’ ‘What is meaning?,’ ‘What is the number one?,’ etc., are the occasion of intellectual cramps. We sense that we cannot point to anything, in order to answer them, and that we should nevertheless point to something. (…) Because in order to understand the meaning of ‘meaning’ you must certainly also understand the meaning of ‘explanation of the meaning.’”4 Therefore, Wittgenstein asks for an explanation of meaning. With reference to our subject one could analogously say: “Because in order to understand the meaning of understanding, you must certainly understand the explanation of understanding.” We shall see that for our context, posing that kind of question can be thought of as provoking. As was already suggested, the goal of the question concerning the explanation of the understanding is a “knowledge

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Creativity and Understanding

Woodcut from popular meteorology by Camille Flammarion (L’athmosphere, 1888), in which a human being explodes his own world view

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of knowledge,” a knowledge about the meaning-laden origin of knowledge; which ultimately means “creating knowledge.” Is something like that possible at all? As an introduction to this problem one thinks of the philosopher and psychiatrist Karl Jaspers who in his Allgemeinen Psychopathologie,5 distinguished between “causal explanation” and “intuitive understanding,” especially with reference to processes of understanding of psychologically sick people, i.e., with reference to psychopathology. Jaspers distinguished between the hermeneutic path of the empathetic, “intuitive understanding” on the one hand, and the path of the scientific causal explanation on the other; paths that at least initially, mutually exclude each other. The question arises, whether there can be a scientific path of cognition that exists on the terrain between understanding and explanation. Can such a path be imagined? The suggestion of the editors is that the understanding is ultimately based on creativity, on creative activity. New mental-psychological realties are created in us, which on the one hand generate external reality with new contexts and on the other, contain a new potential for understanding, in the sense of “clarity.” At first a kind of Eureka! effect occurs. Initially, one could now try to describe this creative act not as something understandable, but rather explainable, something that in a sense can be grasped in naturalistic reduction. That is the reason it seems to make sense at this point to base the argument on neurobiology. According to Jaspers, who was a philosopher as well as psychiatrist, as a psychiatrist, one is always simultaneously a hermeneutic (practitioner of understanding), and therefore, also a naturalist in the sense of the causal explanation. For instance, a brain tumor might cause mental confusion. Parenthetically, let it be said at this point that not only are the psychic landscapes to be explored and shaped; the landscapes of our environment must also be understood, before we shape and create them anew.

What is creativity from the point of view of neurobiology? How is it that a brain can create something new? Before we address this question, we must try to understand what brains actually accomplish and to what extent they have something to do with creating knowledge. Before we talk about brains in detail, a basic preliminary remark: we are concerned here with the curiosity function in the central nervous system, the quasi question-asker in us. But in order to avoid any misunderstandings, brains are not curious creatures; it is much more we human beings, with the aid of our brains, who are curious. Brains are in a certain sense poles in us, but in order to understand the central nervous system, the existential form of the entire human being must be considered. The brain always exists in relation to the body, in reference to life, in reference to what the philosopher Martin Buber6 called the “betweenness”; it can also be designated as the “interpersonal self.” If one wishes to understand how creativity occurs from the neurobiological point of view, then one must start with the basic principals of how our brains function. How does the human brain function? Does it act like a computer, which simply evaluates data, or does it concern other basic phenomena, which can be described in terms of evolutionary biology?

Systems theoretical scheme for the “fitting process” between an internal “model” and “sense data” during cognition

Scheme of the directions in top-down-processes and bottom-up-processes in the central nervous system (Desimone et al., 1995)

Considerations of questions concerning creativity and brain are heavily dependent on the metaphors used for the explanations of brain functions – i.e., on the scientific concepts upon which brain research is based – because we are still relatively far from being able to understand the brain as the overall scientific goal7 of neurobiology. The brain seems to many neurobiologists to be a kind of “neuro-computer,” which controls the central nervous functions. But since computers are basically data evaluating machines and generate very little that is new, creativity – and “freedom” as well – have yet to be explained. However, in return there are a series of neurobiological orientations, which are concerned with the question of creativity in the central nervous system. For instance, for the neurobiologist von der Maalsburg,8 the central nervous system is a “search engine.” It is “on the look-out and “intentional,” regarding the search for something “meaning-laden.” Von der Maalsburg describes the brain as a “significance detector.” From the almost “infinite murmur” of sense data layers the central nervous system always searches for a significant pattern that could be “meaningful” for the biological system. For the neurobiolo-

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gist Martin Heisenberg9 the brain is always quasi “poised,” a bearer of spontaneity, that he describes as “initiating activity.” According to this concept, brain functions do not simply react to what happens, but instead they constellate something, they create a “situation,” in which they take the initiative. In this way, according to Heisenberg, the classical picture of the behavioral reflex and the homeostatic regulation for the control of behavior in a biologically relevant situation is wrong, because the central nervous system is depicted as “too passive,” as not spontaneous enough, as showing too little initiative, too little situation “shaping” in the models. A very important function of the brain, which has been especially developed by the constructivists, is associated with this: the reality-creating function, the “constructivity of brains.10 The reality hypotheses, which are generated in the central nervous system, are in dynamic exchange with the sense data layers in the process of cognition. According to this conviction, creative, reality-generating functions of the central nervous system are squared off against the sense data processing functions in the brain. The conceptually structuring as well as the creative functions are characterized as “top-down” concepts (functioning in the hierarchy “from the top to the bottom”), while the sense data evaluating functions are depicted as “bottom-up” perceptual functions (functioning in the hierarchy “from the bottom to the top”). In a functional schema of the brain the neurobiologist Desimone11 showed (s. p. 127, ri) that top-down processes basically run from the front brain to the back brain, while conversely the bottom-up-processes proceed from the occipital brain (back of the head) and become active in the direction of the front brain. According to Heisenberg, in the initiation of options for action something analogous happens: possible reality options for planned actions are in a certain fashion weighed against each other and calculated, in a kind of “lottery of proposals.” Only an option for action that promises success is actually realized; at first, however, the need for creativity in order to generate new possibilities for action arises. How can this kind of creativity be explained? How is it that not everything is just the way that it is? Where do the alternatives, the possibilities come from? It appears here to be a basic neurobiological principal for creativity, that the “formation of variants” is possible. Goethe, who was very involved with the subject of creativity, was of the opinion that creativity had to do with the production of variants of what was already given. He said: “The imagination enlists for the purpose of conception. It is at first imitative, repeating the objects. It is thereafter productive, in that it animates that which has been touched.”12 In other words, fantasy has to do with transformation of imitations and their extensions. From the neurobiological standpoint, creativity appears to involve a kind of “surplus production” or, one if one wishes, the “luxury” described by Peter Sloterdijk. As Scheme of structurally dynamic components of cognition and thinking; the neurobiologist Heiligenberg13 shows, the “fitting process “ as dynamic interaction between “system” (which represents the sense data) and “model” is viewed as an elementary new functions (for instance with electric process of cognition and thereby, as the smallest element of consciousness fish) become possible from an evolutionformation. The secondary, structurally dynamic interaction of “meta-models” ary biological standpoint, in that neuronal with “models” is interpreted as an elementary process of thinking. In the networks (“assemblies”) are simply mulcase of insufficient “fitting,” reactive conceptualization occurs.

Components of cognition —  Sense

data (from outside to inside) strategies (from inside to outside) (world model) —  Analysis rules (censorship) in the case of lack of clarity —  Evaluation

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tiplied, and that the additional and in that sense “luxuriating” assemblies can take over new functions. This also appears possible on the semantic level: it is suspected that reality options, which function suboptimally, provide an impulse for the formation of variants and then make possible better adaptative actions. In this sense the question can be asked: But what happens – and that is the central question of Creating Knowledge, the central question of the explanation of understanding – if there is no “fitting” at all? What happens, if there is no internal explanatory pattern in the repertoire of the possible interpretations, to explain the sense data pattern? In this case a creative process must be put in motion that enlarges the repertoire of the reality hypotheses. In the schema this is implied under the premise of the so-called “conceptualization pressure” (s. p. 128). The effectiveness of the “reactive conceptualization pressure”14 leads to the creative formation of new reality hypotheses and thereby to successful acts of recognition. In isolated cases, exaggerated creativity can lead to psychotic conditions and “nervous breakdowns,” as is sometimes the case with drug use and schizophrenic episodes. The brain has built-in “self limitation processes,” which can also be described as “acts of censure.” In his book, The Doors of Perception,15 Aldous Huxley reports that certain drugs like mescaline and LSD (also cannabinoids) can suppress such self-limitation processes and cause schizophrenia-like psychosis. These kinds of processes in the brain are currently being intensively researched in neurobiology. Goethe also had some thoughts on this subject: “The kind of fancy I prefer, today is much too bullish, if I should choose to follow her, then I’m considered foolish.”16 The latest research in the area of synaesthetic perceptions contains aspects that can also be referred to as creative processes in the brain. With the so-called “genuine synaesthesia” a special brain function is present, which enables the human central nervous system to create an absolutely creative self existence, which differs from the self existences of other persons and also other synaesthetics. A “virtual perception space” is created, in which complex perceptions, the so-called “syn-characteristics” occur, which means that perception of a sense quality (“qualium”) is joined by other qualia: for instance a color joins up with a letter or a number, a geometric form with a taste or smell, or a colored surface structure joins a musical sound. In all probability, such subjectively highly relevant creative acts on the part of subjects (with the “genuine form”) can be explained on a purely neurobiological basis, and can also be understood psychologically and psychodynamically only in side aspects. The causes for the synaesthetic connections are not yet really understood; however, there are indications that emotional incidents (“limbic functions”) play a role. Limbic functions also have to do with the allocation of “meaning” and that is a relevant aspect for philosophy. Cognition is not just realized “cognitively” in the sense of pure work of understanding. Aspects that are weighted more towards feeling are much more crucial for the function of the mind – especially for creativity. On the basis of the observations represented to date, one can proceed on the assumption that in the mental constitution in the central nervous system, in addition to the two components of top-down and bottom-up, we can also assume that there is also a third component, namely the internal censure, i.e., “internal censorship.” This involves a reality revising function and works according to the rule, that nothing can be that ought not be.

Mimesis and understanding

In the third part of this essay we will address a correlation that is of decisive significance, particularly for psychology and interpersonal philosophy. What is at stake here is not the question of the understanding of something (i.e., of an object), but rather “understanding each other.” We are concerned here not with facts or the state of affairs, but rather with the inner life of a human being, the experiencing of another person: creative knowledge about others! In a certain way the phenomenon of “mimesis” plays a role, which the literary researcher and anthropologist René Girard18 describes in his mimesis theory. The basis for it is the “theory of mind,” the question of what it means to be the Other.

Representation of the “hippocampal comparator” systems according to Gray and Rawlins, whereby comparisons are carried out between external data and stored internal data for each case.

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Two questions now occur in connection with the previous considerations: a) How does this self-limitation, which ultimately hampers creativity, function? b) How can we observe these censure processes? Concerning the first question, it may be said that according to the concept represented by Desimone in Ill. p. 127 (ri), the censure function can be located in the temporal lobes region. Authors Gray and Rawlins17 described the way this censure functions as a “ComparatorSystem.” These functions are correlated with the temporal lobes (hippocampus) and are always schematically a comparison between “expectation” and “sense data reality” (s. below). The other question, of the observability of the censure, can be answered with the aid of socalled “illusion research.” This goes back to a time-honored philosophical tradition: from Plato to Descartes, Husserl, and Wittgenstein. Visual illusions vividly demonstrate the representation of the perception hypotheses, i.e., the top-down components (s. p. 131, le).

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left: A simple visual illusion, in which structures apparently lying inside a lightly colored triangle appear to be lying on top of it, whereby the triangle’s corners are virtual and are generated by internal conceptualization. right: Basic structure of the relationship between subject (S), mediator (Med.) and object (Obj.)

The thousand-year-old concept of mimesis as an “approximation” of subjects, of self-approximation, the assimilation of the “Other of our self” is an idea the French anthropologist René Girard developed into a theory of interpersonal linkage. This is especially well suited to describe the nature of the medial, of mediation. Girard assumes that the concept of mimesis is too general, too abstract, if it means that subjects simply resemble each other. What interests him is to show to what extent human beings internalize the wishes, hopes, and desires of other human beings, who are kinds of guarantors of global values for them, that is, so-called mediators. For instance, Girard discovered that in the nineteenth century French novel the protagonists did not fall in love with their partners on their own, but rather because a mediator who set the tone virtually prescribed the goal of this relationship (s. p. 131, ri). In their book Mimesis. Kultur – Kunst – Gesellschaft, Gunter Gebauer and Christoph Wulf show the breadth of the spectrum in the history of the concept of mimesis, from its origins in the psychomotility of dance to the “constructive contribution to the education of young people”: “mimesis is defined as the imitation of exemplary persons, the goal being to become like them.”19 The mimetic reflection of the mediator is in a way an “inside-out” of the intentions, wishes, desires, and hopes; a kind of “valorization” of the world, the establishment of binding global values in contrast to the subject who is dependent on that, who is confronted with that constellation of value. Girard’s central idea with reference to the mimesis theory says that human beings in so-called “triangulation relationships” are very strongly influenced by other persons, who relate meaning and value to reality. In this way these mediators have an extraordinary valorizing significance. Girard shows that the linkage between subjects and mediators does not occur through a simple re enactment of role models, but rather that an “intention linkage” takes place between subject and mediator in relation to a common object. We reenact the wishes and not the actions of the Other in us and therefore we can empathize with the feelings of the Other. In this way, according to Girard, a domain of understanding of the Other with feelings of respect arises and thereby an interpersonal bridge for the “empathetic understanding.”

If we make the bridge from understanding of understanding as creativity to the understanding of the Other in the mimesis of the mediator, and proceed from there to the understanding in art, then we see that here, in contrast to explanation we find ourselves on the side of pure understanding, the “empathy” in the sense of Jasper. 20 Artists often describe their process of creation as fateful, as interventions in life and as the mastery of identity crises. There are as many accesses and points of introduction here as there are artistic forms of understanding of self and others. I select here the painting of Vincent van Gogh, because the severely mentally ill van Gogh – about whom Jaspers wrote a pathographical treatise – left behind unique documents about the identity formation crises in artistic creation in his letters to his brother Theo, in which he described the gruesome loneliness that emerged in the transformation process from the internal to the external existence. I quote here from a letter written in July, 1880: “Some harbor a great fire in their souls, and no one ever comes to warm themselves; those passing by don’t see anything more than a little smoke which billows out of the chimney, and they go about their ways. What should one do?” Van Gogh says about the painter Millet: “He (…) has brought me more back to nature than anyone else had been able to in the desperate condition of my soul.” In later letters he even speaks about “comforting pictures.”21 Van Gogh was not unaware that along the way of his wrestling with nature he had succeeded in unveiling her secrets, despite an almost complete lack of recognition. He writes in a letter in the spring of 1885 about his picture The Potato Eaters, that he had really created something new here. He described his approach as follows: “I am looking for something else than what was in my old drawings, the nature of the peasants – especially the local ones – to find it out.”22 And, as he wrote in another location, it was necessary here, “to become a peasant myself.” Van Gogh’s creativity can therefore be understood as an especially intensive process of understanding. This mimetic process of penetrating into, as Hegel23 said, the “Other of our self” is not possible without creative self-transformation. In that way, in fact, there is a bridge between understanding, creativity, mimesis and art which spans the overall concept of Creating Knowledge. We can conclude with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe when he said: “The imagination enlists for the purpose of conception. It is at first imitative, repeating the objects. It is thereafter productive, in that it animates that which has been touched.” In the final analysis the issue is transformations, metamorphoses. Notes 1 The sentence: “Everything is what it is and not an other thing,” is from the English philosopher Joseph Butler In: Butler, Joseph:

“Fifteen sermons preached at the Rolls Chapel” (1726). In: Butler, Joseph: Sermons. Cambridge, Boston 1827; digital conversion by LeRoy Dagg, MTS, 2002 2 Spaemann, Robert/Löw, Reinhard: Die Frage Wozu? Geschichte und Wiederentdeckung des teleologischen Denkens. Munich 1981 3 Jacobi, Friedrich H.: Werke, vol. IV, Beilagen zu den Briefen über die Lehre des Spinoza, No. VII., Darmstadt 1980 4 Wittgenstein, Ludwig: Das Blaue Buch. Complete works in 8 volumes, vol. 5. Frankfurt/Main 1984 5 Jaspers, Karl: Allgemeine Psychopathologie. Berlin 1913 6 Buber, Martin: Ich und Du. Gerlingen 1994 7 As the philosopher Quine once defined it, each of the exact sciences eliminates “similarities” and only describes the thing itself: “In general we can consider it as an especially clear sign of the maturity of a branch of science, if it no longer needs an irreducible term of similarity and description. It is that last stage, upon which the animal rudiments are entirely absorbed in the theory.” Quine, Willard v. Orman: „Natürliche Arten.“ In: Quine, Willard v. Orman: Ontologische Relativität und andere Schriften. Stuttgart 1971 8 von der Maalsburg, Ch.: personal communication in 1993 9 Heisenberg, Martin: “Voluntariness (Willkürfähigkeit) and the general organization of behavior.” In: Greenspan, Ralph J./Kyriacou, Charalambos P. (Hg.): Flexibility and constraint in behavioral systems. Dahlem Workshop Reports, Chichester 1994, p. 147–156 10 Roth, Gerhard: “Das konstruktive Gehirn: Neurobiologische Grundlagen von Wahrnehmung und Erkenntnis.” In: Schmidt, Siegfried J. (ed.): Kognition und Gesellschaft. Der Diskurs des Radikalen Konstruktivismus 2. Frankfurt/Main 1992, pp. 277–336 11 Desimone, R./Miller, E.K./Chelazzi, L./ Lueschow, A.: “Multiple Memory Systems in the Visual Cortex.” In: Gazzaniga, Michael (Ed.): The Cognitive Neurosciences. Cambridge, Massachusetts 1995, pp 475–486 12 Goethe, Johann W. von: Sämtliche Werke. Briefe, Tagebücher

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Artistic understanding: Creativity and Art

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und Gespräche. Birus, Hendrik et al., (ed.)/ 40 volumes, vol. 9.2, Frankfurt/Main 1994, p. 152 13 Heiligenberg, Walter: “Central processing of sensory information in electric fish.” In: Comparative Physiology. Vol. 161, 1987, p. 621–631 14 Emrich, Hinderk M.: Psychiatrische Anthropologie: Therapeutische Bedeutung von Phantasiesystemen / Wirklichkeitsrelativismus und Sinnfrage. München 1990 Page not cited 15 Huxley, Aldous: Die Pforten der Wahrnehmung. Munich 1984 16 Goethe, Johann W. von: Faust. Der Tragödie erster Teil. Stuttgart 1986, p. 126 17 Gray, J.A./Rawlins, J.N.P.: “Comparator and buffer memory: an attempt to integrate two models of hippocampal functions.” In: Isaacson, Robert L./Pribram, Karl H. (Ed.): The Hippocampus. Plenum vol. 4. New York 1986, p. 151–201 18 Girard, René: Mensonge romantique et vérité romanesque. Paris 1985 19 Gebauer, Gunter/Wulf,Christoph: Mimesis. Kultur - Kunst – Gesellschaft. Hamburg 1992 20 Jaspers, Karl: Allgemeine Psychopathologie. Berlin 1913 21 Gogh, Vincent van: Als Mensch unter Menschen. Briefe I und II. Berlin 1959 22 ibd. 23 Hegel, Georg W.: Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften. In: Werke in 20 Bänden. Frankfurt/Main 1970

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Art, Work and Education1

Among the effects of the New Economy was an unexpectedly direct convergence of the economic and the artistic. It was expressed in a multitude of publications, exhibitions and congresses, which on the one hand emphasized more strongly the artistic, and on the other hand the socio-political or cultural economic side.2 In view of the culturalization of the economical, the role model functions are especially to be underscored, which were assigned to artists, the conditions of their work and their social status. Self-determination, freedom and self-realization, significant values associated with art, have an increased relevance and attraction for the post-Fordistic work forms and structures. The cultural sociologist Gerhard Schulze wrote in 1992 about the hegemonic idea of artistry: “In the mythos of the artist at the end of the twentieth century the traditional components of mastery and privileged participation in the sublime have disappeared for the most part. Both elements refer to systems which do not immediately come from the personality of the artist’s self, but rather those which he tries to approximate; they had to become in the same measure obsolete, as the artist became a projection of the idea of self-realization. The artist is primarily the performer of his subjectivity. In the stampede to the art academies and creative professions and in the close connection of the new culture scene and self-realization milieu it becomes clear that the artist is now the vehicle of the Me–visions of the self-realization milieu. In the idea of that milieu the artists works very hard on themselves, often in seclusion, unwaveringly, and responsible only to themselves.”3 A changed profile of demands is reflected in this conjunction of self-realization and self-optimization, which has gained considerably in meaning for post-Fordistic work relations and which is based on the re-evaluation of the subjectivity of those who work. Self-responsibility, selfdiscipline and self-management are operating here as self-technologies, which represent the precondition for the freedoms associated with the term “self-realization.” Directed towards the creation of market advantages, what is at issue is self-economization, which, according to Ulrich Bröckling, is no longer gauged for a “standard inventory of personality characteristics,” but rather on the “norm of individuality.”4 Ideas concerning artistry and artistic forms of practice also receive additional relevance from the increase of immaterial work. The source of wealth is shifting, if one follows Maurizio Lazzarato’s analysis, to conceptual activities. Knowledge and skills in dealing with information and culture are taking the place of the goods producing processes.5 Regarding the development of industry into a service economy, the activities in the so-called secondary service sectors, like management, organization, consulting, publishing and teaching have increased disproportionately, a trend which will continue in the near future. Indeed, according to prognoses published by Werner Dostal and Alexander Reinberg, publishing activities and artistic work should almost double from 1995 to 2010.6 Distinctions between conception and execution, between painstaking routine and creative design, and between author and public begin to dissolve in such work processes and responsibility is distributed in more horizontal hierarchies, in which the working persons are addressed as “active subjects,” and take over the planning and coordination tasks of production.7 The integration of subjectivity and personality of the working persons is supposed to lead to an increased identification with the work and the company. The down side to the advantages of selfdetermination and self-administration is economic appropriation and a breakdown of the

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be creative!® The Creative Imperative May 2002 to January 2003 in cooperation with Marion von Osten, Berlin/Zürich, the Institute for the Theory of Design and Art at the College for Design and Art in Zürich and the Museum for Design in Zürich41 Creativity is currently formulated as a requirement that marks not only the cultural, but also the economic area, which is linked with the expectation of personal success achieved by dint of self-reliance, but also with making a contribution to the firm of employment. Self-employment and lifelong-learning, patchwork-identities and do-it-yourself programs thereby often attempt to revitalize outdated ideas of artistic life and work, in order to make risk-taking, personal responsibility and ongoing flexibility socially attractive. In cooperation with Marion von Osten and the Institute for the Theory of Design and Art at the College for Design and Art in Zürich, /D/O/ C/K developed specific researches, opportunities for presentation and accompanying programs for the respective artistic and social context in Leipzig and Zürich, which traced different forms of economistic appropriations of the creativity paradigm and at the same time scouted out anew artistic maneuvering spaces.

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borders of work on the basis of the dwindling separation between the professional and private spheres. In contemporary art discourse these changed work relations are treated as well as the risks which result from the appropriation of the symbolic capital linked as much with artistic products as with artistic practices. These risks include, in order to mention just a few key points – the appeals to creativity derived from the attributions to art and artists, the precarious work situations associated with self-administration, the merchandizing of subjectivity, and the feminization of work and self-economization. In what follows, when I separately treat a form of practice in the field of art – curatorial acting – then beyond the forms of confrontation already mentioned, a perfect example of immaterial work and its specific conditions as well as cultural and sociopolitical effects and scope emerges into view. In the case of the curatorial, I am dealing with a field of activity available to a multitude of users, and which can also illustrate the current work relations as well as structurally exemplify it. Nonetheless, although this field, and that is the assumption of the following remarks, has a self-reflexive, critical potential to develop outside the realm of art, it has until now only been marginally explored. The potential of curatorial activity is on the one hand closely knit with artistic practice in history and status, and on the other hand – as practices incorporating organization, social networking, nexus of content, motivation, empowerment and practice of interpretive exposition – it combines social and self-technologies with each other in a form that corresponds to the current demands on economic management. Postmodern extensions of the concept of art and post-Fordistic conceptions of work overlap here. That twin constellation of relations also belongs in the focus of these remarks. The background to the questions raised here is the project work with which I have been involved since 1994 with Diethelm Stoller and Ulf Wuggenig in the Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg, and since 2000 with Alexander Koch in the “/D/O/C/K project space” at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig. Both models aim to integrate artists, representatives of various academic disciplines and professions as well as those studying cultural studies and art. In these problem-oriented and procedurally laid out “temporary communities” professional roles are always made available and the tasks and functions traditionally associated with them gain in intrinsic value. In this context the curatorial activity assumes central meaning, since hierarchies, exclusions and disciplinary measures stand out with particular clarity, because demands and competences of all those involved overlap to a significant extent.8 In this way curatorial activity can make a substantial contribution to dissolving or displacing of such power relations among players in the field of art, like artists, gallery owners, curators, critics and scientists. The explosive growth of curator courses internationally can only seemingly be related to the meaning of curatorial work addressed here. In the (indirect) succession of the Whitney Independent Study Program established in 1968 in New York, many such training opportunities were created in the nineties in North America and Europe – for instance at Bard College in Ananndaleupon-Hudson, in de Appel in Amsterdam, in Grenoble and Rennes, in Krems in Austria, in Stockholm, two in London and currently also one in Geneva – which are related to an increased need for curatorial work and competence, above all in the field of contemporary art. However, if one considers the differentiation of the studies programs, there is an apparent lack of consensus about which capabilities distinguish or ought to distinguish curators in relation to other players in the art field, above all artists. In the following I will first locate the formalization of the educational paths to curator in the context of relations characterized by convergences, competition, encroachments and appropriations of artists and curators since the late seventies. Based on that, I will describe the relevant individual activities, the criterion for their assignment to certain professions and positions, as

/D/O/C/K 4: Exhibition view with the contributions by Sabine Falk and spector 1990 ff

/D/O/C/K 4: Exhibition view with the contributions by Juliane Wenzl, Tom Holert, Felix Reidenbach and Jana Reidenbach

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well as each of the attributed characteristics and competencies. The focus will be primarily the political-emancipatory developmental tendencies of these relations, their relation to contemporary social and self-technologies and the demands for economic efficiency inscribed in them. The next step addresses the status of curators and their symbolic capital. The participation of curators in the mythical ideas of artistry makes clear the attraction which the model of the artist has for current work relations. To conclude, the gaze is then directed to the multifaceted responsibilities and obligations of curators and the scope of their activities between concepts of the artistic and management. In the transition to the Postmodern, in the late sixties and seventies, the western field of art was marked by battles for positioning especially between artists and curators, which centered on the participation in the constitution of meaning and the power of definition.9 Not coincidentally parallel to the professional differentiation in the field, a consequence of the marked increase of cultural activities in the sixties, both sides intervened into the work areas of the other and took over tasks, procedures and functions, which according to the prevailing professional conventions and norms were tied either to the professions and roles of artists or curators. In both directions these appropriations were, if for different reasons, connected with claims to empowerment. Because of the multifaceted strategies employed here, Daniel Buren’s contribution for the “documenta 5” in Kassel can be seen as exemplary: by explicitly calling into question the power of Harald Szeemann, the curator of this large exhibition, in his essay for the catalogue, by insisting on an existing bibliography consisting exclusively of his own essays, thereby denying interpretive curatorial access, by installing his uniform dividing strips which at that point in time had already been established in different rooms, next to and also behind other exhibits, and thus declaring not only the artists exhibiting but also the entire exhibition to be an exhibit and a part of his own work, he achieved self-empowerment on many levels.10 Burens’ work is to be understood in conjunction with the contemporaneous conceptual, institution critical approaches in art, which were also represented at the “documenta 5” and which were concerned with the conditions of the production, presentation and distribution of art. The most prominent varieties of such artistic procedures are to break up the consecrating power of the museums and juxtapose their own museum drafts, as in the case of Marcel Broodthaers, Hermann Diestel or Claes Oldenburg, and thereby to deconstruct the presumptions and criteria for selection and display in exhibitions, as in the installations of Michael Asher and Christian Boltanski, and finally to make visible the social preconditions for the showing of art, as in Hans Haacke’s works. Even though they could already look back on a history of artistic organization and staging of exhibitions accentuated by single examples, like Gustave Courbet, the impressionists or Marcel Duchamp, these approaches which in the course of the political developments insisted on social relevance gained emphatically in significance in the sixties. The extension not only of the field of art, but also of the concept of art, through which the primacy of the product was suspended to the benefit of concepts and processes, played into these developments. In this sociopolitical and aesthetic context, the encroachments also occurred in the other direction, from the side of the curators in the artistic realm. With the advent of “freelance curators” as a new profession, they become especially pronounced. Freelance curators were no longer exclusively engaged as full-time employees for an institution, but rather offered their work on an international exhibition market with a broadly diversified content. Harald Szeemann was the prototype and classic example of this new professional group. He established his posture with the exhibition “When Attitudes Become Form,” which he organized in 1969 when he was still director of the Bern Kunsthalle, with artistic positions that imputed more meaning to the work processes, concepts and attitudes than the product self. That

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/D/O/C/K 5: Installation view “how to put things we can/not space” 28.06. – 05.07.06

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Raumvermittlung (Mediating Space) October 2005 to July 2006 in collaboration with Dorit Margreiter, Vienna /Los Angeles42 Exhibition program: June 9 to July 15, 2006 The gallery room of the HGB was transformed into a test area for the exhibition program „Raumvermittlung“, in which the treatment of space in its aesthetic, social and political ramifications was fundamentally investigated and tested. In the course of the five week period of exhibition each of the artistic interventions – changing, interwoven individual and group presentations, workshops, performances and guest lectures – lend the gallery space another function. Links were created to other locations inside and outside the HGB. Different forms of addressing an audience, of communication and participation confronted each other, while different procedures to perceive the art in, with and through the space, were placed on the test bench. The result was that artists, viewers and artistic works as well as the gallery itself, the school and its environment constantly appeared in new relations to each other. Traditions, conventions, conditions and perspectives of showing art thus became visible. As a result ”Raumvermittlung“ was aimed not least at exhibiting the activity of exhibiting itself: It became a practice, which with its architectonic, aesthetic, social or functional parameters, can actively define, design and produce a space, to begin with.

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show is what recommended him as director of the “documenta 5.” For the first time in the “documenta” history he established a thematic orientation for the international Kassel exhibition: “Befragung der Realität – Bildwelten heute” (“Questioning Reality – Image Worlds Today“), an approach also determining his later curatorial practice, which he understood as “intellectual migrant labor.”11 When freelance curators no longer put themselves explicitly in the service of the art being exhibited, the curatorial conception instead attaining a status of its own, exhibitions turned into “works” and curators into impresarios with a prestige that was not unlike that of the artists. The self-dramatization of a Harald Szeemann, when he had himself photographed sitting on a throne on the last day of the “documenta 5,” in the midst of artists and others participants of the event flocking to him, bears witness to the transformation of the self-conception.12 The activities and tasks in the “curatorial” category at stake in the rivalry between artists and curators, first concern forms of mediation. The exhibition becomes the central medium of mediation with the goal to create a public for artistic and cultural materials and procedures, to make them visible. They are supplemented by different publication formats, like interviews, discussions of art criticism and theory, catalogues, monographs, press materials, websites, etc. The meaning defining procedures of selection, assembly, ordering and presentation determine the relevant position in the field and in the current discourse. For the strengthening of one’s own position, other tasks assigned to the institutionally tied position of the curator can additionally be taken over by artists or by all those with a claim to the participation in the definition of meaning. That means the organizational work of exhibition loans, the transportation and insurance of exhibits, the furnishing of venues, the materials and the qualified manpower for production and presentation, the securing of financial support and finally the preparatory measures for public dissemination. In the curatorial realm, artists and curators are as close to each other as they are in competition with each other. At the same time the activity of a curator is closely related to current management tasks in the economic field. The relevant organizational and mediating tasks are comparable with those of book or music publishers, of content managers or of archivists, that is, of professions that correspond to the definition of immaterial work as “ever more intellectualized abstract work“.13 In addition, curatorial activity corresponds to ideas of creativity, as they have developed into an imperative in contemporary work relations. If one follows the tripartite division with which Heinrich Popitz differentiates the forms of creativity, then curatorial activity corresponds to the “meaning imparting fantasy.” Its explanatory, constitutive, and justifying approach is distinguished from the “formative fantasy” as well as from the “explorative fantasy.”14 Popitz’ classification reflects the traditional separation between the creative processes of artists, scientists and curators, which underscores even more how this clear division was broken down in the transition to the Postmodern by the integration of curatorial activity in the artistic practice and led to an upgrading of the relational processes in comparison with autonomous products. Exactly this development leads to a situation whereby in the field of economics the references to the field of art increased. Similar to the way in which the “meaning imparting fantasy” creativity model, which is realized in curatorial activity, is based on social and organizational capabilities, the appeal for creativity in neo liberal management concepts is connected to specific social and self-technologies. There are parallels between the curatorial activities of social, visual and semantic combinations and the “innovative connectivity patterns,” that Siegfried J. Schmidt for example names as the possible results of creative personality and action structures.15 According to Schmidt, among them are the abilities to, “reconfigure the available perspectives of observation, to discover new differences and to dissolve existing ones, to make use of coincidences for establishment of order, to deconstruct predictabilities, to make insecurities tolerable”, in short: the

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capacity, on the basis of existing material to conduct the “maintenance of openness in the instability of cognitive processes.”16 In the center of his confrontation with creativity, which he employs under the guiding perspective of the economy of attention, Siegfried J. Schmidt places paradoxality. It is attributed for one thing to the personality structure of creative persons, who are considered “non-conforming outsiders,” “who realize a high degree of social independence and at the same time a great feeling of responsibility.” And for another thing it is classified with the creative processes, because, also according to Schmidt, there is a ruling research consensus that the structure of creativity lies in the integration of alterities and dualities in relation to personal characteristics as well as to the given conditions of action. The mastery of this paradoxality represents a permanent optimization task for the individuals involved. As “self-organization task” it implies not only to keep the condition of paradox “in check,” but rather to use it productively.17 Although formulated in another social context, Schmidt’s emphasis seems to come as an echo in the governmentality discussion of relations of self and ruling technologies. Appeals for creativity, which include individualistic self-realization and feeling for responsibility, are fulfilled in correlation with the social and self-technologies discussed here. “Why should it be necessary to limit individual freedoms and maneuvering rooms for design,” write Thomas Lemke, Susanne Krasmann and Ulrich Bröckling in the introduction to their study on social economization, “if political goals can be realized substantially more ‘economically’ with individual ‘self-realization.’ The carrying out of an ‘autonomous’ subjectivity as a social model is decisive, whereby the self-responsibility demanded consists in directing one’s own life in accordance with management efficiency criteria and entrepreneurial calculation.”18 With the perspective of curatorial activity and its relevance for the demands of neoliberal management as well as postmodern artistic forms of practice, such economistic self-adjustment allows for the introduction of a differentiating political perspective: especially because of the mutually conditioning proximity and competition between artists and curators in the curatorial realm a series of hierarchical displacements of positions has been registered in their relationship since the sixties. While the exhibition maker Harald Szeemann and the artist Daniel Buren could still set an example in vying for the monopoly to produce meaning by means of curatorial activities in 1972, since the nineties a critical inquiry into the most diverse appropriations in the curatorial realm has taken place. Events like the 1992/93 exhibition series “Curated by” initiated by Christian Meyer in the Heiligenkreuzerhof in Vienna, or the conference “A New Spirit in Curating?”, which Ute Meta Bauer 1992 organized in the Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, document a self-reflection, which above all makes a subject of the different curatorial assumptions. Individual methods of proceeding in dealing with artists, works, locations and institutions were presented with titles like “Minimal Curating” (Frank Perrin) or “Deltacurating” (Hans Ulrich Obrist).19 While the position of the curators here was still clearly distinguished from those of the remaining players, its contours begin to increasingly dissolve in the discussion in the second half of the nineties and overlap with those of other professional roles. For example, in the Bremen Symposium “Curating Degree Zero” 1998 personal individual branding was superseded by exhibition making characterized by participation, a processual character and multi-voiced texture.20 Exerting influence as a singular individual over the meaning of artistic works by de-contextualization and reassembly, is understood – as the discussions about the exhibitions of the Wilhelm Schürmann collection or the projects of Eric Troncy show – as an exercise of power which assigns a subordinate, mute position to the rest of those involved in the development of the works.21 The criticism was formulated in connection with the upgrading that the act of putting-onview had undergone in the art discourse parallel to the curatorial developments. With the beginning of the Postmodern the accent shifted from the product of an individual understood

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as a genius, to the modes of the display and their forms of address. In order to generate the constitutive attention for the status of art as art, in order to put something in view, one considered qualifications as necessary which went beyond the manufacture of an object. The historical re-evaluation occurred in two thrusts, around 1970 and again at the end of the eighties, and is intimately connected with the debate about the power of museums. Both are reflected in publications titles like The Politics of Display, The Power of Display, Visual Display or also, projected on the expanded social political field, Aesthetics of Staging.22 Approaches of representational and institutional critique, marked initially by a culture theory concerned with democratization, and then by the questions and methods of postcolonial and gender studies, provided the definitive framework of discussion. For the display of art, or more generally, for the public appearance of persons and objects in the cultural field, the however consciously motivated strategic contact with the social, political, cultural and psychological context, and the different forms of public constituting themselves here became decisive. More recent approaches in the sector of exhibitions, as they are pursued from the curatorial as well as from the artistic side, can be described as project work which takes up these critical alignments through the relations among the participants as well as their processes of exchange and positioning. They are aimed, if not at disbanding, then relocating and dynamically redesigning the ruling internal and external gender specifically, racially, nationally, socially or economically conditioned relationships of dependency in the field of art, but also those resulting from the responsibilities of curators to the artists – the sponsoring institutions, gallery owners and collectors, the peer group of curators as well as the various public groups. The precondition to do that is that the individual curatorial forms of practice are always distributed anew among the players according to the respective questions posed, with the temporarily taken different competences and positions.23 This free availability of the curatorial form of activity makes it possible to tie in with the political orientation of the institutional critique around 1970 and to augment the aspect of competition in the relationship of curators and artists with that of negotiation. The political perspectives, which are embedded in the curatorial project work, are impaired by re-individualization processes. In the field of art they enlist the authority of mythologizing patterns of ideas of artistry, which in turn are to a significant extent jointly responsible for the promotion of artists as role models in the economic field. What is addressed here is the naturalization of the curatorial work process. Even approaches that explicitly deconstruct the role models, that sell the “curatorial concept as the real artistic product, and themselves as the real artists,“ in order, as Sigrid Schade writes, to redeploy “the genius concept of the traditional history of art,”24 even these positions slip in genius through the back door. Here are just two examples: In 1993 the French exhibition maker Frank Perrin made six demands on curatorial work under the rubric of two guiding principles which he designated as “Criticism as Curating” and “Nomadic Curating.” The third point was “Criticism of the visionary“ with the subtitle: “What is nowadays meant by curating is no longer a first-person activity.” In his elaboration of this point Perrin starts by connecting the heroism of the curators to “the romantic myth of the visionary” and thereby suppresses the fact that the very alternative model propagated by him is rooted in the same mythologizing world of ideas. Because for Perrin the curator is “the medium for what is at work.” He assumes a “paradoxical position of being ‘passed-through.’ Exhibiting is capturing an energy that passes through me. Nowadays, the curator is neither subjective nor impersonal. All he is is the conductor of processes, which surpass him.”25 As Perrin represents him, the curator appears as a medium of forces he can neither predict nor comprehend. A similar reverence for the analytical intangibility of the act of creation is echoed in the formulations of the English curator James Lingwood. According to his objective of an interest in opening and transparency, whereby art can arise in locations that are not always designated

/D/O/C/K 5: Set-up view “studio musicals” 21.06.­– 28.06.06

/D/O/C/K 5: Installation view of the contribution by Anke Gesell 13.– 14.06.06

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for art, Lingwood talked in 1999 about the “living chemistry” of the process of genesis of such work: “It is crucial in our approach towards commissioning that the volatile chemistry of the process is understood and respected. This means respecting the fact that there will be many times (most times) when the process may be opaque.”26 In both cases the attempt to free the curatorial working proc­ess from mythical assumptions, to break it down into its constituent parts and make it visible in order to formulate it anew, already carries in tow the naturalizing motives. The effect of such a curatorial self-conception resembles the different attempts to explain the artistic working process by bringing it into the light, only to then account for it as a riddle. Insights in the studio are part of this, like the photographic or filmic documentation of the process of painting, of setting up the installation or of curatorial activity. The gender critical analysis of Lynda Nead, the cinematic work of Henri-Georges Clouzot, but also of Jef Cornelis and the politics of illustration in the exhibition catalogue to “AntiIllusion” from 1969, each with completely different procedures, have all demonstrated this effect: the closer the course of action moves into the foreground and becomes comprehensible, the more the invisible gap between action and result commands the attention.27 In this metaphysical component the notions of the inventive, the creative and the artistic are bound together and can be recognized in their character as historically contingent attributions. The curatorial partakes of these notions in its current use as described here. Just as the capabilities associated with inventiveness, creativity, and being an artist are supposed to evade the ability to be taught, in the area of the curating in the past fifteen years, parallel to the various curatorial education programs, a tendency toward de-professionalization develops. The French sociologists Nathalie Heinich and Michael Pollak attribute this tendency to, among other things, the deregulation of access to the job, the de-institutionalization of the competence criteria, so that it is not necessary to have occupied a certain position or to produce a certain diploma, as well as the extension of the social milieu and the intellectual fields of the activity. There are above all two hallmarks that Heinich and Pollak present with meaning in our context: first, the individualization of the product, whose “signature” becomes more visible, and second, the redefinition of competence in the sense of the production of uniqueness, therefore originality, which takes the place of the realization of collectively recognized rules.28 In the development of such hallmarks the arguments, which have been made against academies and art colleges since their introduction, and which cite the supposed non-learnability of artistic capabilities, are repeated.29 At the same time, however, the structures of the field of art which for example call up the event formats, in which only individuals speak on behalf of certain activities, display themselves here. The claim to creativity always includes an appeal to individual subjects, which are supposed to exhibit a certain, historical, variously defined personality structure. Only as an individual can the charisma unfold, which is responsible for the status of the “out of the ordinary,”30 by which, as Heinich and Pollak write, the curator no longer takes a post, but rather a position, and the administrator is transformed into a “Maker” on the same level as the artist, into a “Creator”.31 The term “auteur,” which is also used by Heinich and Pollak is even better suited than “Maker” to describe the individual, extraordinary position in which curators find themselves today. In the auteur the individual responsibility for a work is intertwined in a special way with its collective development structure. In 1972 Peter Wollen described the task of the auteur within the same parameters, which are valid for curators. He sees him as the “unconscious catalyst” of a process, which is formed through “a network of different statements, crossing and contradicting each other.”32 With this definition Wollen defends the auteur against misuse of the term for the designation of a creative personality, as the Hollywood cinema has passed it down, a procedure which not least makes clear how necessary this defense was and still is today. Because as Diedrich Diederichsen writes, in retrospect the auteur proved

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to be not only for film a “last bulwark against developments, which in the years that followed would shock or at least relativize even if temporarily every model of authorship.”33 Along with this role model a position also developed in the fine arts, with artists like Bruce Nauman, Vito Acconci, Richard Serra and the later installational orientations, which understood artistic work as a collective and processual without having to refrain from the privileges assigned to the author.34 As activities of making something possible, bringing together, ordering and structuring, artistic, cinematic and curatorial directing overlap and can be connected under the heading of auteur. In addition, the auteur makes possible the reestablishment of hierarchy within the field of art, with which curators and artists can dispute participation in the production of meaning, but thereby at the same time, corresponding to the myth, to occupy for themselves an elevated, “charismatic” position, which is seemingly located outside of society. While the above described emancipatory, political moment, which structurally relies upon temporary common interests, collective work processes and the dismantling of hierarchy disappears, the curatorial receives its role model power of attraction for management tasks especially from the charismatic, which in its magical characteristics must not be based on or confirmed by experiences.35 However, in analogy to magical and religious aspects, of all things, a new political perspective can be developed. It results from the intermediate position in which the curatorial finds itself between art and administration, but also between the artistic and the economic area. In 1993, Helmut Draxler generally saw curators in a “dilemma,” in that on the one hand they were obliged to the artists as their agents and insiders, and on the other hand they were obliged to the institution, on whose behalf they are acting.36 They perform their positioning processes within the rules of the game in the cultural field, which not only overlaps with the economic field, but also, if one follows Pierre Bourdieu, has strong similarities with the religious field. The balancing act of the curators can be correspondingly described as the positions between the priests on the one side and prophets on the other side, as Bourdieu differentiated them in his text first published in 1971, “Genèse et structure du champ religieux.” Both are located in the rivalry for the administration of the salvation goods and the legitimate exercise of religious power. The priests are thereby the “owners of a socially rec-

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ognized and institutionalized capital of religious authority” and must therefore not continually prove their authority anew.37 As Bourdieu writes, their “painstaking and badly paid duties” consist of creating order, hence to maintain the symbolic power of the institution, in this case the Church.38 While the priest possesses his power as an office, the prophet bases “his entire power on himself.” He uses it to call into question the “common order,” producing and distributing new kinds of salvation goods, which serve to discredit the old ones, therefore confronting the orthodoxy with heresy. In the course of the battle for power between priest and Church on the one hand, and prophet and sect on the other hand, the sect can become the Church, in order to then become designated to trigger a new Reformation.39 Parallels in the religious and cultural fields are obvious. It appears to me for the relationship discussed here, the differentiation of the role of priest and prophet then becomes relevant, when one equates the former with the role of professional museum curators and the latter with the artists. The administrating keeper of institutional power with their consecrated goods is thereby the counterpole of the artists with their interest in a continually new definition of the orthodoxies. The power legitimized by commission or office contrasts with that based on personality. In this setup the position of the freelance curator can be considered as a third position, which in the context of the characteristics, practices and attributions, overlaps with the roles of both the priests and the prophets. Their “charismatic” position is limited by the responsibilities that they have taken over from the institution. If, in comparison with the museum curators, this is only for a limited period of time, they assume a responsibility with respect to the hosting institution, its management and the financial sponsors, which ultimately in addition to the upholding of their good names, is charged with the continuation of recognized, consensual standards of value and dogmas. They follow the orthodoxies and protect the valid understanding of art from heresy. On the other hand, the indicated competitive relationship of freelance curators with artists also proves their affinity, which creates a closer connection to the prophets. Like the prophets, the curators can refer their power to themselves and participate in the processes of the constitution of new meanings that call into question the existing order. This intermediate curatorial position resembles, above all, the neoliberal management models, when the efforts to participate in the charisma of artists and thereby in the privileges of the prophets, becomes palpable. These efforts can occur by the adoption of creativity models, expressed by terms like “creative industry” or “creative curating,” or can manifest themselves in aesthetic and social assimilations. Surrounding oneself with the right people, wearing the right clothing and acquiring certain mannerisms, as it is called in the programs for the education of curators,40 are possible forms of a self-conception adapted to the professional practice, which bear at best a resemblance to mimicry, if not fan culture. Similar to the collectors who create a self-portrait from the objects which they gather around themselves, pictures of potentially professionally useful social networks emerge from such self-designs, networks which in themselves already presuppose curatorial capabilities of assembling, ordering and structuring. In spite of their responsibility towards management efficiency in the one case and towards the ruling definition of art in the other case, both those that follow the management models as well as the freelance curators are interested in the mythically supported symbolic capital of the artists. However, a decisive difference between the two is that curators are always already a part of the field of art and thereby of a social realm that is sacralized, related to the field of religion and significantly reliant on symbolic capital. The political perspective, which can be developed from the connection to the religious field, thereby concerns only curators, while in the management discourse it remains limited to symbolic efficiency. That perspective presupposes that curatorial activity that is interested in social relevance, dismantling of hi-

erarchies, social polyphony and ongoing processes of negotiation in the field of art, utilizes its own intermediate position. In order to circumnavigate the maelstrom of self-exploitation between altruism and egoism, feelings of responsibility and self-realization, bureaucracy and charisma, a kind of practice could be mapped out which declares the overcoming of differences and antitheses, of paradoxical givens to be the actual matter at hand. That would become the means of negotiating the relationship instead of the respective positions of priest and prophet. Notes 1 First published under the title: Kuratorisches Handeln. Immaterielle Arbeit zwischen Kunst und Managementmodellen. in: Osten,

Marion von (ed.): Norm der Abweichung. Zürich: ith Institut für Theorie der Gestaltung und Kunst; Zürich: Edition Voldemeer; Vienna/New York: Springer, 2003 (= T:G\03), p. 81–98 2 See in this context the different perspectives which were selected, for instance in Hofmann, Justin/Osten, Marion von (ed.): Das Phantom sucht einen Mörder: Ein Reader zur Kulturalisierung der Ökonomie. Berlin 1999; Röbke, Thomas: Kunst und Arbeit: Künstler zwischen Autonomie und sozialer Unsicherheit. Essen 2000; Koch, Corinna/Mennicke, Christiane (ed.): After Work, Catalogbook for the graphic arts section of the 4th Werkleitz Biennale Magdeburg 2000; Hoffmann, Hilmar (ed.): Kultur und Wirtschaft: Knappe Kassen – Neue Allianzen. Köln 2001; Zdenek, Felix/Hentschel, Beate/Luckow, Dirk (ed.): Art & Economy. Ostfildern-Ruit 2002 3 Quoted from Röbke, Thomas: Kunst und Arbeit: Künstler zwischen Autonomie und sozialer Unsicherheit. Essen 2000, p. 52 4 See Bröckling, Ulrich: „Totale Mobilmachung: Menschenführung im Qualitäts- und Selbstmanagement.“ In: Bröckling, Ulrich/Krasmann, Susanne/Lemke, Thomas (ed.): Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart: Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen. Frankfurt/Main 2000, p. 142 and 157–158 5 See Boutang, Yann Moulier: “Vorwort.” In: Negri, Toni/Lazzarato, Maurizio/Virno, Paolo: Umherschweifende Produzenten: Immaterielle Arbeit und Subversion. Berlin 1998, p. 13 f. 6 See Röbke, Thomas: Kunst und Arbeit: Künstler zwischen Autonomie und sozialer Unsicherheit. Essen 2000, p. 19 7 See Lazzarato, Maurizio: “Immaterielle Arbeit: Gesellschaftliche Tätigkeit unter den Bedingungen des Postfordismus.” In: Negri, Toni/Lazzarato, Maurizio/Virno, Paolo: Umherschweifende Produzenten: Immaterielle Arbeit und Subversion. Berlin 1998, p. 40–42 8 For the concept and activities of the “Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg” and the “/D/O/C/K-Projektbereich an der Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig” see Bismarck, Beatrice von/Stoller, Diethelm/Wuggenig, Ulf: “Kunst und Cultural Studies: Vorwort der HerausgeberInnen/ Art and Cultural Studies. Editors´ preface,” In: id.: Games Fights Collaborations: Das Spiel von Grenze und Überschreitung. Kunst und Cultural Studies in den 90er Jahren. Ostfildern-Ruit 1996, p. 7–9, 152-154; id.: “Kunst, Ökologie und nachhaltige Entwicklung.” In: Michelsen, Gerd (ed.): Sustainable University: Auf dem Weg zu einem universitären Agendaprozess. Frankfurt/Main 2000, p. 117–152; Bismarck, Beatrice von: “Verhandlungssachen: Rollen und Praktiken in der Projektarbeit.” In: Huber, Hans Dieter/Locher, Hubert/Schulte, Karin (ed.): Kunst des Ausstellens: Beiträge, Statements, Diskussionen. Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, p. 229–236 9 For the field concept of Bourdieu and the positioning processes and power battles identified with him, see Bourdieu, Pierre/Wacquant, Loïc J.: Reflexive Anthropologie. Frankfurt/Main 1996, p. 126–128 10 For an extensive representation of the conflict-plagued relations of Buren und Szeemann at the “documenta 5” see Bismarck, Beatrice von: “Der Meister der Werke: Daniel Burens Beitrag zur documenta 5 in Kassel 1972.” In: Fleckner, Uwe/Schieder, Martin/Zimmermann, Michael (ed.): Jenseits der Grenzen – Französische und deutsche Kunst vom Ancien Régime bis zur Gegenwart: Thomas W. Gaehtgens zum 60. Geburtstag. Köln 2000 11 For the developement history of the curatorship I follow for the most part my argument in “Curating“”in Butin, Hubertus (ed.): Dumonts Begriffslexikon zur zeitgenössischen Kunst. Köln 2002, p. 56–59 12 Illustration in: Szeemann, Harald: Museum der Obsessionen. Berlin 1981, p. 174 13 See Boutang, Yann Moulier: “Vorwort.” In: Negri, Toni/ Lazzarato, Maurizio/Virno, Paolo: Umherschweifende Produzenten: Immaterielle Arbeit und Subversion. Berlin 1998, p. 14 14 See Popitz, Heinrich: Wege der Kreativität. Tübingen 1997, p. 3 f. 15 See Schmidt, Siegfried J.: Kreativität – Innovation – Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie. Unpubliziertes Vortragsmanuskript, p. 5. I thank Siegfried J. Schmidt for giving me the manuscript. 16 See ibd., p. 6 17 See ibd., p. 4 f. 18 Lemke, Thomas/Krasmann, Susanne/Bröckling Ulrich (ed.): “Gouvernementalität, Neoliberalismus und Selbsttechnologien: Eine Einleitung.” In: id. (ed.): Gouvernementalität der Gegenwart: Studien zur Ökonomisierung des Sozialen. Frankfurt/Main 2000 p. 30 19 See Perrin, Frank: “Minimal Curating.” In: Bauer, Ute Meta (ed.): Meta 2: A New Spirit in Curating? Ostfildern 1993, p. 42–45; Obrist, Hans Ulrich: “Deltacurating.” In: ibd., p. 46–51 20 For the documentation of the conference see Richter, Dorothee/ Schmidt, Eva (ed.): curating degree zero: ein internationales kuratorensymposium / an international curating symposium. Nürnberg 1999 21 For the discusssions within the field about the power to define, see for instance Germer, Stefan: “Unter Geiern: Kontext-Kunst im Kontext.” In: Texte zur Kunst 19 (1995). p. 83–95; as well as the discussion during Panel IV. “Kuratoren als Künstler – Künstler als Kuratoren.” In: Huber, Hans Dieter/Locher, Hubert/Schulte, Karin (ed.): Kunst des Ausstellens: Beiträge, Statements, Diskussionen. Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, p. 260–273, esp. 266–272 22 See Macdonald, Sharon (ed.): The Politics of Display: Museums, Science, Culture. London, New York 1998; Staniszewski Marie Anne: The Power of Display: A History

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of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (1998). Cambridge MA, London 2001; Cooke, Lynne/Wollen, Peter (ed.): Visual Display: Culture Beyond Appearance. Seattle 1995; Früchtl, Josef/Zimmermann, Jörg (ed.): Ästhetik der Inszenierung: Dimensionen eines künstlerischen, kulturellen und gesellschaftlichen Phänomens. Frankfurt/Main 2001 23 See in that context for instance the papers from Panel IV “Kuratoren als Künstler – Künstler als Kuratoren.” In: Huber, Hans Dieter/Locher, Hubert/Schulte, Karin (ed.): Kunst des Ausstellens: Beiträge, Statements, Diskussionen. Ostfildern-Ruit 2002, p. 225–259; as well as the papers by Schindler, Annette/Biemann, Ursula. In: Richter, Dorothee/Schmidt, Eva (ed.): curating degree zero: ein internationales kuratorensymposium/ an international curating symposium. Nürnberg 1999 p. 63–71, 85–93 24 See Schade, Sigrid: “Vorwort. Zu sehen geben: Reflexionen kuratorischer Praxis/Preface. Putting on View: Reflexions on Curatorial Practice.” In: Richter, Dorothee/Schmidt, Eva (ed.): curating degree zero: ein internationales kuratorensymposium / an international curating symposium. Nürnberg 1999, p. 11 25 Perrin, Frank: “Minimal Curating.” In: Bauer, Ute Meta (ed.): Meta 2: A New Spirit in Curating? Ostfildern 1993, p. 44 26 Lingwood, James: “Grenzen/Limits.” In: Richter, Dorothee/Schmidt, Eva (ed.): curating degree zero: ein internationales kuratorensymposium/an international curating symposium. Nürnberg 1999, p. 42 27 In the publications named it concerns Nead, Lynda: “Seductive Canvases: Visual Mythologies of the Artist and Artistic Creativity.” In: Oxford Art Journal 2, 1995, p. 59–69; Exhibition catalogue of the Whitney Museum of American Art: Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials. New York 1969. For the filmic works see Clouzot, Henri-Georges (ed.): Le Mystère Picasso (1955) and Cornelis, Jef: Biennale de Paris/The Paris Biennial (1985) 28 See Heinich, Nathalie/Pollak, Michael: “From Museum Curator to Exhibition Auteur: Inventing a Singular Position.” In: Greenberg, Reesa/Ferguson, Bruce W./Nairne, Sandy (ed.) Thinking about Exhibitions. London, New York 1996, p. 238 29 For the impossibility to teach and learn art see for instance Elkins, James: Why Art Cannot Be Taught. Urbana, Chicago 2001, esp. p. 91–110. From the sociological perspective see for instance the concept of the “ungeschaffener Schöpfer” (uncreated Maker) in Bourdieu, Pierre: Die Regeln der Kunst: Genese und Struktur des literarischen Feldes (1999). Frankfurt/Main 2001, p. 299–304 30 For the concept of the “charisma” see Weber, Max: Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft (1922). Tübingen 1972, p. 140. For the power of “charisma” in the field of art see Bourdieu, Pierre: Die Regeln der Kunst: Genese und Struktur des literarischen Feldes (1999). Frankfurt/Main 2001, p. 272–274 31 See Heinich, Nathalie/Pollak, Michael: “From Museum Curator to Exhibition Auteur: Inventing a Singular Position.” In: Greenberg, Reesa/Ferguson, Bruce W./Nairne, Sandy (ed.): Thinking about Exhibitions. London, New York 1996, p. 237 f. 32 Wollen, Peter: “The Auteur Theory.” In: Caughie, John (ed.): Theories of Authorship: A Reader. London, New York 1981, p. 146–147 (first published in the new edition of Wollen, Peter: Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. London 1972) 33 See Diederichsen, Diedrich: “Künstler, Auteurs und Stars: Über menschliche Faktoren in kulturindustriellen Verhältnissen.” In: Stemmrich, Gregor (ed.): Kunst/Kino. Köln 2001 (= Jahresring 48, Jahrbuch für moderne Kunst, ed. v. Brigitte Oetker), p. 44 34 For the complaints of the author privileges in art around and after 1970 see for instance Bismarck, Beatrice von: “Spur – Partitur – Drehbuch: Künstlerische Positionierungen im Umbruch zur Postmoderne.” In: minimal – concept: Zeichenhafte Sprachen im Raum. Compiled by Schneegass, Christian. Dresden/Berlin 2001, p. 119–129; id.: “Regisseur, Verführer und Werbefachmann in eigener Sache: Vito Acconci in alter und neuer Frische.” In: Hellmold, Martin u.a. (ed.): Was ist ein Künstler? Das Subjekt der modernen Kunst. München 2003 35 For the function of magic, which is attributed to the myths of the artist, see Mauss, Marcel: Soziologie und Anthropologie. Band 1: Theorie der Magie: Soziale Morphologie (1959). Frankfurt/Main, Berlin, Vienna 1978, p. 156 36 See Draxler, Helmut: “The Institutional Discourse.” In: Bauer, Ute Meta (ed.): Meta 2: A New Spirit in Curating? Ostfildern 1993, p. 18 37 See Bourdieu, Pierre : “Genèse et structure du champ religieux.” In: Revue française de sociologie, 12, Nr. 3, S. 295334. Cited from the German translation: “Genese und Struktur des religiösen Feldes.” In: id.: Das religiöse Feld: Texte zur Ökonomie des Heilsgeschehens. Konstanz 2000, p. 77 38 See ibid., p. 79, 86 39 See ibid., p. 79, 81 40 Anna Harding writes in her explanation of the curator education program at the Goldsmiths College in London: “As we all know who have worked in the art world for a number of years, getting on in the business is all about having good networks, good contacts and knowing who are the right people to work with at the moment. In fact a number of curatorial courses seem to be based on the premise that it’s not what you know but who you know. By getting to meet personally with the major curators, critics and fashion­able artists and adding their address card to your filofax, if you play your cards right, wear the right clothes and behave with the expected mannerisms, you can become part of the art club. In fact curating courses are often rather like finishing schools.” Anna Harding, “Artist – Curator – Audience: Relationships and Curating.” In: Bauer, Ute Meta (ed.): Education Information Entertainment: Aktuelle Ansätze künstlerischer Hochschulbildung / Current Approaches on Higher Artistic Education. Vienna 2001, p. 74 41 Participants and guests (Leipzig und Zürich): Beatrice von Bismarck, Ulrich Bröckling, Alice Cantaluppi, Caro Cebaro, Thomas Comiotto, congress (Bernd Trasberger, Inga Zimprich und Nino Serbest), This Dormann, Helmut Draxler, Sabine Falk, Anna Valentina Francia, Uli Gebert, Stefanie Habluetzel, Linda Herzog, Tom Holert, Alexander Koch, Claudia Kurzweg, Irene Ledermann, Oliver Marchart, Marion von Osten, pro qm (Jesko Fezer, Axel John Wieder, Katja Reichard), Projekt 1990 ff (Thomas Fichtner, Michael Grzesiak, Anne König, Jan Wenzel (and others), Felix Reidenbach, Dominik Roost, Teresa Salerno, Kilian Schellbach, Sascha Schniotalla, Peter Spillmann, Juliane Wenzl, Diana Wesser, Monika Wisniewska, Carey Young 42 Participants: Johanna Bieligk, Beatrice von Bismarck, Yvon Chabrowski, Angela Dressler, Anke Dyes, Roman Graneist, Andreas Enrico Grunert, Anke Gesell, Alexander Hempel, Stefan Hurtig, Bettina Hutschek, Eduard Klein, Ronald Kölbel, Angela Köntje, Ulrike Kremeier, Vera Lauf, Andrea Legiehn, Hans-Christian Lotz, Dorit Margreiter, Kathrin von Ow, Albrecht

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Pischel, Ines Rosse, David Scheuch, Stefanie Schwedler, Juliane Wenzl; the guests were: Markus Dressen, Stephan Dillemuth, Christoph Schäfer, Silke Steets and Rolf Thiele.

fokus Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies

Practising, Practising, Practising: Drawings, some lefthanded, eyes closed, using different pens… the same but everyday new. Series of exercises Urban situations, People and Space in motion, a line through space. Studio lecture 2005

Focus:

Urban Landscapes, Designing and Innovation Strategies

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Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner Besides the orderly one must always allow goodly portions of disorderly chaotic knowledge, or else one becomes as hard as concrete

Since the 1990s at the latest, the spatial planning disciplines have had to depart from the hubris of being able to predict and plan the development of such spatial conditions as countries, regions or towns in their entirety. Coming to terms with this reality has caused a crisis that has not yet been overcome. This departure not only relates to planning products: elaborate rules, processes and politically determined procedures and even specific approaches, for example to assignments, topics and programs are also being thoroughly reassessed. Despite much experimentation and speculation, it remains rather unclear in research and practice, apart from the often impressive pragmatism of individual projects, how to deal with the realization that large-scale developments cannot be planned so that one can speak of handling space in a manner relevant to its actual development. Which modes of action could actually bring about ideas that would foster liveable and lovable design and development? Assuming that one does not want to just leave ideas to genius, coincidence or repetition. We pursue two concerns in the second part of this book: Hille von Seggern and Julia Werner reveal an understanding of design that deals effectively with urban landscapes. Using examples from teachings, research and practice, they demonstrate what outcomes can result from the use of innovative strategies for designing landscapes. This understanding of design, divided into five aspects, prefaces the texts in this section of the book. Articles and excerpts from design projects by STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, which give more detail, can be found throughout the book. The second concern for this section of the book is a dialogue with other designers, their theoretical examinations and practical examples. We have invited academics, as well as practitioners from the field of landscape architecture, town planning and architecture to present their own understanding of design and to demonstrate them through project examples. 1. Landscape “Perspective” and Urbanisation Processes

We characterize landscape as a manifold, topological spatial performance and as one term to describe an overall dynamic spatial process.1 Worldwide urbanization processes that are determining current spatial development mean that we are speaking of urban landscapes. From this landscape perspective it follows that for the design of urban landscapes: — the significance of ground, long-term systems water, soil as well as vegetation, the intertwining human-nature system and the dynamics of living processes are accentuated. — a certain “boundlessness”, the inclusion of “inside”, and “outside”, of “heaven”, and an ever-present large-scale context become possible. — a landscape perspective is cast as fundamentally positive; we see therein a good basis for new coherency. — complex interaction, a characteristic of urban landscapes, needs to be comprehended registered systemically – on one hand analogously to the picture of “wave” and on the other hand to the “particle”.

Hille I Julia von Seggern I Werner

Elias Canetti [Box 5a, July 21, 1942; Zürich]

Urban landscapes

and assignments must always relate to the function and gestalt of a relevant overall “chaotic”, urban landscape, even if “only” individual dimensions are being addressed. — we understand humans to be “multiple constructors” of landscapes: literally, as perceived and remembered, as part of the landscape. As actors, as landscape creators, as political decision-makers, as local dialogue partners, and also as designers, they are part of every design. — The systemic-dynamic character of issues resulting directly from societally-determined urbanisation processes (industrial wasteland, large concerns including their worldwide networks and their local requirements) can be grasped and fundamentally addressed constructively and positively using this landscape perspective. 2. Approach to Design and its Potential to Create Knowledge

We regard designing as being founded at the core of life, it is not neutral; it aims directly at the advancement of animated life. In order to develop its specific potential to create knowledge for complex, open systems and the implementation of this own form of recognition in practice, teachings and research we consider six points to be decisive2: — to be creative in design requires passion, intensity, affinity with the subject and “the path via emptiness” as an indispensable part of the process — designing integrates various types of access to knowledge: hence intuition, feeling and experience must be developed just as much as intellectual-rational talents and craftsmanship. — understanding as creativity structures the designing process. — the subject to be designed – i.e., space and in a specific sense landscape – is also understood to be integrative, because it unites not only its distinguishing physical but also its cultural dimensions, including us human beings. — designing and spatial performances are both iterative, open processes. — designing, synonymous with planning, is subjectively unique, at the same time requiring respective objective reflection and argumentation. In our understanding of design this takes place through a systematic evaluative, classifying dialogue and in the development of a persuasive story.3 3. Spatial Inventory, Idea and Transformation

How to find the decisive step in coming up with ideas has been demonstrated in the first section of this book; that and how understanding as an integrative, synthesising process is creativity. Hence our understanding of design: — understanding is the missing link between history, inventory, initial conditions and idea. The “aha!” moment of an insight is closely involved there. — understanding must structure a design process collectively and iteratively in order to competently combine the possibilities inherent in different ways of gaining knowledge. Consequently, the reading and interpretation of an existing spatial inventory is already a design. — each respective assignment is “invented” out of the existing spatial inventory – in the broadest sense, every assignment is to be initially developed out of the landscape concerned. It should not, therefore, as is quite usual in practice and teachings, be preset.4 Designing is always about transformation processes in the broadest sense. Designs retain – in varying measures according to the assignment and time perspective – a certain openness, which persists throughout the projects realised. — processual designing has a basic strategic orientation; Designing always involves dialogue: on location, with the parties involved, with politicians. — an experimental approach, including the actual experimentation, is absolutely essential in designing.

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— topics

Urban landscapes

With intuitive ability space can be examined as a complex matter, as a whole and in its parts. — emotionally-tinged encounters with landscape as well as creative- pictorial approaches and expressions are essential to, and result from, intuition. Pictures can be analogies, archetypical, painted, poetically-described pictures; they always contain a certain haziness and ambiguity. — “jumping” between scales and work on impulse projects are absolutely necessary; this particularly comes from findings by the sciences of complexity. Using self-similarity, one can “jump” from an area as a whole or from the individual project, or from a question. To-ing and fro-ing between scales establishes a relationship between the whole and its parts. — a design on its own – or to put it differently, as an impulse – can also tie in with singular dimensions (planes, layers, systems, topics, people, time) or focus situationally, in the transitive performative sense, on several (or even many) dimensions in systemic combination. — the type of approach chosen and the idea(s) determine afterwards, whether one works with mapping, in horizontal and vertical sections, with models, typology, pictures in perspective or as a collage, and/or thematic mapping. There are no ready-made, settings, assignments and tools that are always valid. — the addressed approach must balance the relationship of the human and nature system. It is no longer about the containment or protection of nature from people, but about formulating win-win concepts. — often an approach ensues from a systemic, non-predictable process using existing rules (technical or agricultural, for maintenance or utilisation regulations). Rules and fixed framework settings are analytical approaches to, as well as results and modes of procedure. 5. Design language(s)

It is important to us that there be no such thing as fixed design languages: — a broad repertoire is used in combination with new inventions to develop a design language for each specific project. — common characteristics are that the gestalt credibly tells a respective story and its transformation, i.e., “touchingly” (authentically). — designs are recognized through the outstanding equality of their parts, the focus is not on dominance. — our design languages have something “narrative” about them, they often emphasize perceptions made over a broad expanse of fields, they are never complete, they transform and they have many multiple experimental and playful components. — the point is to strike a strategic balance between rules and frameworks, between direct formative expression and process; it always concerns function and form. With this understanding of design, we depart in principle from the hubris of overall planning and also the general control of processes. It demonstrates that, with the help of intuition, the potential exists to perceive the whole in question and to structure the design process using understanding as the transforming creativity with which to generate ideas, so that new approaches and ways of gaining knowledge can be attained. Both of these aspects are especially important to us. The following contributions show that there is (as yet) no consensus on what exactly the whole is, in particular in the larger scale of regional levels, and how to grasp it. While we advocate a holistic perception and pictorial expression, while pictures as visions often appear and “essence” is being spoken of, the focus is often only placed on the project and its systematic coherence or its layers and their relationships to one another.

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4. Approaches to a Complex Landscape Process

Rediscovering the Douro Linha de Ouro (Porto/Gaia and Douro, Portugal) Hanna Köneke: diploma thesis, 2007; counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Sabine Rabe

Idea: the neglected river space is turning to open space for Porto and Gaia

Concept level 1 – river space as a whole

Concept level 2 – contour line 10 as caminho 10

Concept level 3 – impulse points

The river space below contour line 10 – and several landscape characters

Example in the canyon path landscape: impulse point “Casino da Ponte” as observation deck, paths, wooden decks, rock terraces, slope reinforcements (plan M 1:1000 original)

Example in the canyon path landscape: paths, terraces, wooden decks (section M 1:1000 original)

On the way on Caminho 10. In the canyon path landscape

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Thomas Sieverts uses the core term understanding only for the beginning of a design process, where overly complex situations must be made readable. Martin Prominski borrows the phrase from Norbert Bolz, who speaks of a shift of emphasis “from understanding to designing”: one thinks almost routinely first of understanding and then designing. However, it is exactly the transformatory character of understanding, which is central: not firstly understanding and then designing; ideas emerge from understanding, design emerges. Understanding according to our interpretation has a processual character, which is valid for the entire design process and beyond. Expanding on this in her contribution, Hille von Seggern describes and substantiates the use of the process of understanding as a variable, transformatory procedure pattern for the entire process of space-oriented design in practice, teaching and science. Julia Werner demonstrates how design teaching for large-scale urban landscapes, tailored to intuition, experience and rational knowledge-acquisition can put students in a position to develop solutions for complex assignments and to draw up designs. The following articles from authors invited to contribute to this section of the book are fascinating in the dissimilarity of their productive work with and on urban landscapes, their understandings of design, approaches and attitudes, emotional-rational pervasion and modes of working. Within a sort of field of coherence this “dialogue” nonetheless opens up new ways of forming contributions to life-enhancing interpretations, development and shaping of this worldwide “urban chaos”. Thomas Sieverts discusses how urban space worldwide is falling into heterogeneous single systems. He sees opportunities to win new perceptions and fields of activity in border areas and at interfaces between the mainly “autistically” organized single systems and their surroundings. Using research and practical projects, Undine Giseke describes the development of contemporary objectives through the exemplary “productive spaces” as a new urban type of open space, which can be shaped aesthetically and functionally, through the cooperation of various productive actors (for example agriculture and horticulture) with designoriented landscape architecture. For Martin Prominski potentials for design research are to be found on an “intermediary level”, on which it can “think ahead, pre-structure and depict certain correlations in a transferable way“. Peter Latz is primarily interested in the development of design languages and in the multi-layered dimensions of space. He uses examples to explain his design methods and ultimately places the emphasis on design using “levels of information”. Henri Bava focuses on layers of space as “multi-faceted horizons” and describes the departure, the mobilisation of his senses and the intellectual tension that he goes through each time. He shows how traditional concepts such as the park or metropolis can be given new life – “based” on an attitude that landscape is process and space. Chris Reed of the Detroit landscape architectural practice, stossLU, is a landscape urbanist. Within the designs carried out by the office, the whole “claviature” of possible exertion of influence is played through, as in their opinion, this is the only way to make a contribution to “good life”. Markus Gnüchtel is primarily interested in people who, using their ideas and skills, “make space”, thus creating impulses for new developments. So far it has already made a difference to tell a new “story” to unfold the potentials of a space and to shift it into the “right light”.The main focus of the Dutch landscape architecture office H+N+S, whose approach to design in introduced by Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze and Susanne Zeller, is the strategic relationship between macro, meso and micro levels in various scales. If landscapes are understood to be dynamic “processes”, design must dedicate itself to its processual character and must take the “time factor” into account. Starting with that hypothesis, Lucia Grosse-Bächle shows strategies for design with the dynamic media of water and vegetation. Daniela Karow-Kluge demonstrates that the search for “new” things requires experiment as it can visualise ques-

Urban landscapes

tions and hypotheses in space. An open situational approach rather than final designs are needed for this directly experienced connection to reality. Boris Sieverts communicates how a meticulous and imaginative “existing spatial inventory” can create a new park – in the perception and feelings of people: “His park” brings forth the least amount of resistance; you could even say it exists by just being the way it is.

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Notes volume, p. 59 2 Cp in more detail: Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge”, in this volume, p. 59 3 The story is a design tool developed at the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN. More detail on it can be found in the contributions by von Hille von Seggern, p. 164 and Julia Werner, p. 212 4 Gerhard Curdes in 1995 still formulated a methodical approach, which is mainly oriented around six issues: Curdes, Gerhard: Stadtstrukturelles Entwerfen. Stuttgart/Cologne/Berlin 1995

Hille I Julia von Seggern I Werner

1 Cp in more detail: Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge”, in this

Senken werden zu Sümpfen

Kiesteiche werden zu Meeren

Moränen werden zu Gebirgen

Halden werden zu Steppen

Joker

KAMP-LINTFORt.

Concept: Landscape islands as stabilizers. Archetypal landscapes as “strange attractors” in the landscape, bound in a regional city road network.

Landscape Dreams

Sebastian Riesop, Eva Schiemann: diploma thesis, 2004; Counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Norbert Rob Schittek

expanse steppe landscape…

exotischer Kohlelagerplatz

163 Zweisamkeit auf Europalette Blick auf Kamp-Lintfort

Einsamkeit

dem Himmel so nah

im Blick: Wälder, Felder, Wiesen und Kühe

Betonmauer

Autobahnverkehr unten ganz leise

buddhistischer Mönchssitz

Gleitschirmflieger

unendliche Weite schwarze Rennstreifen

frei

Gras

geschütze Mulde

die große Leere

im Blick: qualmende Schornsteine, Fabriktürme

bis Dortmund gucken

Wind

Feuerwehrschlauch als Kletterhilfe

Aufwinde

Dunst

schwebender Falke

verstecken im Schilf

The waste pile Norddeutschland becomes steppe: Inventory with ideas: View of Kamp-Lintfort; in the view: Forests, fields, pastures and cows; endless expanse; the view includes: billowing smokestacks; factory towers; the great emptiness; looking all the way to Dortmund; hovering hawk; paraglider; so close to the sky (excerpts)

START

Uses of the steppe landscape for flying kites, getting away from it all or flying model airplanes: Flexible use, steppe wolves, endless expanses, steppe grass, lockers, timberline

Personal equipment can be stored in lockers: kites, deck chairs, music instruments…

flexible Nutzung flexible Nutzung

Steppenwölfe Steppenwölfe

unendliche Weiten unendliche Weiten

Schließfächer Schließfächer Baumgrenze Baumgrenze

Steppengras Steppengras

Understanding is Essential for Designing

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Hille von Seggern Ideas arise from a creative searching process; with empathic orientation – characterized by understanding. Understanding as a creative process of finding ideas can only (actually) be experienced. For this reason, I will present such a process first on the basis of an investigative self-experiment: how do I find access to everyday performances1 of life in a place that is foreign to me – without a concrete intention, a precise aim, an assignment? Will I develop ideas? What expression will I select for those ideas? These are the “research questions” pursued in the first section of my comments. Subsequently, I will demonstrate how understanding and the finding of (conceptual) ideas – taking into account the quota that is “incapable of being explained” (Gadamer)2 – belong together in my view, and how I relate this to the planning and design of urban landscapes. Practise, research and teaching projects then take us back to design practice.

Period of research: April to June 1990 Object of research: Cannobino Valley, Falmenta-Durone, Italy A longer period alone in a relatively mundane, largely isolated, foreign environment seemed appropriate to my question of how one finds access to an unfamiliar region: the Cannobino Valley with the village of Falmenta-Durone in the northernmost Alps of Piemont, Italy. In 1989, I acquired a house with a stable in Durone, located sixty meters above and twenty minutes walk away from Falmenta. I had fallen in love with the area, the house and the garden. Falmenta is a village above the Lago Maggiore, 620 metres above sea level, twenty-five kilometres away from the lake. It is set in the small Falmenta river valley, a side valley of the Valle Cannobina on a no-throughroad (seven kilometres) that branches off the road from Cannobio to Dommodossola. The village boundary is accessible by car and by bus from Cannobio three times daily, but the village itself can only be reached on foot. In 1990, there were about 300 inhabitants; there were three restaurants, a grocery shop, a butcher, a primary school, the municipal office, a football pitch, a large church, a market twice a week. Most of the younger residents of Falmenta – especially the men – work as construction workers in nearby Switzerland, where many women also have domestic jobs. Only four people were still living in the area of Durone on a permanent basis, thirty-eight others from time to time. Aesthetically, the villages and the surrounding countryside can be described as “immersed in an everyday Italian tangle of urban-rural living conditions” – with no effective protection measures for monuments or the landscape. My house and garden had been standing empty for a while, but they were still reasonably fit for use. There was a running water supply and a general waste disposal that functioned more or less, electricity, a fireplace, the possibility to cook, minimal furnishings with a bed, tables and chairs. I managed without a car, telephone and digital media. I was a stranger and spoke no Italian. The population of the village and indeed of the entire valley has been dwindling gradually for almost 100 years. Many houses still belong to local families, but as a rule they only visit for a twoweek period each summer. There are some German and Swiss house owners, only a few day tourists, and hardly any leasing; overall, it is “poor” tourism that brings little money to the valley. Its sheer expanse, diverse mountain formations, extensive and often artistically laid-out network of hiking paths, and many streams make this valley stunningly attractive. Falmenta and Durone lie in one of the areas of the Alps that are described today as “alpine wastes,”3 on the very edge of the city network Bellinzona-Lugano-Locarno-Milan.

Hille von Seggern

Part 1: Self-Experiment in Design

Clockwise (from top left): Cable car station, beanpoles in Crealla, Janine’s storage, Framed view of Falmenta from Durone, Church square in Falmenta ,House with balcony in Spoccia, Entrance to the village of Falmenta

The emergence of an ongoing “research report” Every sale was combined with conversation about the everyday things in life. Rosetta and I usually drank an espresso, and I bought fruit and vegetables. Shopping, human contact and learning the language were connected. I took the empty bottles back to my neighbour and kept the water bottles’ crown caps myself. One day, I was sitting on a chair at my table and contemplating my collection of crown caps. Almost all of them were blue and white, but one was golden, having come from a sparkling wine bottle. I pushed the caps back and forth on the table, arranged them this way and that – played with them. Once opened, they are bent slightly

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The research process At first, I sat on a chair for hours, sometimes in a state of “agonized emptiness”, sometimes in “meditative emptiness”. I gazed at the room and objects, sometimes with blurred vision, sometimes focusing my vision on an object. I was afraid to do nothing – but I did not wish to do just anything. For me, this was treading the borderline, my limits were being challenged. Again and again, I stood up involuntarily in order to do something, paused, sat down again, only to stand up once more. Then the “game” started over again from the beginning. I sat down until I stood up once again, only to sit down once more. Finally, there came repeated occasions when I felt “that’s it”, when I was doing what was right for the moment – the feeling of evidence. I learned when it was market day, when the shops opened, what I could buy from my neighbors, and my first words of Italian. On walks that became longer and longer, I extended my knowledge of the local area. I began to draw. And then I was back sitting on a chair, which I placed in various places in the house and the garden to catch different views and atmospheres. I experienced what was happening in a way that was utterly slowed-down, at the same time I was diffusely alert to everything and extremely concentrated. I contemplated every object for a long time, picking it up and so uncovering a lot. Each object was contemplated appreciatively for some days until I bade farewell to it - that is, until I threw it away, assigned it to a new purpose or transferred it to my “store” of “perhaps I can use it some time”. I worked like a handywoman, calling my work bricolage.4 The life of previous inhabitants was recounted by traces of use, “things”, rooms, materials, paintwork, building components or plants in the garden. “Old things” like wonderful stone roofs, hand-wrought nails, the bench by the fireplace, planks from the ceiling, floorboards and the doors made of indigenous chestnut wood – long-lasting wood, particularly valued by the locals. I “read” the peeling, overlapping layers of paint on the walls and on wood like paintings by Gerhard Richter. I found plastic animals like the bee Maja belonging to children, remains of dolls, brightly-coloured ceramic fragments, shoes, pieces of tile, parts of bathroom fixtures and metal bed frames – traces of recent history – while digging in the garden. I set up temporary exhibitions of such things in my house or in the garden. Using my increasing knowledge of Italian, I talked about their history with my neighbors, who shook their heads in disbelief (and I repeatedly doubted the meaning and purpose of my activity). But I experienced great satisfaction when I succeeded in transforming existing things into something new – one evening, for example, I used an old cork from a sparkling wine bottle and a steel loop with a screw thread to make a new handle for a drawer. Because of the steep path of steps up and down, taking twenty minutes each way, I minimized the effort involved in shopping and my production of refuse. My neighbor used a small ropeway to transport mineral water, beer and wine up from the road below, and his wife Rosetta then sold them. She earned a little money from this trade. The climb up to my neighbour was only about forty steps, so I bought my mineral water and occasional beer or wine from her.

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above: Details of Crown Cap Relief 1, Durone 1990–1995, Construction and rules: piling up and nailing in rows as accumulated over time, bottom: Crown Cap Relief 1, Durone 1990–1995, crown caps from water, beer and sparkling wine bottles and sardine tin, nailed onto a plywood board (34 x 47 centimetres)

The emergence of new research questions and ideas for solutions Later, when some of the thirty-eight outside visitors to the village were frequent guests in my house, the relief made of crown caps triggered a discussion as to why we drank the mineral water at all, since it obviously had to be transported here from a great distance. A typical citydwellers’ tick? Fervent discussion about the habits of “urban types” took place at the dining table, the locals being involved as well. It was primarily the people who had moved here from cities who drank mineral water; the village’s tap water had too much chlorine in it for them. So my crown caps were typical “leftovers” of urban ways of life. There were different ways of dealing with the water issue, of course: e.g., purifying the chlorinated water yourself; buying big, cheap plastic bottles and carrying them up; or filling bottles with the excellent mountain water from the spring by the road to Cannobio oneself, driving up with them in the car, and then carrying them into the village. This was too much effort for some, and not possible for others who had no car. And the question was voiced again and again: do we, as non-local residents, provide any noticeable economic impulse at all for the development of this village we love so much, precisely because it is part of an “alpine wasteland ” that has been left behind? What economic processes are there in this “shrinking” region? What part is played by an informal economy (our widely different specialist knowledge emerged here)? Are there no better solutions to the ones in practice? One strategy for a solution started out from the spring water. Surely, every stranger in this mountain world longed for the healthy, good quality mountain

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by the bottle-opener and so become unusable. It is not worth collecting the material, and the process of decay in the earth takes too long, but they are lovely to look at – like dried flowers. They lay there for days, restricting my use of the table. The next time I went shopping, suddenly there were red and white crown caps. I laid the caps in a row: blue and white, then red and white, and yellow ones from beer bottles in between. One day I went “quasi automatically” into my “store” and “found” a panel of plywood, 34 cm x 47 cm in size, imported from some distant production center, impossible to burn in the fireplace, unlikely to decay in the garden, and almost pointless in this region so full of chestnut wood. There were also some slightly rusty nails, many somewhat bent and not really very suitable for use. I combined these three “unusable” materials and began to nail the crown caps onto the board in sequence, beginning at the top left. A carefree, playful, apparently senseless activity: who would use long nails to nail crown caps onto a board? Deeply satisfied, I hammered all the crown caps that had entered my household up to that date onto the board. I leaned it against the wall and observed my work contentedly – with “inappropriate pleasure”. As a frame, the board was a “picture” in itself and a few crown caps already made it “finished”: a picture of a process that would always be finished. The practical process of nailing was quickly done and could be “dealt with” in any free moment. My experience to date told me that the board would be big enough for an “adequate” length of time. The crown caps had disappeared from the table, the board and the nails had been used. When the board was fuller, I asked myself - should I pile them up on a daily or weekly basis? Later, I carried out a rather unsystematic “retrospective concentration”: I put the caps in piles and fastened them with only one nail. Did sardine tins – also made of metal and equally pointless refuse – belong to the work? I nailed one to the board, but found it took too big an area. After that, I only bought sardines in jars. Things came to a standstill for a while: my neighbor had acquired bottles with screw-tops that were reusable and followed a different logic. But then she began to provide those bottles with blue and white crown caps again and I was able to continue. The relief had enabled me to arrive at the heart of the village’s ongoing history, social contacts and activities, at its economy and “fragile” form.

“Systematised” Crown Cap Relief 2, Durone, continuing since 1995. How can a district that already has a “Central Park” be developed? Three variations …

perhaps. The locals would have to appreciate the spring and realize that water from there is more valuable to outsiders than that out of bottles. That would be difficult, for (chlorinated) water from the tap – like television, freezers or cars – are only recent acquisitions permitting the locals to join in a state of urban civilization. Further-reaching water topics such as the purification of sewage, the handling of seepage, alternative ways to treat drinking water were also discussed (and rejected). Translation to the professional sphere – mapping, analogy, images ,pictures, questions, ideas Around two years after the start of my ongoing “research report relief”, I was sitting in my house in Durone once again, preparing a lecture for my application as professor of urban planning and design. It suddenly became clear to me that the relief and its production process were suitable as an analogy to the development of urban landscapes. I translated the process and image of the relief to settlement areas in cities, which can be regarded as a type of urban landscape, using the same simple rules that I had established to produce the relief: only the crown caps from my own household, the same ones over the course of several years, rules for height (length of the nails), materials and an arrangement for “construction” on the board. The crown caps are interpreted as buildings, with minor additions representing special buildings (like caps from sparkling wine bottles). The size of the board stood for a “meaningful size of settlement area”. Specific, simple materials and constructions were “prescribed”. An area remains recognizable during an “economic intermission” as well; the process-image is “finished” at every point in time. Minor, occasionally appearing deviations from the basic materials (red and white instead of blue and white crown caps) make the image livelier without losing the principles of design. The area can cope with a “retrospective process of concentration”. This all led to an extremely lively, yet aesthetically pleasing urban landscape. What a good thing that I still have the lid of the sardine tin, which can pass for a small park. Otherwise, there would not be enough open space in the area. Smiles among the listeners at my audition lecture. They enjoyed following the analogy and the subsequent discussion was animated.

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water, but the effort of fetching it from the spring by the road to Cannobio demanded a means of transport and a lot of time. Why didn’t locals like my neighbour fetch the water, fill it into bottles (with screw-tops!) and sell it to us? Would that be worthwhile? Extrapolations from the relief were useful at this point. If everyone participated, if it was put on offer beyond Durone in Falmenta as well, and if – as one might suppose – the non-local residents used the water for tea, coffee and even cooking as well – then,

Part 2: Understanding the Performances

My self-experiment and the crown cap relief led me to the very heart of professional design and the finding of ideas for complex, scarcely foreseeable spatial developments.8 I had generated an approach to understanding and expressing a process and to finding ideas for its future development. The self-experiment, therefore, could now be understood as a design process. Certainly many open questions remained, which I have answered one by one, especially over the course of my university years and the associated design research. An encounter with the work of the German philosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer, particularly in texts by Jean Grondin,9 played a decisive part in this. Energized by Gadamer’s use of the concept of understanding, I began to view creative processes as understanding, to apply this to planning design, and to expand on his ideas myself. I view designing as a fundamentally creative, experimental human ability. The aspects that are involved in spatial design such as perception, interpretation, finding of solutions and expression as form are professionalized. However, form can also be a process or a situation! Referring to the performative character of urban landscapes, of the design process and the expressions (embodiment) I use the term situational designing. But how does creativity as understanding “work”, and how does it lead to an idea in professional, spatial design?10 How can the existential human ability to design and plan be incorporated within it?11 The “miracles” of design Design in the space-oriented disciplines is related to a positive possibility of realization in real life. The everyday design process embodies two “miracles”: the astonishing, largely unconscious skill in handling “life as an open, non-linear system” in perception, interpretation and the finding of solutions, and the deeply moving experience if and when (new) ideas emerge. The following text aims to delineate those aspects titled “miracles” along the thesis that they constitute the essence of professional design’s applicability as an approach to questions and conceivable solutions to the problems faced by large-scale urban landscapes. With respect to the first “miracle” – that of creative, integral perception – complexity theories12 in conjunction with theories of evolution present perspectives with which to “explain” the de-

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“Quite by chance”, I had conceived an investigative tool for my research questions: How do I find access to everyday performances that are foreign to me? Do ideas emerge? As a threedimensional “mapping,”5 the relief is a model and “image” of the development process taking place in the valley and my way of understanding the performances and participating in them. The relief stimulated communication and generated ideas, and it was also suitable as an analogy for urban and regional development.6 The link to urban life is easily comprehensible, for everyone is familiar with crown caps and sees the absurdity of everyday, global water transport in an area of mountain water which “improves” its drinking water using up-to-date technology.7 The relief has a “rough” (brut), simple, slightly irritant language: a board, roughly sanded down, crown caps nailed as they come with no claim to precision, with “imperfect craftsmanship”, “quick” aesthetics regarding the choice of materials and the production method, located “at the heart of life” due to its straightforward rules and framework. The simple sequence, repetition, the field effect, and the selective setting of emphases as a visual anchor within the rows are also accessible to the layman. It is clearly a product in a continuing process – and yet represents a vivid metaphor of the “urban landscape” in that area. The effect is inspiring: at first slightly irritated smiles, then questions, finally discussion on the topic, sometimes leading to new research questions and even ideas for a solution.

The expression of professional design The interpretive expression of the relevant complex whole emerges in a visual, metaphorical, poetic way, in rules – in our discipline in drawings, sketches, diagrams, models – which may also be made of crown caps or beer cans – from names, descriptions, maps. Being able to perceive the relevant whole and express it without being able to dismantle it or deduce from individual parts means paying farewell to the notion of “first understanding and then designing” and to a primarily rational concept of understanding and explaining. Professional designing becomes existential; it integrates the universal human capacity.28 Once it has been expressed, this expression “confronts” us, just as the relief became a tool of research and at the same time an image of the whole in my self-experiment. The image moves us with its unexpected

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velopment principles of complex, open conditions: the existence of rules (different algorithms13) that do not lead, nonetheless, to predictable results; the effect of attractors; bifurcation processes and autopoiesis; the self-similarity of part and whole; the way that the new appears in unbalanced border areas, generated by both order and disorder14. But how does one work with such aspects in the design process? Integral perception is only possible through intuition (cf. p. 63), meaning that the work of the unconscious comes into play. In principle, feelings, experiences, the body, all the senses and the intellect must work together here: “Think with your senses, feel with your mind” was the credo of the Venice Biennial in 2007. The philosopher Whitehead15 referred to this capacity to perceive the whole as a fundamentally creative perceptual ability and understood it as evolutionary evidence. For the second “miracle”, it is essential to practice repeatedly, taking the path through “the void” in order to arrive at the “aha, that’s it” and a satisfied, gladdened, ecstatic feeling. This “aha experience” constitutes knowledge, a foreshadowing of the next evolutionary stage. In the following stage, a new level of insight can be gathered by means of ratio, awareness and logic. Inasmuch as these not fully comprehensible events are consciously “understood”16 and become part of design, and thus of scientific insight, this “qualitatively superior”17 insight goes far beyond mere intellectual understanding. The “dance” that connects the “miracles” – the link – is precisely what Gadamer describes using the concept of “understanding”. This is the heart of his philosophy; he develops understanding, among other things, using the examples of art and play.18 Neurosciences paint the picture of unconsciously working threads that later “break through” to conscious insight or of “oscillating processes” that lead to (new) coherencies.19 Gadamer discussed this in the context of ontological truth and chose the example of art. Avoiding this metaphysically “burned-out” discussion, there is now careful reference – (again) to being-in-the-world,20 to presence, essence, attention to the “just-being” of things21 – to experience and not only to explanation. The insights from design discussed here are relative, relational; they have components dependent on context and on people. They are characterized by a creative gain in cognition – experience-based, interactive, always directly bound to society – which is always necessarily associated with objectivising knowledge.22 It is a matter of creating knowledge in a way that emphasises context, change and values.23 It is possible to generalize pleasure, feelings of happiness, excitement and the intense desire for another “that’s it” experience. “A douse in dopamine”, the neuroscientists say, and the Situationists24 already aimed to trigger “desire”. Nietzsche says of revelation that it is “something that shutters and upsets you deeply.”25 In the meantime, neurologists know that an alpha-wave in the brain26 prepares for the “aha experience” and that the associated “douse in dopamine” certainly has a comparable effect to that of addiction.27 Like the philosopher Thomas Metzinger one could refer to this experience as “empirical spirituality”.

Transformation, synthesis and emptiness In the moment of understanding, the next step – the idea – arises simultaneously. Something new is created. Here lies the transformative, idea-generating character of understanding and, in my opinion, the “actual secret”. In this respect, I would go further than Gadamer, insofar as I can presume to amplify his ideas at all, not being a philosopher35: not only the past and present, but also the future are simultaneously and creatively linked to one another in understanding. Designing is therefore part of the “common denominator of our experience of the world” according to Jean Grondin’s categorization of understanding.36 And the “that’s it” as a “quality characteristic” signifies more than a neutral idea. Here, idea means a further potentially positive development in the spatial design of the real world – without this being clear at the moment of the idea. This is the aim of successful design, at least. I find that transformative understanding as an etymological interpretation of understanding is excitingly confirmed in pictures by the painter Trude Fumo (cf. essay by Anne Peiter). Psychology – and lately also the neurosciences – grant us a growing understanding of the transformative process of understanding: an extreme occurrence, a new experience may

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messages, at least as long as we remain curious, open and initially neutral in judging our own product. Once this basis of understanding is established, the relevant individual components can be identified, and the other way around, it is possible to designate the whole by starting out from a contingent individual component. The emergence of ideas and synergies between the part and the whole becomes possible: it was in this way that the crown cap relief led us to contemplate the local economy and sewage, and triggered many discussions of form. What other conditions exist within this iterative, progressively spiralling process that Ga­damer calls a “hermeneutic circle”? Gadamer precisely describes the feeling of affection (Zuneigung) for the subject (die Sache) that is to be understood, a capability, as “being very good at something” – which incorporates knowledge, orientation on application, information and practice29 – courage, openness, astonishment and curiosity. Not every feeling is meant in this way, therefore, not every old-established reaction. Alongside the affection for a subject, which is not to be equated with agreement, Gadamer refers to involvement with something without holding onto it and identifying with it. In my self-experiment, I had time to practice involvement and to learn how to resist the “temptations” of rapid actions and explanations. This means that a precise differentiation of emotions is necessary.30 Involving experience means involving the body as well: first by moving, walking, hiking. But it also means being able to use the “wisdom of the body,”31 as a specific sub-symbolic, corporeal type of knowledge. As far as I am concerned, being involved in discussion – questioning and listening and thereby arriving at further creative developments – signifies that a design of aesthetics of communication is needed. Since man has been aware of the existence and function of mirror neurons32 as the biological “hardware” for mutual understanding, the role of conversation and Gadamer’s expression of the “fusion of horizons”33 in the process of understanding has been clarified (Hinderk Emrich describes mutual understanding as “mimesis”). Capabilities like an open attitude, curiosity, questioning without judgement and an awareness of one’s own prejudices about the conditions are necessary. As Gerald Hüther shows in his contribution to this volume, these capabilities are set out at an early stage, although they can also be learned through an understanding of history and the activation of trust and courage. In our field, such an attitude permits us to grasp the impossibility of prognosticating the development of complex, open systems as the “magical performance of the world”34 and to open the door to creativity as a result: it becomes possible to apply complexity theory to the process of creative understanding.

The emergence of ideas as a “prototypical” process in design – a characteristic, uncertain but qualified development pattern40 Its capacity for creativity makes the design process fit to adopt an essential role within the canon of different disciplines and procedures for the development and design of large-scale urban landscapes, — in order to be able to decipher the complex world and make it legible; — in order to “invent” the actual task for the upcoming stage in development; — in order to arrive at an idea, the realization of which will most probably promote a good life; — in order to arrive at “insights at the heart of life”. The precondition for this is that the creating of ideas in design is structured by a process of understanding.

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cause a change in people – we all know this. If the insight of “that’s it” is to have an enduring impact, in my opinion this is tied to understanding in a comprehensive sense: it is always a matter of deep experience that may be unique or/and a new, repeated experience that touches all our senses, body and intellect, becoming part of our awareness. Creative development of ideas in the design process – and also in the realization of those ideas – goes far beyond the dynamics of searching and decision-making, therefore. Without this transformation,37 ideas tend to be variations on repeated ideas; whereby that is not necessarily bad, or the wrong thing. On the historical level, Karl Marx describes the importance of understanding as a consequence of not understanding: history that is not understood repeats itself as comedy, farce, and finally as drama. Gadamer rightly insists that history must be understood. There can be no doubt that understanding is a process of synthesis. At the same time, understanding is not only a different type of cognition to that upon which natural or engineering sciences are founded; to my mind, understanding is the linking element, a bridge between professional disciplines, an integrating process. “Understanding a matter (Sache)” not only signifies “being very good at something”, but also solidly based (natural scientific, engineering scientific, form-giving, tool-oriented) knowledge and explanations. Explaining is thus “embedded” in understanding. Developing this function as a bridge may lead to a “quantum leap” in the achievement potential beyond pure cognition. In this context, intuition requires feedback, argumentation, even to the level of proof. For this purpose, it is necessary to have the new, aforementioned quality of combination between emotion, intuition, body, intellect, experience, theory, and in each case a relevant translation of the process of understanding to professional disciplines. Translation means to live and experience working knowledge, approaches, practices and mimesis in each profession; through all this, our insights become probable. Understanding cannot be grasped simply as a process that is subject to method; to this extent, I agree with Jean Grondin.38 To my mind, however, gaining insight of a concept of understanding – when interpreted in relation to application as well – is a necessary component of the Modus 2 understanding of science39. The path via “emptiness” – the “emptiness that is like the color white, in which there is everything” – signifies the necessary “unproductiveness” and also being-in-the-world, it means perceiving the process of transformation, and transforming from inside to outside (Emrich). All four aspects of emptiness are repeatedly necessary in every creative process. This is familiar from the world of art in particular (also in Trude Fumo’s work), where it may even extend to the gruesome loneliness that Hinderk Emrich describes using the example of van Gogh. However, up until now this connection has been viewed as something individually experienced rather than as a systematic component in all fields of creating knowledge. But that is the decisive point.

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Prototypical “instructions” for the creative process are written in the sense of a testing that can not be subject to method, for ultimately the process of finding ideas is only conveyed through experience. This is equivalent to our approach in teaching.41 Experienced designers, perhaps, will encounter steps that they have always taken, but may not have been able to designate. The “operating instructions for an idea-finding process” comprise five principles: 1. Professional, spatially oriented design is, at the same time, design that fundamentally determines people.42 2. As a transformative process, understanding is directly linked to design. Both belong to the “common denominator of our experience of the world.”43 3. Intuitive, emotion- and body-oriented approaches are consciously linked to rational, cognitive and intellectually oriented approaches: understanding constitutes such a link. 4. Urban landscape – as a processual, spatial-topological description – always signify the full multidimensional performance of life. 5. Design is always aimed towards interplay between situational (performative) development from moment to moment, individual projects, and the totality of landscape development.

Designing as an iterative process: sketches concerning the “actual” course of events

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Designing as an iterative process: combination of intuition and rationality shown separately

“Operating Instructions” for an idea-finding process

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1

Forget the concrete question and task that you may have already. Use maps of the area, but avoid the “island maps” generally available in digital form, which isolate the area – Google Earth is better. It is a matter of “inventing” your question and task.

2

Right at the beginning, for experimental purposes, develop some affection for the area, for creativity only becomes possible with an “emotional-judgemental” attitude. Do you approach “landscape” as a term with positive initial connotations?

3

Simply set out. Explore in an intuitive way, choose sections by chance (points, lines, paths, grid squares), and be surprised by your prejudices, which arise as judgements and rapid answers. Attempt to let things and events be what they are and “immerse” yourself in them. Activate your repertoire of curiosity, courage, trust, sensual perception, physical effort, rhetoric, play, passion for collecting – and also boredom. Take your professional skill with you – or better still, leave it at home at first. Use all the “tricks” of play, coincidence, “meaningless” rules.

4

Make sketches while you are on the road and later at home, build models, write a poem, a short prose text. Read a novel connected with your area. Make contact; be willing to enter into dialogue and participate in unusual and normal courses of events. Take photos and short films at some point, but not too early on.

5

Make a collection of the things you have discovered – of the immaterial ones like rules as well– like types of person, beetles, photos of fences or samples of soil, make “notes” on maps. Don’t think too much; instead, sit down and blink in the sunlight.

6

Then draw, paint, construct or make collage pictures of the area, give them names, search for metaphors, analogies and symbols, or personify things, geometrise people – endure the fact that much or even everything seems wrong (it is agonising). Describe the images to someone – does he/she understand what you mean? If not, go for a swim somewhere in the area first, go dancing or to a pub.

7

Arrange found objects, pictures, sketches or photos into an “exhibition” in your workplace, models in rows or groups, the photos hung on a line – or on a wall in the area. Sit down in front of it and “immerse yourself” in the contemplation of your collection. Choose your favorite picture.

8

Become aware of your “stupid,” normal ideas (worth keeping, needs connections, ought to be more attractive) and bid farewell to them.

9

Investigate questions that really interest you and invent a vivid “documentation” of the previous “investigation” (mapping) for them. Check if and what this documentation “tells” you about the area by discussing it with others. (Just as a reminder: in between, continue to do your daily “exercises” for your professional field, for sport, for perception: you may develop a desire for activity per se, without a specific aim).

10

At the latest, questions and “ideas” will arise in reaction to the first pictures and to your documentation. Take them seriously; this is the time when those famous sketches on beer mats are made.

11

Stimulated by your own questions, pictures and documentation, begin a “disordered” collection of information and knowledge about the area in general and your questions in particular. This is fun, but you will inevitably lose yourself in the sheer mass. Hold out.

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It will not be possible to simply “work through” the “operating instructions” point by point, as is perhaps customary with similar manuals of instructions. The person searching will inevitably and repeatedly be led into emptiness. Moreover this is intended, for searching and the experience of emptiness are part of the creative process.

12 Go back to intuition, therefore, and set out into your area once again. This time, astonishingly, you will already know where you want to go to. Perhaps the “buzzing” in your head will continue. Meditate or sleep for a while.

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13 Now develop the affection further, but do not identify yourself. Make a distinction: the perception and cognition of differing emotional qualities are necessary know-how in “the age of feeling.” 14 When you retrieve your pictures and documentation now, you will find yourself captivated by something (object, history, people, systems, rules or event). Is it already an idea? Endeavor to rebel. Creative alternative interpretations of your favourite image, for example through analogies, films, role play or the personification of what you have perceived: what does the individual aspect that has caught your attention reveal about the area as a whole? Why is it so exciting, so decisive? Does it already, on a “small scale,” have the quality of expressing all the dimensions of the “large scale”? Now it is the turn of our discipline’s full repertoire – with drawings, models, diagrams, sections (horizontal, vertical), thematic layers, isometrics. This means hard work and, under certain circumstances, a lot of frustration.

16 Stay in discussion with others from the area, experts, colleagues, and with yourself. It is a matter of the “aesthetics of communication”; questions and listening, presenting things – it is a matter of the relations between emotional and rational arguments, a “process of objectifying.” 17 Bring out your instincts and your knowledge about change, transformation, mimesis and metamorphosis. Check the relation between your interpretation of the area and your idea against history. Serialised novel? Interruption? New connections? Beware of the “classics”! 18 Build up a line of argumentation that mediates between emotion, intuition and the rational (also between designing and planning). The objectifying will also continue. Write a “story,” produce a storyboard, designate a “plot” (impulse) that sets your design in motion. The storyboard – i.e., the sketch-like, visual-textual progression of your argument – will gradually contain all the products that you need in order to bring about your idea as a design concept (or/and realization). 19 When the idea and its reference to the area seem to work “somehow”, but some questions are left open and doubts still crop up, it could be time for an experiment focusing on the idea. Relate the situational, empirical testing of the idea and the open questions spatially, 1:1. 20 In what form (form may also be a process) should you tell your story so that it is credible and moving in itself (embodiment)? You can only practice the language of form using existing vocabulary and developing it further. Express your personal preferences and test them by the response and criticism of others. 21 Do not be afraid that your visionary images are fuzzy or that your images are “mere” interpretation. Do not be afraid of scenarios of processes with “rules,” the precise effect of which you can never predict, and do not hesitate to lay down frameworks that are also feasible in the short term. As a rule, however, the selected “impulse” is a design concept worked out to the point of realization; it is a matter of “now,” of what is truly conceivable, of a possible step to take. In the direction of your vision; and you must argue it strategically – using reason and emotion. Test its plausibility in discussion – whether in a pub in the region or at a symposium.1 1 The 21 points of the “Operation instructions for an idea-finding process” are being tested during the summer semester in 2008

in an artistic research project in the framework of the lectures for the diploma examination Design and Creativity – Searching for Emptiness.

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15 Pay maximum attention to a feeling of “that’s it”. Draw “that’s it,” write it down – repeatedly, it will grow diffuse again, confusion will arise again. Endure. Keep at it. This is the unpleasant side of emptiness. Attempt to put a name to the “aha-experience,” for it is tied to the moment of understanding’s transformative character. Do you notice something like passion, the desire for repetition? Go on investigating and extend your collection of “objective knowledge.”

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experiments Students’ experiments in the region South Luxembourg; cooperative teaching project by STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN and Stein + Schultz, urban, regional and open space planners, Frankfurt am Main, September 2005

Urban landscape contacts: “Network” (Kirsten Olheide, Johanna Reisch)

Landscape at the edge of town: “Pit Stop” (Marco Motzek, Dennis Ziegert)

Plateau in the city: “Fire-Towers” (Christian Kamer)

A new place alongside Schifflange: “Schirmange” (Lia Deister, Hanna Könneke, Jana Sido)

the spatial vision Three examples from the work of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN

1. The region South Luxembourg. Experiments and “spatial vision”. The application of four design principles in the context of regional planning44: aesthetics of communication, affection, experiments and “spatial vision” as pictorial metaphors “Being in dialogue” is one quality of the overall development process of regional planning for Luxembourg, where it has not existed as legally established planning in the past. Ursula Stein refers to this as “governance modus,” by which “learning and communication situations are designed.”45 Students46 (with support) realized four experiments themselves, courageously designing them in Hanover without having had an opportunity to visit the 200 square kilometres of the South Luxembourg region in advance. The experiments were used to test whether affection for the large-scale urban landscape could be triggered through small interventions. There were indeed many declarations of love, questions, and much shaking of the head. Above all, the different elements of design helped to achieve a continuation of the voluntary regional planning process.

The spatial vision – Côte Rouge as a topographical “sea” landscape (Original scale M. 1:50.000) The spatial vision for the region South Luxembourg: developed in a joint design workshop by Stein + Schultz urban, regional and open space planners, Frankfurt am Main, and STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN (Team: Hille von Seggern, Henrik Schultz, Sigrun Langner, Sabine Rabe, Anke Schmidt), July 2007

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The spatial vision – Côte Rouge as the sea (urban landscape characters) (Original scale M. 1: 50.000)

We designed the “spatial vision,” 47 as an image to set the framework, in a cooperative process realized in an attractive workroom on site. Before this, we had “more or less” assimilated mountains of information, been involved in discussions, and deepened our knowledge and love of the area in a long walk undertaken with Boris Sieverts. The “spatial vision” uses the image of the sea and coastal landscapes metaphorically: named Côte Rouge, it is based on the mostly artificial topography, tells the story of the area, and refers to its red soil and – as it emerged – local maritime names such as “Bassin Minier” or the coastal term for lowland-hill formations. In the discussion of the “spatial vision” with professional specialists, actors from the area and the political sphere, development perspectives were debated with reference to harbors, beaches, locations by the straits to France or Belgium, bays, depths and distances – often with a smile, and with sudden creativity, pleasure or amazement – and for a while, the longestablished rivalries were disregarded.48

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urban surfers

2. Research project: “Urban Surfers, Neighborhood Fans & Co. Young People constructing cities and the network of urban public spaces”49 Commissioned by the Wüstenrot Foundation

Set of individual, separate situations:  Spatial distances and references to situation are irrelevant  Many situations apart from one’s own residential district  Often highly symbolic-spatial  Social aspects of experience, atmospheric aspects are important

Interpretation: Structure

One of the research questions was: How does design function as an everyday, creative process – how do young people “construct” the city? The research itself was laid out as a design process, and instruments and working methods of design were employed for the empirical investigation.50 Model building, for example: When confronted with the large scale task “of building your Hanover on one school day/Saturday,” sixty-six young people aged between thirteen and eighteen each constructed a model of “their Hanover” with no great difficulty. There were clear framework conditions: maximum size of models, choice of materials, available time, and no assistance other than technical advice. The “three-dimensional images” then triggered a feedback effect: in discussion between the research team and the youngsters, by means of gesture and mimic, they could be related – in qualitative and quantitative terms – to the young people’s statements, interviews or mapping of time-space and finally concentrated into “types of young urban designers and types of designs for cities.” In their turn, these prove suitable for linkage to professional urban planning practice.

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Models by an “urban surfer”: “My Hanover on a school day” and “My Hanover on a Saturday”

Shoppen in der Innenstadt: bestimmte Geschäfte und das Eiscafé Shopping in the inner city: specific shops and the ice-cream parlor „Auf dem Schulweg bin ich häufig zu spät. Auch die anderen sind gehetzt.“ “On the way to school, I am often running late. The others are rushing, too.” „Zu Hause wohnen Punks (im Erdgeschoss) und man hört Musik. Punks, aber ganz nett.“ “Punks live in our house (on the ground floor) and you can hear music. Punks, but nice.”

Ausgehen und Kinobesuch am Abend Going out and going to the cinema in the evenings „Rockhouse“ “Rockhouse” „Mit Hund in den Park gehen“ “Going to the park with the dog” Das eigene Bett zum Träumen und Ausruhen My own bed to dream and have a good rest

Interpretation: “Situations” Research project commissioned by the Wüstenrot Foundation. Development: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN (Team: Hille von Seggern, Anke Schmidt, Börries von Detten, Claudia Heinzelmann, Henrik Schultz, Julia Werner. Advice: Ulfert Herlyn, Timm Ohrt, 2005–2007)

3. “Beijing’s new urban countryside”51 “New Farmer. Farmland” Protection, maintenance, life quality A question currently being controversially discussed is whether “green belt strategies” can contribute to the solution of the social and climatic problems (shortage of water, air pollution, formation of desert) resulting from the dramatic, economically determined urban growth of megacities. In a four-week workshop with students from China, Germany and France, the aim was to find alternatives to Peking’s present “green belt strategies.” The introduction to design work was a village chosen “arbitrarily” and a district from the potential “green belt,” in the midst of the chaotic-dynamic development process involving old villages now becoming denser, new villages, the settlement of artists, agriculture and infrastructure. Research – emotional and intuitive on site – enabled the students to pursue their preferences or coincidental occurrences on site, to identify the topic of their research and – as can scarcely be avoided with such depth of work – to fall in love with the place. At the university, they subsequently received all the necessary information, as far as it was available. They worked in mixed teams, living together in a state of continual debate, supervised in an extremely interdisciplinary, intercultural manner. They had to construct a plausible argumentation (story) using a “storyboard” of text and images, face the criticism of various audiences, and finally formulate a large-scale response to the “green belt concept,” designing a framework plan for the entire district and a possible impulse-generating project. The concept “New Farmer”52 – one of six strategies – develops the role of a productive agricultural cultivation of land with reference to new and existing actors – such as migrant workers, “village” and “city” inhabitants – and taking into account the qualities of climate, open space and landscape. Ideas for solutions were formulated, which have led to a solidly grounded debate on urban agricultural strategies in the development of megacities53 and their exemplary development for Peking. And as in the research, so in the product we find a strategy and expression deviating considerably from the usual geometric “green belt figures”. (s. p. 184/185) Conclusion If we succeed in (situational) designing as described here, we have a great chance of employing this distinctive working knowledge54 to produce interpretations (legibility), insights and solutions – as both processual quality and material and immaterial space and its expression – for today’s problematic situations within complex, unforeseeable spatial developments. Here, design as an existential attitude and human-creative capacity – applied from moment to moment in a quasi evolutionary way – is therefore professionalized and made explicit in the process of understanding. The conscious and the unconscious, including emotional discussion, combine and are structured by the process of understanding in such a way that it becomes more probable that we will arrive at ideas in complex, open systems; ideas that “promote a good life”. Understanding is transformative, it is not neutral and it can not be objectivised in its entirety as normatively judgemental. “Good portions” of mystery, miracle and being (Sein) are always left over. No science that becomes directly involved with life processes is neutral; science is never neutral, thus such design belongs to the working knowledge that is decisive for spatially oriented issues of science, praxis and art. Hereby, understanding is the “creative motor”, which adopts a “bridging function” between different disciplines and people.

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Model 2_Large Scale Fields Area New house community for floating farmers

new Farmer. Farmland Master plan M. 1:20.000 Masterplan M. 1:20.000

model 1 MIX FIELDS AREA new houses for floating farmers

small gardens for weekend stay for city people

public orchard with maintainer house

model 2 LARGE SCALE FIELDS AREA new house comunity for floating farmers

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Farmland for the Green Belt

Eva Nêmcová, Jia Fu (Leibniz University Hannover), Liao Hui Li, She Yi Shuang (Peking University, China); International Students' Workshop in Beijing: Beijing's new urban countryside. Designing with complexity. Landscape Visions for the Green Belt Beijing and Hegezhuang Village in Cuigezhuang County, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China, Aug.–Sept. 2007 Who is the farmer?

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the embodiment of the process and the form. 2 Cited from, and explained in more detail in: Grondin, Jean, in this volume, p. 91 3 “Alpine wastes are zones of decline and slow depletion. Their common feature is continual migration.” Quoted from: Diener, Roger/Herzog, Jacques/Meili, Marcel/de Meuron, Pierre/Schmid, Christian: Die Schweiz – ein städtebauliches Portrait. Basel 2005, p. 930 4  It was only later that I read: Lévi-Strauss, Claude: Das wilde Denken. Frankfurt am Main 1981 (4th edit.) 5 By the term mapping – starting out from the insight that every depiction is already an interpretation – I understand a search for new ways to express complex contexts graphically in maps, diagrams, sequences of images, and interfaces that avoid established visualisations and express new contexts. Cf. Langner, Sigrun/Schmidt, Anke: „Kartografien urbaner Landschaften“. In: Garten + Landschaft 03/2008, p. 26–28 6  Perhaps this was also a reason for my first place on the appointment list. 7 At the Venice Biennial in 2007, it was possible to experience the “message” of crown caps in the context of globalisation: in the marvellous, deceptively real curtains/wall hangings by El Anatsui from Nigeria, in which he recycled crown caps (and other urban, metal remains) and wove them into large-format structures using thin metal threads. However, the constructions could not hold, because the material became too heavy. Here, a traditional product was produced using the refuse products of urban civilization in such a way that it was bound to disintegrate. 8 At the time, I was already working out a systemic understanding of planning and design. Published in: Bundesforschungsanstalt für Landeskunde und Raumforschung: Systemische Planung am Beispiel des integrativen Raumkonzeptes Bremen-Steintor. Materialien zur Raumentwicklung Issue 82, 1997. Simultaneously, I was working on large-scale design projects such as the urban development concept for Hamburg or the development of the inland port area in Hamburg-Harburg, which was becoming vacant. In these contexts, the questions were always: What aspect can be planned or designed at all? What is foreseeable? How can one work with interventions? How with fields? What possible role do images play? 9 Jean Grondin is one of the best-known experts on Gadamer world-wide. He has written considerable material on Gadamer’s person and philosophy, including: Grondin, Jean: Einführung zu Gadamer. Tübingen 2000; “Gadamer’s basic understanding of understanding”. In: Dostal Robert. J.: The Cambridge Compendium on Gadamer. Cambridge 2002, p. 36–51; Grondin, Jean: Gadamer Lesebuch. Tübingen 1998; Grondin, Jean: Hans-Georg Gadamer: Eine Biographie. Tübingen 1999 10 In the meantime, much has become known about creativity. Most recently: Traufetter, Gerald: Intuition. Die Weisheit der Gefühle. Hamburg 2007; quoted in the following as: Traufetter 2007; but there is also discussion of questions of morality, ethics and social responsibility that cannot be examined in detail here, as for example in: Joas, Hans: Die Kreativität des Handelns. Frankfurt am Main 1996; or in: Nowotny, Helga: Unersättliche Neugier. Berlin 2005 11 Poser, Hans: „Entwerfen als Lebensform – Elemente technischer Modalität“. In: Kornwachs, K. (ed.): Technik – System – Verantwortung. Technikphilosophie Vol. 10. Münster 2004; quoted in the following as: Poser 2004 12 Complexity theories are an amalgamation of systemic theories from physics, biology, chemistry and associated mathematics; cf. also Poser, Hans, in this volume, p. 104 13 E.g. not only the music of John Cage, but also algorithmic-evolutionary design strategies in architecture, as described for example in: Fischer, Ole W.: „Präzisionen zu ‚Precisions’ – Architektur, Kunst und Wissenschaft?“. In: Moravánszky, Akos/ Fischer, Ole W. (eds.) Precisions, Berlin 2008, p.16–48; quoted in the following as: Moravánszky/Fischer 2008 14 Cf. among others: Wilke, Helmut: Heterotopia. Frankfurt 2003 15  Whitehead, Alfred North: Denkweisen. Frankfurt am Main 2001 16 “Being that can be understood is language,” as Gadamer put it. I agree with the interpretation by Grondin, who maintains that being is not language, but that when being is understood it is able to find a “language” which consists of more than just words. Cf. Grondin, Jean: Von Heidegger zu Gadamer. Unterwegs zur Hermeneutik. Darmstadt 2001, p. 100f. ; quoted in the following as: Grondin 2001 17 Bittner, Rüdiger: „Was ist Verstehen?“ In: Kaul, van Laak (ed.) Ethik des Verstehens. München 2007, p. 23–33 18 Grondin, Jean: Einführung zu Gadamer. Tübingen 2000, p. 56ff; quoted in the following as: Grondin 2000; also: Grondin 2001, p. 112–126 19 Singer, Wolf: „Das Abenteuer unseres Bewusstseins“. In: FAZ of 29.04.2008 20 Sloterdijk, Peter: Der ästhetische Imperativ. Hamburg, 2007, p. 260/261 21 Among others: Flusser, Vilém: Dinge und Undinge. Phänomenologische Skizzen. Munich 1993; cf. also the essay by Karow-Kluge in this volume, p. 302 22 Cf. Böhle, Fritz: „Wissenschaft und Erfahrungswissen – Erscheinungsformen, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer Pluralisierung des Wissens“. In: Böschen, Stefan/Schulz-Schäffer, Ingo (eds.): Wissenschaft in der Wissensgesellschaft. Wiesbaden 2003. Also in: Prominski, Martin: Landschaft entwerfen. Berlin 2003; Karow-Kluge, Daniela: Gewagte Räume. http://www.tib.uni-hannover.de/spezialsammlungen/ dissertationen/elektronisch, 2008, p. 34–40; Lochner, Irmgard/Sobek, Werner: „Entwurfsstrategien“. In: Moravánszky/Fischer 2008, p. 206–212 23 Cf. Prominski, Martin, in this volume, p. 202; here, he refers to: Poser, Hans: Wissenschaftstheorie. Stuttgart 2001, p. 279ff. and Nowotny, Helga/Scott, Peter/Gibbons, Michael: Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge 2001 24 Group of artists from the 1950ies.Cf.: Ohrt, Roberto: Phantom Avantgarde. Eine Geschichte der Situationistischen Internationale und der modernen Kunst. Hamburg 1997 (2. Aufl.) 25 Quoted from: Traufetter 2007, p. 248, originally from: Nietzsche Friedrich: Ecce Homo. Works in two volumes, Part II. Haser, Munich/Vienna 1990, p. 457 26 Traufetter 2007, p. 258 27 Cf. Hüther, Gerald; in this volume, p. 112 28 Poser 2004, p. 561–575 29 Cf. essays by Grondin, Jean in this volume, p. 91; Werner, Julia in this volume, p. 212 30 This distinction is handled in detail by some authors, whereby they distinguish between feeling and emotion. Here, the terms are used synonymously and specified by means of further description. It is well-known from psychology

Hille von Seggern

1 Performance is mainly used as a translation for the German word Geschehen, which simultaneously includes the whole process,

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that identification, as a rule, means holding onto the old, as well as the fact that emotions are often – as old, stored patterns – merely “fixed onto” the present, although they are not appropriate today. 31 Cf. Marlock, Gustl; in this volume, p. 119 32 Bauer, Joachim: Das Prinzip Menschlichkeit. Hamburg 2006 33 The fusion of horizons is when “the interpreter’s own horizon is decisive, but does not resemble a standpoint of his own that he holds onto and asserts. It is more like an opinion and a possibility that he brings into play, thereby putting it at risk.” Quoted from Rorty, Richard: „Sein, das verstanden werden kann, ist Sprache“. Hommage an Hans-Georg Gadamer, 2001, p. 47; Original quotation from: Gadamer, Hans-Georg: Wahrheit und Methode 34 Fischer-Lichte, Erika: Ästhetik des Performativen. Frankfurt 2004 35 Gadamer emphasised the necessity of reference to the past, of a “shifting” into the past in order to enter into the present. I include the future in this insofar as it signifies the present developing from moment to moment, but also as a longer-term notion of the future. 36 Cf. Grondin, Jean in this volume, p. 91. This also corresponds to Poser’s thesis that – in the sense of Heidegger and Sartre – only “design” stemming from existence leads to an essence, whereas the design predates existence from the technician’s standpoint. However, Poser assumes that the design of technical language is also a fundamental concept that defines the person. Cf.: Poser 2004, p. 561 37 “The mimetic process of penetrating into the ‘other of our self’ (Hegel) is not possible without creative self-transformation.” Emrich, Hinderk M. in this volume, p. 125; also Whitehead, Alfred North: Denkweisen. Frankfurt 2001 38 Cf. Grondin in this volume, p. 91 39 For closer explanation of the Modus 2 unders tanding of science, cf. Nowotny, Helga/Scott, Peter/Gibbons, Michael: Wissenschaft neu denken. Wissen und Öffentlichkeit in einem Zeitalter der Ungewissheit. Frankfurt 2004; also: Nowotny, Helga: Es ist so. Es könnte auch anders sein. Frankfurt 1999, from which: “[...] path to a new, nonlinear form of integrating knowledge [...]. If we do not wish to avoid metaphors, the image of a rampantly growing rhizome for the production of knowledge according to Modus 2 is more helpful.” p. 109 40 Jonas, Wolfgang: „Entwerfen als ‚sumpfiger Grund’ unseres Konzepts von Menschen und Natur(-Wissenschaften)“. In: van den Boom, H. (ed.): Entwerfen. Salon, Cologne, p. 114–125 41  Cf. Werner, Julia in this volume, p. 212 42 Cf. Poser 2004, p. 561 43 Grondin in this volume, p. 91 44 The office Stein + Schultz, urban, regional and open space planners, Frankfurt am Main, is developing the regional planning concept for the region of South Luxembourg. 45 Stein, Ursula: „Die ‚Raumvision’ in der interkommunalen Planungsarbeit“. In: RaumPlanung 134, 10/2007, p. 220–224; also: Stein, Ursula: Lernende Stadtregion. Verständigungsprozesse über Zwischenstadt. Wuppertal 2006 46 The student’s experiments represent a cooper­ative teaching project by the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN and the office Stein + Schultz, Frankfurt /Main: Students' competition (summer 2005) out of which four ideas were chosen. The experiments were part of the project SAUL (Sustainable and Accessible Urban Landscape, transnational cooperative project in the EU-Program Interreg IIIB; Contracting Body: Ministerium für Inneres und Landesplanung, Großherzogtum Luxemburg. 47 The “spatial vision” was worked out in a joint planning workshop involv­ing the office Stein + Schultz/Frankfurt and the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN (team: Hille von Seggern, Henrik Schultz, Sigrun Langner, Sabine Rabe, Anke Schmidt) July 2007; part of the project: “Prozessgestaltung und Entwurf für ein Zukunftsbild für den Raum der Südregion Luxemburg” as the first phase of the formal regional planning (since 2004). Contracting Body: Ministerium für Inneres und Landesplanung, Großherzogtum Luxemburg. 48 This is followed by a rational “reverse” translation and checking in other, common planning languages. On this project, cf.: Sieverts, Thomas in this volume, p. 188 49 Research project commissioned by the Wüstenrot Foundation. Development: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN at the Faculty of Architecture and Land­ scape, Leibniz University Hanover – Hille von Seggern, Anke Schmidt, Börries von Detten, Claudia Heinzelmann, Henrik Schultz, Julia Werner. Advice: Ulfert Herlyn, Timm Ohrt, 2005–2007 (Publication: Wüstenrot Stiftung (Hg.) Stadtsurfer, Quartiersfans & Co.Stadtkonstruktionen Jugendlicher und das Netz urbaner öffentlicher Räume. Berlin 2008 by Jovis Verlag, Berlin) 50 Cf. also experiment U-DJ in this volume, p. 44/45 51 Beijing’s new urban countryside. Designing with complexity. Landscape Visions for the Grean Belt Beijing, the Hegezhuang Village in Cuigezhuang County, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China. Four-week student’s workshop (0809/2007) by the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN in Peking, China on the invitation of Peking University, under the direction of Antje Stokman, Sabine Rabe, Dihua Li, with Hille von Seggern, Timm Ohrt and Kongjian Yu. 52 Jia Fu, Eva Nêmcová (Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany), Liao Hui, She Yi Shuang (Peking University, China) 53 Cf. Giseke, Undine in this volume; the example “Casablanca”, p. 200 54 Cf. Nowotny, Helga in this volume, p. 42

Improving the quality of fragmented urban landscapes – a global challenge!

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Thomas Sieverts This contribution will sketch the circumstances around the emergence of fragmented urban landscapes; it will go on to outline why it makes sense to improve their quality and what obstacles are standing in the way of such an improvement. In conclusion, new paths towards their betterment in the spirit of a comprehensive design approach, as is otherwise formulated in this book, will be unveiled.

The character of cities has changed more in the six decades of my own, first playful, then intellectual and finally professional, involvement in them than in the six preceding centuries. A society tangibly divided into classes with subtly graduated boundaries and hierarchies has shifted into one of organized functional systems; these increasingly differentiate towards their own centers and at the same time – as in the case of Global Players – branch off into worldwide networks. 1 Each one is itself a highly complex structure with many sub-systems but collectively they produce huge disorder. They collide abruptly into each other, while also lacking differentiated lateral correlation and connective federal order. Individual functional systems tend to clam up, in some cases to such an extent that they have an almost autistic inability to communicate. The spatial expression of the above societal change is that old order is dissolving as is a clear distinction between city and country while at the same time populated and open space areas are increasingly intertwining. Former compact cities are expanding into city landscapes worldwide; these no longer have clear boundaries between city and country. This transformation of ordered cities, in clear contrast to farmlands and wilderness, into urbanized regions is undoubtedly a global phenomenon that is occurring equally in both industrialized and developing countries. Growing prosperity was a driving force in the old industrial countries; it led the amount of built area per capita to triple in the last half century, the amount of leisure time per head to double and automated mobility to explode – this prosperity is reflected in the outward appearance of urban regions. The urban regions emerging from such transformation processes are characterized by closely intertwining built-up areas and open space areas and by fractal edge settlements. These express a desired proximity to the open countryside and at the same time to urban facilities and regional transport networks.2 In developing countries, which are typically poor, one result of rapidly progressing urbanization processes is that quickly growing rural populations are being displaced. Since nutrition and employment can no longer be provided in rural areas, the population is moving to the city. There, urban regions consisting of more or less independent urban districts are emerging, which are being forced to organize themselves and to produce their own food. Open space and gardens are essential elements, while populated and open areas also intertwine within them in their own way. In the future, changing climatic conditions and worldwide economic crisis could force the potential of now more prosperous city regions to be used for food production as has already been known to happen, for example during the Second World War.

thomas Sieverts

Emergence and character of urban landscapes

The need for quality improvement and the reasons behind it

Fragmented urban landscapes are, at roughly fifty years of age, extremely young compared to a more than 1000-year history of the city, yet they are already beginning to need regeneration and modernization: one example is that the immense building stock – it is said that more has been built in the last fifty years than in the whole of the last 500 years – must be regenerated and modernised. Apart from sheer masses of building volume, large technological infrastructural systems must also be modernized. These include water management and energy systems which, due to ecological constraints and new knowledge, must be transformed from highly centralized to more flexible, decentralized and better adaptable systems. An economic time bomb is ticking as far as regeneration and modernization are concerned as in many cases reserve funding for regeneration is not nearly sufficient. A further example is that European agricultural support policy will largely transform within the next few years from traditional subvention of production to the promotion of ecology and energy planting. Both of these changes will have a huge influence on the natural landscape. Needless to say, the demographic changes accompanied by population decreases in many parts of Europe and growing proportions of old and very old people, are leading to different demands, making restructuring of public transport, social services and residential areas essential. Single family homes in badly connected locations are among the types of residential areas affected. Accordingly there are many reasons to adapt fragmented urban landscapes to these rapidly changing requirements and to improve the compatibility of different large systems with each other and their compatibility with space in general.

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The term fragmented urban landscapes seems more comprehensive and fitting to the spatial phenomenon described above than does the term Zwischenstadt3 (intermediary city), which I developed in the past. In the following sections I will introduce some thoughts on the potential which this extended term provides as far as designing urbanized regions is concerned. Fragmented urban landscapes are globally widespread, highly complex entities, which – as already outlined – are obviously characterized by disorder. Their diversity cannot be aligned to a common principle of order because different systems follow different logics. We now know that the behavior of highly complex systems is practically impossible to predict and that we can only roughly estimate how urban landscapes will develop in the future. This polymorphism makes it easy to understand that there do exist different verities and realities depending on location, perspective and cognitive interest: in other words many different cities may be read from one single city region. The situation is similar to the fable about the blind people who come across an elephant and try to understand what it is by feeling it: depending on what part of the body one of the blind people is touching – legs, trunk, ears, tusk or tail – a completely different animal appears in the imagination. Different attitudes and positions towards fragmented urban landscapes as well as multiple varying systems, each with its own logic, yet embedded in divergent power and property complexes as well as general political fragmentation, complicate the establishment of coherent planning policy. Thus, for example, are industrial trade, industrial agriculture, industrial transport and industrial infrastructural complexes all subject to their own economic conditions and interdependencies. They have their own technological norms and are assigned to different political departments. So far space, money and time could more or less steer continually expanding development within each sector. However, it appears that this is now reaching its limits and that a new type of holistic thinking is required. Several examples from the old industrialized world provide proof of such.

Apart from the required tangible technological and economic changes outlined above there is also a new great need for a general improvement of their quality. Most people’s spheres of life have long overstepped the boundaries of the local community and have extended to the whole urban region. The latter has become everyday life and work space. In so being, relatively high demands are being made both on the quality of the urban region and on the configuration of the local community area. Costs must decrease and productivity increase in order to be able to finance this shift in quality. Each Community still provides more or less the same infrastructure. The potentials of spatial-functional division of labor in the shape of complementary, specialized facilities that work on the economic principles of an economy of scale are still rarely tapped into – with the exception of hospitals. The factors inherent in the relationship of individual communities to urban regions also hold true in the relationships of urban regions to each other; in a globalized world whole urban regions, rather than individual cities, are competing directly against each other on a worldwide scale more or less without the mediation of national economic boundaries and national borders. Young people, intelligence and buying power are the main factors involved. Highcost countries must particularly foster and expand their knowledge-based economic sectors, while developing countries must create their own worlds of knowledge. The preferences of young, motivated and intelligent people are thus becoming important factors in location choice for increasingly research-oriented companies; in future the competitiveness of urban regions will depend on the quality of life they can offer and landscape will be a decisive element of such.

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It is practically impossible for the obvious pressure of transformation and quality improvement to be absorbed by politics, civil society and culture have to be gathered and steered onto a democratically determined path; there exists an almost complete lack of democratically and sufficiently authorized urban regional administrative bodies and a lack of authoritative public consciousness beyond a vague feeling of public unease. However, apart from scathing criticism of their boringness and monotony, there is no willingness to recognize fragmented urban landscapes as part of the cultural world. The absence of such willingness and the cultural disinterest that it reflects are probably also significant factors behind the fact that that there is no political and societal commitment to them. In many people’s minds urban landscapes are anaesthetic in character. This implies that these people do not really perceive their own environments beyond a narrow instrumental interest. This has far-reaching consequences: anything that is not perceived with a minimum of emotion is forgotten and thus cannot become an object of worry and responsibility! That places landscape and urban planning in a difficult position: there is no institution that could become responsible for the qualitative improvement of fragmented urban landscapes and thus no authority that could award commissions for clear design programmes. This means that space-oriented professions cannot expect to receive clear planning and design commissions within which to improve fragmented urban landscapes: the formulation of the task and program thus become part of the design job itself! The main emphasis of this part of the design work is to develop coherent visions and goals in follow-up to a vague public sense of unease and individual grievances. The structure of urban regions, consisting of generally autonomous systems, must be absorbed into concept development; in future the task will be to free these systems of their self-referential behavior in order to ultimately slot them into a sort of federal urban regional organization. They would have to at least partially open up beyond the most minimal functional connectivity and systems would have to overlap.

thomas Sieverts

Obstacles on the path towards quality improvement

It is obvious that visions, goals and other concrete tasks cannot be independently formulated by spatial planners and designers alone, despite their important and indispensable leading roles. Workable visions for the improvement of the quality of fragmented urban landscapes can only arise out of multiple-layered communication processes that must be designed, organized and evaluated by and between diverse sections of society and planning professionals. In the process, images could emerge out of confusing, “untidy”, incomprehensible fragmented urban landscapes that simplify and make manageable this super-complexity that is causing so much unease.

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The work being carried out on the Raumvision Südregion Luxemburg4 (spatial vision for Luxemburg South) is attempting to develop such a vision as part of a new regional plan for the south of Luxemburg; in a first vital step the confused situation on the ground and its heterogeneous diversity were translated into a metaphorical sea-scape, a landscape consisting of “coasts”, “seas”, “islands”, ”depths” and “shallows” and also of “mountains”, “valleys” and “canyons”, “plateaus”, “pools” and “sinkholes”. In the confused complexity of the situation, this translation into a new type of perception opens up a path for the structures and elements, which are unique to the southern region and which need to be boosted, to be recognized and pinpointed. Such cooperative intellectual effort has the potential to lift the space out of the day-to-day political dealings and debates that it had become stuck in. It can set fantasy free and allow the space to be perceived independently of its political borders, thus opening it up to new innovative concepts.5 It is actually a consultation process whose goal is to understand individual situations. The diverse prior knowledge and preconceptions of those involved form its starting point. If successful, it moves from there to a transformation of this diverse prior knowledge into a sort of common vision.6 Such a consultation process requires its own aesthetic form. It must therefore go beyond a cognitive intellectual level to address and incorporate all of the senses and the physical experiences that go with them. Its purpose is to configure social-aesthetic experience. Such experiences can for example be created by well-led tours through the fragmented region7 in conjunction with celebratory events as well as artistic and social manifestations of “situational urbanism.” 8 It is part of the design work involved in developing a learning region; the silent, anaesthetic world of fragmented urban landscapes begins to speak and to open up as a sensual world and resonant territory of active life. Such comprehension already incorporates a hidden design: understanding is the first and probably most important step in design on a regional level!9 Matters of the institutions, sponsors, financing, processes and timelines associated with gradual implementation will again arise when the qualities with which to improve fragmented urban landscapes have been defined by the common visions and concrete goals found in the complex consultation process. In short: power will become an issue! To wait for extensive administrative reform would in practice mean to do nothing. The most significant agents of the outlined systems must be won over; those who have created fragmented urban landscapes and who continue to shape them – those responsible for large transport, energy, pipeline and water infrastructure, for agriculture, for large third-level institutions, for industry, for trade, for medicine and for large real-estate capital. These large involved interests must be released from their own narrow, small-minded, self-referential focus and be brought into productive, enlightened dialogue with each other so that a lateral-federal regional order can emerge. 10 It is up to the planning professions to show the representatives of diverse societal systems what synergies could occur if they were prepared to accept lateral-federal organization of the

thomas Sieverts

New paths towards quality improvement

A comprehensive understanding of design: method of cognition, means of communication and instrument of design

Such a broad design process will become an instrument to gain new insights and create new fields of action. It can lead previously unavailable knowledge hidden behind the complexity of fragmented urban landscapes to become visible due to a multilayered design process. As already outlined, the first element of design in the context of fragmented urban landscapes must be an area’s own distinct character. There can be no return to the historical city and its clear separation of city and country, clear hierarchical order, small lots and small-scale diversity. We cannot ignore the influence of large systems, mainly operating according to their own laws. Design on the large scale of fragmented urban landscapes can, however, contribute to spatial mediation between different systems, particularly at their edges and in relation to living environments. Urban regions and their open edges form spaces in which new things can emerge and into which cities can grow. They can be described as complex open systems, as spaces of potential; different influential forces within them cannot be comprehensively forced into preformed molds but the relations of elements to each other can be improved. According to the theories of evolution and complexity, we can be certain that surprising new developments will always occur and that erratic new things will always emerge. As problems increase so, too, do chances to generate creative solution strategies. Disorder within order is obviously a prerequisite for growing evolutionary diversity and complexity!13 Mediation work within a design process is simplified by the tendency that systems always open up by themselves – to avoid getting stuck, to soften up their edges and boundaries and to make them more penetrable. According to the theory of systems, this process begins in any organization that grows to a certain degree of complexity; when it becomes impossible to steer under a central power system, power and responsibility shift to formerly secondary

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region. Design in the context of highly complex urban landscapes must become more than just an instrument of implementation of individual programs within abstract spatial-constructive structures. Conventional regional planning must be extended into the conceptual dimension of a spatial vision. New fields of action would emerge from such a broad design process and new meanings would be found for quality of life and sustainability. The indispensable communication process on the road towards understanding is of its own cultural value and contributes significantly to incurring in residents a sense of emotional connectivity, instilling in them a feeling of vibrancy, care and responsibility.11 The first step in improving the quality of fragmented urban landscapes is to use methods of deeper understanding to make these highly complex systems legible.12 Such methods are instruments with which to reduce confusion and recognize structures; I will tentatively label this level of legibility the first aesthetic level because it leads to a comprehensive perception which can be shared by many. This obviously makes it the first design step. Legibility can be improved by accentuating, underlining and connecting typical characteristics with common and therefore conventional methods and elements. This is already a familiar design step whose result I will label the second aesthetic level. The systematic communications processes outlined above are the only means with which to discover and determine which characteristics should be programmatically strengthened and extended. On an urban regional level structural interventions can only bring about limited change in the newly uncovered essence of a region and they are restricted as far as steering it in a new direction is concerned, however, certain elements of them whether they be experimental, artistic or symbolic provide an indispensable step into a seemingly impenetrable future. I will tentatively label this the third aesthetic level, which is in fact the artistic level.

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levels or completely new elements. Design on the scale of fragmented urban landscapes is most effective in cases in which large systems in danger of getting stuck open up and suddenly become messy and chaotic, allowing new things to happen. The improvement of the quality of fragmented urban landscapes is a worldwide task, whose goals may be summarized in three central points:14 — In the future, urban landscapes will need to be stronger mediators between the local place and the global level than they are now. On the one hand they will have to incorporate smaller places into regional multidimensional systems of reference and on the other hand they will have to connect regional urban landscapes to the global level. They will have to accommodate both global elements that follow global rules and local elements that serve the small living and working worlds of the local area. Within the improvement process specific tasks will emerge from this position of mediation. — Urban landscapes as new forms of urbanity can only become productive if they can develop their own particular characteristics, which lead to productive distinctions in economy and culture. Improvement upon them must therefore help the still very young urban landscapes to unfold into their own development, making it essential to counteract international tendencies towards sameness. One of the aims of improved quality should definitely be to develop the special characteristics of each individual situation in order to make it different to other urban landscapes; own identities must be able to unfold from deposits of history-building sediments while open yet formative capacities must be created as inviting potential spaces for productive development. — Urban landscapes must facilitate open exchange; they must support the development of the individual and also the freedom of self-determination within democratically legitimate selforganization as well as embodying the active, productive coexistence of variety and diversity. Self-organized and designed subsidiary individual elements and infrastructure must be brought into balance with a non-hierarchical, federally structured larger-scale order which in turn needs to incorporate enough disorder and freedom to remain flexible to change. Urban landscapes must be able to support the development of different forms of democracy. In the future, urban landscapes will be taken for granted as being multicultural landscapes; they must further develop this peculiarity and the deviations that come with it into a productive quality. Improving the quality of fragmented urban landscapes requires courage, patience and a passionate zest for the future!

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1 Cp. Wilke, Helmut: Heterotopia. Frankfurt 2003 2 Cp. Humpert, Klaus/Brenner, Klaus/Becker, Sybille (ed): Fundamental Princi­ples of

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Urban Growth. Wuppertal 2002 3 Sieverts, Thomas: Zwischenstadt: Zwischen Ort und Welt, Raum und Zeit, Stadt und Land. Brunswick 1999 4 Developed by Stein+Schultz spatial, urban and open space planners, Frankfurt/Main in cooperation with STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, Leibniz University Hannover 5 Cp. Stein, Ursula: “Die ‘Raumvision‘ in der interkommunalen Zusammenarbeit”. In: RaumPlanung. No. 134, October 2007 6 Cp. Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Verstehen. Oder: Wie kommt Neues in die Welt?” In: Anthos. 4/03, p. 48–57 7 Cp. Situativer Urbanismus. Zu einer beiläufigen Form des Sozialen. archplus No. 183, May 2007. 8 See Boris Sieverts: Office for City Tours (homepage: http://www.neueraeume.de) With his carefully prepared and informative guided tours, Boris Sieverts generates a new view point and understanding for certain fragmented urban landscapes. 9 Seggern, Hille von/Sieverts, Thomas: “Gestaltung der Stadtregion als Landschaft”. In: DGGL (Hg.): Regionale Gartenkultur. Munich, p. 14–19 10 Cp. Wilke, Helmut: Heterotopia. Frankfurt 2003 11 Cp. Stein, Ursula: Lernende Stadtregion. Verständigungsprozesse über Zwischenstadt. Wuppertal 2006; “Planning with all your senses”. In: DISP. No. 162, 2005; “Die ‘Raumvision‘ in der interkommunalen Zusammenarbeit”. In: RaumPlanung. No. 134, October 2007 12 Cp. Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Verstehen. Oder: Wie kommt Neues in die Welt?” In: Anthos. 4/03 p. 48–57. Hille v. Seggern made Gadamer’s term Verstehen (understanding) productive for deign in the context of urban landscapes. 13 Cp. Waldrop, Mitchell M.: Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos. London 1990 14 Cp Schmid, Christian: “Theorie”. In: ETH Studio (ed.): Die Schweiz, ein städtebauliches Portrait. Volume 1, p. 164–174, Zurich 2006. Christian Schmid refers to: Lefebvre, Henri: Die Revolution der Städte. Munich 1972 und Lefebvre, Henri: La production de l’espace. Paris 1974

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What effects are early twenty-first century urbanization processes having on the production and composition of open space? And what influence does man’s transformed relationship to nature have on the characteristics of these spaces? Assuming that developments in cultural landscape can no longer be explored and tackled on the basis of outdated ideas of nature and landscape the following question arises: What can our functional and aesthetic objectives for urban landscape be these days if they are to fulfill contemporary demands? This has long been the focus of my explorative and design work. Spatial structures in post-Fordist cities are changing. They are becoming more diverse and less coherent. New urban cohesion is taking place between built and unbuilt areas in different scales. Cities are becoming fragmented due to thinning-out processes at their centers and are occupying more space as a result of the intertwining of city and countryside at their edges. Familiar urban identity is being eroded; a phenomenon often reacted to by reproducing traditional urban centers and their public spaces. However, new unusual structures and identities within (open) space are also developing; they adhere to the logics of globalized spatial production procedures, also reflecting a contemporary comprehension of nature. Although it seems a contradiction, city expansion is bringing nature closer. Transformation and thinning-out processes are advancing right into city centers. Landscape is becoming a more and more significant spatial-structural urban element. Open spaces are also emerging that no longer convey the message of a well-designed, nature-imitating counterworld to the urban. While the mono-functional flowing spaces of modern cityscapes were a mechanical answer to Fordist urbanization in the early twentieth century, today’s multifaceted socio-cultural, spatialfunctional and institutional structures demand more multi-layered conceptual and compositional answers. City expansion into the surroundings, the transformation of city centers and high-speed urbanism outside of Europe are all affected. This contribution focuses on new types of open spaces under the title of “productive landscapes”.They share the common characteristic of “productivity”, through which they add a new sustainable form of expression to the existing spectrum of urban open space. These “urban cultural landscapes” are – in contrast to typical parks – often conglomerations of areas and thus a product of very different actors in space. It is impossible to design and build them in one go as in conventional planning. However, they require definite impulses to develop, not least set in motion by building activity. What understanding of urbanity and nature do these new open spaces express? How can we design them? Are there images, messages, concrete places already linked to them? The bgmr1 planning practice were the first to broach the subject of urban landscapes in 1997 when we entered a so-called “Station Concept” in the “New Pastures” competition for Berlin. The idea was to develop park-like places at various points along the border between new suburbs and agricultural landscapes in place of a traditional city park. Geometrically arranged groups of bosks integrated into a new network of pathways marked those places. This design approach was still strongly linked to the idea of implanting park-like structures into agricultural landscapes, especially when compared to later examples. (s. p. 196, below) The “City Sequence” project, part of a development concept for the space on either side of the A14 motorway in Leipzig North, again used the idea to plant recognizable and tangible bosks into the agricultural landscape. Robust, space-defining structures – again groups of trees and larger segments of forest – correspond in this context to the large frameworks of industrial estates thus giving the cultural landscape a new character. (s. p. 196, above)

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The new “City Sequence” of industrial components and a cultural landscape enriched by compositional elements in Leipzig North

Groups of bosks as deliberate space definers at certain points in the expansive agricultural landscape of Barnim, Berlin

When the new BMW works moved to Leipzig North a whole building block of this new “City Sequence” was quickly established. Sparse, distinctive landscape elements – compact segments of forest, open pastures, an over-dimensioned hedge of two kilometers in length and fifty meters in height – now characterize the new landscape around the industrial area and blend it into the urban context. Compensatory ecological measures were integrated into the compositional interventions in various ways; the drainage concept and the large hedge among other things. A similar approach was taken to the extensive infrastructure which was extended out into the landscape and included a large-scale storm water storage basin as well as trans-

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former and pump stations. A circumferential asphalted path made the area a popular destination for joggers, skaters and strollers. The result was a multi-layered open space, whose success depended on the accompanying compositional coordination of all of the infrastructural facilities within the landscape during the design and implementation phases, from transport facilities to supply and disposal technology. Since the idea of a “productive landscape” – enriched by aesthetic and functional components - forms the foundation, it was also possible to enter new territory in the areas of service and maintenance: segments of forest laid out according to forestry principles are maintained by foresters while the other groups of bosks and pastures are taken care of by the parks and gardens department, which has given control of them to a wandering shepherd. (s. above) An “urban cultural landscape” instead of a conventional park? – This question is also currently being tackled in the “country town” of Berlin-Gatow. A changing housing market has led to a reduction in inhabitants and thus in density of the originally planned 1200-apartment suburb. Due to shrinking population figures, the intended construction of a public suburban park is still being debated. An “urban agriculture” concept, which as yet remains in the development phase, is attempting to react to the changing conditions. It would unite typical components of public space with a “productive landscape”. The aim here is to carry out minimal space-defining and -structuring interventions to establish a robust spatial framework with an attractive network of pathways, within which flexible agricultural activity could still take place. Urban outdoor activity would also be provided for on the side by integrating

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Landscape concept for the area around BMW’s new Leipzig works

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picnic benches and allowing temporary events to take place. One of the central conceptual building blocks would be the so-called “common lands areas” – tree-covered pastures that would continue to be farmed but, as was the original idea of common lands, would be open to all as public countryside space. The concept provides room for economically independent agriculture while one-tenth of it would be taken over by the city as a park-like facility. The establishment of a foundation to manage the cultural landscape – from entertainment to cultural events – is now being considered. (s. p. 199) The fourth example is based in a non-European context: Casablanca; at the beginning of the twentieth century a city of barely 30,000 inhabitants is now predicted by the UN to become one of tomorrow’s next megacities. It is estimated that by 2015 the city will have reached the five million mark. (s. p. 200, below) In contrast to the other examples mentioned so far, the question here is whether, in a twentyfirst century megacity, a system of open spaces based on productive urban landscapes can be an appropriate alternative to the public park and greenbelt concepts of cities industrialized in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A contemporary and robust system of open spaces must be able to react flexibly to socio-cultural parameters and economic dynamics, making it sustainably assimilable. A study project2 carried out at the TU Berlin in conjunction with a megacity research project offered the perfect opportunity to experiment with these questions. In a first step the students used various scenarios to determine possible areas in which agriculture could become an integrated feature of urban development. It was assumed from the beginning that under the influence of globalized economic structures and informal developments, settlement growth processes would emerge that were highly dynamic in space and time. As a result, partial spaces with more subdued evolution tendencies, so called lee-spaces would develop to contrast with places under high pressure of urbanisation. Rural and urban structures would intertwine in the long-term to become an integral part of the urban region. Ideas were gathered and developed into concrete designs in order to qualify these spaces as rural-urban living space for the local population and at the same time as multidimensional service spaces for the city: for example as spaces for the production of healthy foodstuffs or for ecological diversity or local recreation and tourism (s. p. 200, above). If targeted strategies for “urban agriculture” are to be developed, exact knowledge of the mechanisms of urban spatial production is required. Spatial patterns that emerge under conditions of high development dynamics and are linked to various informal processes must be carefully analyzed, as in this case. It is up to the research project3 to examine these questions in a second phase, to develop hypotheses and to implement pilot projects. If the concept of “urban agriculture” can be integrated into urban development strategies for tomorrow’s megacities, farmers could become providers of urban open space in the future and their land could become an essential component in a system of open spaces. Due to its versatility, it could to a certain extent work with the evolution dynamics of mega urban space: “urban agriculture” could – in temporary use – increase the value of future building land and create synergies for city inhabitants; it could also be changed in state to become an intensively useable open space should urbanization intensify. This strategy can only be applied sustainably if the multidimensional advantages of agriculture for the city and its urban inhabitants can be clearly expressed and backed up by high-quality design. The question may be asked as to why urban open space should be developed at all on the basis of productive agriculture, as it initially appears to want to unite an awkward combination of incompatible elements. At first the reasons against it seem to be pragmatic and budgetary ones such as limited financial resources and current understandings of spatial design that expect stronger reference to the existing context. However, closer inspection of this new approach reveals a more than realistic scenario: these open spaces are not

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Clockwise from top middle: sport and leisure, artistic installation, administration and politics, city residents, school and education, agriculture, nature preservation

„Urban Agriculture“: flexible land use with recreational facilities on the side

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Plots of land bought by the city Urbanisation corridors along the streets Interior agricultural zones

Example of a strategic design intervention: Urban garden as a communal green area confines the pressure of urbanisation corridors on areas of “urban agriculture”.

Casablanca – Growth of the city and its surroundings in the last 100 years

counterworlds to the urban; on the contrary they represent counterworlds to the imaginary and to places of artificially reproduced nature. Their charm is hidden in the blurring of realworld activities and aesthetic components. Parallels can be drawn here to certain aspects of “urban gardening” which can currently be observed in certain cities. “Urban cultural landscapes” cannot avoid aestheticization, although it can remain quite subtle. The potential of these contemporary open spaces has not yet been exhausted, there still remains much to be discovered and experimented upon.

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1 bgmr – Becker Giseke Mohren Richard, landscape architects Berlin 2 Tourist Landscape Urbanism study project – Strategies for a sustainable development of Casablanca; Technical University (TU) Berlin; Department of Landscape Architecture/ Open Space Planning, Supervision: Prof. Undine Giseke and Dipl.-Ing. Anne-Katrin Fenk 2006/2007 3 Urban Agriculture (UA) as an Integrative Factor of Urban Development; Casablanca; BMBF-Research-Project: within the Research-Programme: The Megacities of Tomorrow; Research for Sustainable Development; Phase I 2005-2007; Project-Leader Prof. Undine Giseke, TU Berlin 4 ibid

Design Knowledge

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Martin Prominski What type of knowledge is created by design? Is not every design – whether it be the design of a building, the design of a therapy or the design of a park – a dense cohesion of knowledge for just one specific situation? An isolated case? Knowledge that does not apply to any other situations and that is basically of no interest to anyone apart from the designer involved? In disciplines such as architecture, urban planning and landscape architecture the radical thesis could even be formulated that a design which may fit into a different context can not be good enough as it has not explored the specific potentials of a place in adequate depth. The knowledge bundled in a design would thus not be transferable; it has been created for a certain context in space and time. It does then not fulfill the criteria classically demanded of science such as transferability and validity independent of space and time. Design theorist Wolfgang Jonas summarizes the distinctiveness of design knowledge as follows: “The aim of creation in design is not to discover generalizing insights but rather that a design functions within itself. There is no paradigmatic core to design; it is a groundless discipline that is precariously based on characteristic process patterns.”1 According to Jonas, in design we appear to be dealing with an unfounded, principally precarious discipline whose substance is completely intangible. This would be quite disillusioning since if there is no knowledge to be grasped how can it be taught? Furthermore, in the face of this non-generalisability and elusiveness, is design research at all feasible? In order to track down design knowledge I will go on to trace two loops like in the figure of 8. In the first loop of this imaginary path I will search for a new appreciation of the qualities that design knowledge can contribute to the existing spectrum of knowledge production and in the second loop I will observe the design process in terms of elements of knowledge.

∞ Within contemporary philosophy of science there now exist multiple new proposals, which do not reduce science to criteria like universality and transferability. New types of knowledge production are described which throw fresh light on the non-generalizability and the specificity in time and space of design knowledge – so that it must no longer be considered non-scientific. According to many authors, the main source of this change are the insights gained from complexity theories developed in recent decades. In this volume, Hans Poser delivers a compact overview of such and postulates that complexity theories are “well on the way to present a completely new world view whereby everything in the universe has a history, every event is completely unique and in its complex connections non-repeatable”.2 The Sciences of Complexity examine “hierarchies of gradually self organizing ordering structures” that develop unpredictably. As a result of these insights, which bear unmistakable parallels to design, Poser predicts a shift from a reductionist, causal worldview to an evolutionary worldview that focuses on transformation, goal orientation and uniqueness.3 Apart from Poser, there exists a whole array of philosophers of science who point out the extensive significance of the complexity theory for our future understanding of science. The “Mode 2 of knowledge production” concept proposed by Helga Nowotny et al., which is greatly important for understanding design knowledge, is based on a fundamental acknowledgement of uncertainty exposed by the sciences of complexity. The insight that most connections within nature or society are nonlinear in character and are in continual unpredictable development puts an end to the Modernist project and its search for order, control and predictability. Nowotny et al. summarize this change in paradigm as follows, “There can no longer be

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Loop 1 – Philosophy of Science

universal scientific objectivity – or only at a highly abstract, and practically meaningless level. There can no longer be established canons of rules that must be followed in order to guarantee scientific reliability. Instead, scientific objectivity will have to be redefined to become localized and contextualized; it will have to be shaped to anticipate the specific contexts where it will be challenged.“4 They have christened this new type of knowledge production, which is becoming so essential, “Mode 2” as opposed to the conventional type of knowledge production, “Mode 1”. The main focus is on contextualization instead of universality, transdisciplinarity instead of disciplinarity and application orientation instead of purity.5 This short digression into the philosophy of science shows that an evolutionary world view or the “Mode 2” provide a new perspective on knowledge production that emphasizes context, transformation, values and goals. Media philosopher and design theorist Norbert Bolz takes up on these developments and speculates on their significance for design. According to him the “Mode 2” has already arrived in current research into the basic elements of the earth – bits, atoms, neurons and genes. Since the analysis of these is already well into the nano level, the focus is now more and more on their technical synthesis which can only be furthered by the “inaccurate sciences and technologies that engage with the complex problems of the real world.”6 “The focus is thus shifting from basic research to the art of engineering and from understanding to designing.”7 BANG design (bits, atoms, neurons and genes) thus becomes a central twenty-first century issue – a huge explosion into the positive as far as the relevance of design is concerned.

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∞ The first loop revealed that in the light of developments in the philosophy of science such characteristics of design knowledge as non-generalisability or context and application orientation are no longer weaknesses and have in fact become strengths. Designers are happy to acknowledge this ennoblement, nevertheless, the insights gained remain on a very abstract level. They still do not really explain design knowledge, and the questions on design research and teaching posed at the beginning of this article are not yet answered by it because the result of a design is always so specific that the knowledge inherent in it is only of use to but a few. With respect to teachable and researchable design knowledge it would seem to me to make more sense to turn our attention to the design process rather than examining individual designs as products. In the course of deciphering process knowledge I will initially take a look at two levels: first the macro level which carries a theory for the whole network of the design process and then the micro level which concerns the individual nodes of a design network. In my opinion there already exists a persuasive theory for the macro level for quite some time. In the 1980s Donald Schön, Professor for Urban Studies and Education at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), recognised that design is an irreplaceable method of finding solutions to complex problems within the real world, and he examined design by looking at the work of many designers.8 He describes two intertwining elements of the design process: On the one hand the establishment of an idea, a concept or a “coherence” which derives from the subjective “appreciative context” of the designer. On the other hand the objective evaluation of the established concept as to what extent it fulfills the requirements of “normative design domains” such as function, local conditions, spatial organisation, technology and costs. A complex network of logical “if…then” chains emerge from these examinations. If for example in the design of a school, L-shaped classrooms are built into the hillside, then retaining walls must be built. If retaining walls are built then it is only possible to enter the rooms

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Loop 2 – Design Process

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from one side. If entrance is only feasible from one point then the costs will increase, etc. The course of the design process changes according to decisions made at various nodes in this network. Schön considers this procedure a continuous “conversation” between the designer and the virtual products of his creation. His products “consult” with him, which in turn creates unpredictable problems and potentials. Schön calls design “reflective practice” due to this constant action-reaction. This course of action is equipped to deal with complexity, uncertainty and conflict rather than suppressing them as happens when using conventional scientific methodology. Schön set the corner stones of design knowledge with this description of the interplay of intuitive and analytical elements within the design process. The meta-theory of “reflective practice” has taught us that design can neither consist only of unfathomable subjective artistry nor of operational, objective methodology. This knowledge is applicable to all design disciplines. In my opinion, it makes little sense to focus further research on the macro level of the design process as Schön’s theory is already so persuasive and provides a good foundation. However, what is the situation on the micro level and at the individual nodes in the network? Here knowledge consists of individual components, which may, for example, be taught as university subjects. Let us take the example of landscape architecture: In order to expand the subjective appreciative context, comprehensive knowledge of case studies and their cultural contexts are required, and are taught through history and theory as well as field trips. The normative levels are taught in subjects such as technical-constructive principles, material and plant knowledge, drafting systems and law. These components of knowledge are all easily teachable and researchable on the micro level; however they do not constitute design knowledge, whose quality does not lay in knowledge of components but in their synthesis. The connection of the individual components first takes place in the reflective practice of a concrete design – considering the multiple layers of a specific situation and numerous normative demands it remains extremely unclear. Therein lies the opportunity for design research and thus for the expansion of design knowledge. On an “intermediary level” design research can think ahead, prestructure and depict certain correlations in a transferable way. I will take the example of the research project “Design Strategies for Using Common Local Vegetation to Revaluate Unused Space in Shrinking Cities,”9 which is underway at the Landscape Architecture Institutes of the universities in Berlin (Prof. Dr. Norbert Kühn/Dipl.-Ing. Alexander von Birgelen, responsible for vegetation) and Hannover, (Prof. Dr. Martin Prominski/Dipl.-Ing. Sigrun Langner, responsible for design strategies), to illustrate such pre-structured and transferable design correlations. The starting point of the research project is the abundant vacant space within settled areas, particularly in the East of Germany where two million residential units are facing demolition. However, the cleared spaces must often remain zoned for building to avoid existence-threatening asset value loss for the owners, thus practically ruling out tree-planting or conversion into parks for example. A variety of design components are being developed within the research project in order to be able to produce ecological, economical and aesthetically high-quality designs for these areas. They have been strategically combined under the working concept of “high-bay storage”(s. p. 206). Best practice examples are specified for each design component and useful links to other design components in other parts of the high-bay store are suggested (s. p. 207). The quality of the high-bay store is critically tested on scenarios from three case studies (Chemnitz, Dessau, Wolfen) and it is further developed by adding new components or improving connections. (s. p. 210/211, design scenarios for Dessau; all graphics by Sigrun Langner). When the research project has been completed, the high-bay store should be

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made available to the owners of all vacant lots with similar problems and to their landscape architects for specific design projects. I would like to highlight two aspects of this design research. On the one hand it can only be used by designers or at least in close collaboration with them. The structural correlations, an example of which is the high-bay store, were already “constructed” with design application in mind and only really develop their qualities in feedback loops with test designs. On the other hand, design knowledge produced on this “intermediary level” does not automatically produce designs. Landowners, who wish to use such elements as the high-bay store for their vacant lots still need landscape architects to develop a specific concept. The quality of such design knowledge is that by structuring the thematic knowledge, it gives a better foundation for the reflective practice of specific design cases, and by offering exemplary correlations, it speeds up the design process. This design knowledge in a pre-structured framework can be compared to enzymes – many of them exist for the most diverse biochemical reactions and if they fit together they act as catalysers to accelerate the reaction process. I consider the potential of design knowledge to be on the “intermediary level” of the design process. Most of these structured correlations have to be tailored to suit particular design professions as BANG designers require different ones to landscape architects. Perhaps however, there exist unforeseen intersections – an interesting question to pose in hopefully expanding, trans-disciplinary debates between the design professions. A new starting point

We have now traced two loops and have once against reached the crossing point of the imaginary eight. Yet new design perspectives have opened up along the way so that the crossing point has now become a new starting point. At the beginning of the path it was uncertain as to whether design creates knowledge at all and whether it is teachable and researchable. In the first loop developments in complexity theories demonstrated that design is becoming an increasingly important form of knowledge production that produces contextual, application and goal oriented knowledge as opposed to the universal objective knowledge produced by the classical sciences. The knowledge bundled in the product of the individual design is thus very specific and is only of interest to few designers; knowledge of the design process is of greater use and interest. This was examined on three levels in the second loop: “reflective practice” provides a good knowledge base for the macro level of the general design process

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Shrinking city, example: Wolfen

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Flächenverfügbarkeit Area Availability Überbrückungsstrategien Bridgin strategies

kurz-bis mittelfristige Verfügbarkeit Short to mid-term availability

mittel- bis langfristige Verfügbarkeit Mid to long-term availability

dauerhafte Verfügbarkeit Permanent availability

Kostenreduzierung Cost Reduction innovative Anlagemethoden Innovatove planting methods

Bewirtschaftung Cultivation for returns

pflegeextensive Modelle Maintenanceextensive models

Einwerben von externen Mitteln Procurement of external funding

Vegetationsbilder Types of Vegetation offene Vegetationstypen Open types of vegetation

halboffene Vegetationstypen Semi-open types of vegetation

geschlossene Vegetationstypen Closed types of vegetation

Naturschutzstrategien Nature Protection Strategies Schutz biotischer Vielfalt Protection of biotic diversity

Entwicklung biotischer Vielfalt Development of biotic diversity

Prozessschutz Protection of natural processes

Anlage und Pflege Establishment and Maintenance Standortvorbereitung Location preperation

Etablierung Establishment

Pflege Maintenance

High-bay storage, a pre-structured framework of design components

Ressourcenschutz Resource protection

Landschaftsentwicklung Landscape development

Procurement of external funding

Einwerben externer Mittel

Maintenance extensive models

pflegeextensive Modelle

Cultivation for returns

Bewirtschaftung

innovative Anlagemethoden innovative planting methods

Example of the initial phase of a design process (see scenario 1) --> Entwurfsbausteine design components

--> getestete Beispiele tested examples

Zwischenansaaten zur Bodenverbesserung Interim sowing to improve ground quality

Vertragsnaturschutz Contractual nature preservation

Pflege mit landwirtschaftlichen Maschinen Maintenance with agricultural machinery

Anwendung Application: ...

Links:

Mahdgutübertragung transfer of plant material

gebietseigene Ansaatenmischungen area-typical seed mixtures

Links: Entwurfsbausteine Design components

maschinelle Ernte machine harvesting

Energiepflanzen Acker energy plants, fields

urbane Landwirtschaft urban agriculture

Zwischenansaaten interim sowing

Links: Entwurfsbausteine Design components

---> Trelleborg, Plantagen

---> Cottbus, Feldwald

Links: getestete Beispiele tested examples

Anlage und Pflege Establishment and Maintenance

Beschreibung Description: ... Voraussetzungen Prerequisites: ...

urbane Weidenutzung urban pastures

Urbane Landwirtschaft urban agriculture

Entwurfsbaustein / Design components

durch Bewirtschaftung Cultivation for returns

Kostenreduzierung Cost Reduction

--> Entwurfsbausteine design components

--> getestete Beispiele tested examples

Links:

Anwendung Application: ...

Voraussetzungen Prerequisites: ...

Beschreibung Description: ...

Kurzumtriebsplantagen (KUP) short rotation forestry plantations

nachwachsende Rohstoffe renewable raw materials

Entwurfsbaustein / Design components

durch Bewirtschaftung Cultivation for returns

Kostenreduzierung Cost Reduction

Maintenance

Pflege

Establishment

Etablierung

Location preparation

Standortvorbereitung

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Kostenreduzierung Cost Reduction

while on the micro level extensive knowledge is required which is analytical and specific rather than artificial design knowledge. At the end of the path we arrived at an “intermediary level” of structured knowledge bundles which are neither totally specific nor universal. These “design enzymes” are comparable to the normative structures discussed by Hans Poser in this volume, “The new thought scheme that complexity theories offer, allows temporal processes to be structured in a way that accesses human understanding as the genesis of new ordering structures”.10 Design knowledge is relational process knowledge and the investigation of open, and variously applicable “design enzymes” could expand the knowledge base of individual design disciplines and their trans-disciplinary intersections, thus becoming a worthwhile goal of future paths in design research.

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Notes 1 Jonas, Wolfgang: “Entwerfen als ‘Sumpfiger Grund’ unseres Konzepts von Menschen und Natur(-Wissenschaften)”. In: Van den

Martin Prominski

Boom, Holger (Hg.): Entwerfen. Cologne 2000, p. 123 2 Poser, Hans: „Creativity in the Balance Between Action and Complexity“ (in this volume, p. 104) 3 Poser, Hans: Wissenschaftstheorie. Stuttgart 2001, p. 279 ff. 4 Nowotny, Helga/Scott, Peter/Gibbons, Michael: Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Cambridge 2001, p. 5 5 Prominski, Martin: Landschaft entwerfen. Zur Theorie aktueller Landschaftsarchitektur. Berlin 2004, p. 42 ff. 6 Bolz, Norbert: bang design. design manifest des 21. jahrhunderts. Hamburg 2006, p. 11 7 ibid., p. 11 8 Schön, Donald: The reflective practitioner. How professionals think in action (1983). Aldershot 1991 9 Funded through Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt 10 Poser, Hans, “Creativity in the Balance Between Action and Complexity“ (in this volume, p. 104)

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Planned “landscape corridor” in Dessau (light green area)

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intensive -public cultivation intensive - private intensiv -öffentlich Bewirtschaftung intensiv -privat lawn lawn Rasen Rasen urban core country estate urbaner Kern Landsitz

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harvest / cultivation by leaseholder Ernte / Bewirtschaftung durch Pächter poplar trees poplar trees Pappeln Pappeln urban core urbaner Kern

A primary assumption here is that cultivation will lead to cost reduction. Of the various design components, for this area “urban biomass production” through short rotation forestry and “urban agriculture” through pasture cultivation have been chosen. These two design components facilitate the establishment of the desired spatial qualities of an uninterrupted open corridor. Starting from the design component “biomass production,” reference is made to tested examples and suggestions are made as to which other storage areas this design component could be advantageously connected to – in this case “cultivating maintenance” with the design component “timber utilization.”

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extensive intensive-private extensive cut down every five years extensive Stock setzen extensiv auf den extensiv intensiv-privat extensiv aller 5Jahre meadow lawn meadow clumps of bushes clumps of bushes meadow Wiese Rasen Wiese Gehölzinsel Insel Gehölzinsel Wiese country estate landscape zone Landsitz Landschaftliche Zone

urban core urbaner Kern

Scenario Two: The procurement of funds from nature preservation programmes provides a completely different context. So the design process begins at a completely different place in the high-bay storage. Sowing area-typical grass seeds and precisely placed process-protection islands produces a different spatial composition; however, it still provides the desired spatial qualities of an uninterrupted, open corridor.

Ideas – how can they emerge?

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Design Teaching at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN

Julia Werner Good designs live from good ideas. Ideas, according to my thesis, can “untangle” the complex spatial interrelations of urban landscapes, giving access to productive solution-finding and development. Searching for ideas is therefore a key aspect of teaching design: how can ideafinding become a more central issue and how can it be fostered? Purely analytical understanding is inadequate when it comes to comprehending today’s spatial developments. How can it be consciously extended to include intuitive-emotional approaches to knowledge, allowing ideas to be discovered and to unfold? At STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN1 we2 teach (large-scale) landscape design within the landscape architecture field of studies; we focus on idea-finding. This text addresses the following issues: why ideas are both “aids to untangling” and attempts at solutions, how intuitive and rational access to knowledge can be consciously incorporated, how perception using all of the senses, intuitive cognition of correlations and idea-finding can be practiced, what a teaching method that is structured to be a process of understanding comprises. In short, how do students learn Creating Knowledge through designing urban landscapes at the STUDIO?

Design teaching at the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN – whether it involves lectures, design projects or field trips – is simultaneously a field of experiment, research and knowledge, concerning both designing and the sphere of urban landscapes. As both of these have been covered in more detail elsewhere in this book,3 I will merely summarise them here. Worldwide establishment and expansion of urban lifestyles outside of urban areas has led to the formation of complex urban landscapes whose development cannot be predicted. Not only have traditional polarities between city and country dissolved, “rather than being opposed to the landscape, the city now emerges from it. The city no longer stretches out into the countryside; landscape is redeveloping [...].”4 To look at something from a landscape perspective is to examine natural spatial situations in communion with anthropogenic influences, structures and demands. Instead of judging between “natural” and “artificial”, human beings are considered to be both constructors of landscape and a part of it. Landscape is a (usually subconscious) combination of the multifaceted elements of an area, its history and culture, whether produced by nature or human beings. Today’s urban landscapes are characterized by diverse two-way cause-effect relationships that have huge and dramatic consequences for the spatial environment; these still remain to be tackled worldwide. Long-demanded cross-linked ecological, economical and social developments will require novel ideas if they are to go beyond damage-limiting measures. Radical rethinking – in relation to both developments and ideas – is needed if the demands of Frederic Vester, the “father” of crosslinked thinking, are to be met: “In times of highly complex, cross-linked structures and operations, it is […] essential that we go beyond a simple linear approach and that we not merely acknowledge the current complexity, the networked correlations within our world, in our thinking, planning and acting, but that we learn to use them to act “sustainably” and therefore sensibly in the evolutionary sense.”5

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The basis of our teaching

We are therefore looking for a mode of action that not only consists of such interrelationships, but “is able to inventively use and shape such complexities to secure the future of humankind.”6 The contributions to this book demonstrate that designing represents precisely such an approach. We have been working on designing urban landscapes for years at the STUDIO, experimenting to find new paths in both method and content. A method of teaching designing has been born that focuses on idea-development in large-scale design so that “complexity can be used and shaped inventively”. It is not enough to “merely acknowledge” the workings and evolution of urban landscapes (this is called existing spatial inventory in our terminology). The decisive step is to look for solutions in a productive manner, even in cases which seem unsolvable, so that new things can emerge. Design teaching must therefore focus on teaching and learning to design and formulate ideas to deal with open, ambiguous, complex spatial development processes. They must be strategic, must be targeted towards a whole and must be concretely formulated in individual projects to the point of 1:1 interventions. It is crucial to design teaching that theoretical, methodical and use-oriented rational knowledgegaining practices be combined with intuitive and experience-based sources of knowledge and with spatial design and artistic practices. Design, as a creative activity, needs a transfer of theory, practice and reflective exchange. Therefore, theoretical input and “practical exercises” (on spatial perception, on intuitive comprehension of complex spatial correlations, on bodyspace experiences and on attaining and consolidating technical design skills) explicitly alternate in lectures and design projects at the STUDIO, combined with feedback (reflexive) dialogues between teachers and students. Designing is a highly creative procedure that goes far beyond learning and applying methods. Design and, in particular, idea-finding processes are also considered within teaching to be hermeneutic. Grondin writes in this volume, “In the case of understanding, the point is to be clear about the limits of the method and that which can be subjected to method.” He goes on to write that this insight must not lead to a loss of knowledge. Design teaching builds on knowledge of the process of understanding7 that allows creativity to unfold and that names, shapes and communicates it. Teaching aims to set cognition processes in motion, giving students an opportunity to go beyond the tools of design through an understanding experience, a Creating Knowledge in design. Its objective is to use the experience of idea-finding to “master” the complex problems of today’s urban landscapes.8

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It is generally acknowledged that the path towards mastership is long and that it always involves practice, which is an inextricable part of learning. This also applies to designing. Exercises are a fixed element of design teaching at the STUDIO; they characterize it. They foster both the development of creativity as well as specialist competence and technical design skills. They interact to work towards idea-development skills in design. At the STUDIO we have generated many types of exercises to nurture the various competences involved in designing. Many different types of exercises have been produced, one of which could generally be described as follows: the exercise is a procedure through which a skill can be learned or perfected by constant repetition or can be prevented from being forgotten. The first step is practicing, in which a skill as yet unknown is learned so that it can be applied. Practicing moves one towards a skill that is not yet available but which can – generally be expected to - be made available.9 Often-practiced exercises are the key to acquiring an (unusual) skill or even mastership in order to – as Gadamer would say – “gain an understanding of something.”10

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Idea-finding must be practiced

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A so-called “practice, practice, practice” program accompanies lectures and design pro­ jects; using both fixed instructions and exercises on subjects chosen by the students, it focuses on developing design skills and on the application of various design tools – mostly graphic. Application to one and the same object over a two-week period through daily repeated drawing, for example the view out of a window, the same movement or a selected urban situation, always involves a balancing act between giving up and “sticking to it”, the borderline between skill and lack of skill. A quest towards skill is inherent in practice as is the peril and the risk of failure. “Skill can only become real after a struggle for success. It only stays alive if it is continuously practiced anew. It gets stuck when the safety of ‘skilfulness’ has been reached.”11 Apart from “training” skills, the STUDIO teaching’s specific practical approach also aims to train intuitive-emotional competence within design i.e., access to ideas. How can their development be fostered? Part of that is practice of learning to perceive space in a differentiated way and using all of the senses, in order to be able to feel and understand it in its multilayered facets and to draw ideas from it. Such perceptual exercises have been fixed elements of teaching at the STUDIO for years. Idea-finding processes are examined on both the theoretical level and in gradual exercises throughout the course of the whole semester. The exercises, which deal with a certain site each semester, form the core of an understanding process that sensitizes the students’ spatial perception and, apart from historical, sociological or topographical spatial dimensions, allows them to develop their own emotional, empathic approaches. In order to be able to face a project area with openness and affection, individual prejudices or stereotypes must first be detected and understood as (new) ideas can grow in the process of overcoming them. Titles such as “Declaration of Love to a Waterside Location”, “Meditations on Welfenplatz” or “Putting a Story Overheard at a Busstop into an Image” represent only some of the exercises contained in our wide repertoire, aimed at idea-finding within complex spatial contexts through comprehending, affectionate perceptions of space. To discuss the structure and content of these exercises on perception in more detail would require a separate discourse, for which there is no room here. However, excerpts from the results of the exercises dispersed throughout this book do provide some insight.12 Although carrying out the exercises is important, in my opinion reflection on the results and on processes is just as decisive. The following questions are therefore of great significance within the feedback dialogues with students: Was I able to get into the exercise? What associations came up while I was doing the exercise? What was it like for the others? What topics – both personal and subject-specific – did the assignment touch upon? When do I begin to enjoy an assignment? The idea-finding process of large-scale design projects is taught in a considerably more compact manner. To a certain extent these exercises take for granted the skills associated with a trained perception of space, while also practicing it. Exercises given in the initial stages of a design process, which I will go on to describe, correspond to simultaneous spatial inventory and idea-production – one of the basics of our understanding of design.

Summer semester 2005; Advanced studies; 1st drawing exercise: The view out of your own window “Practice drawing for ten minutes every day. Trust that regular practice will lead your skills to improve. At the same hour each day; take these ten minutes of daily time for yourself, ’celebrate‘ them, and do not allow anything to disturb you. The topic of this summer studio is ‘city landscape’… Draw the view which you have of the ‘city landscape’ out of your window. Choose a view which you can draw live each day for two weeks…with different pens, with your eyes closed, with your left and right hand, without looking…it is not about right or wrong; it is about the drawn expression of the ‘essence’, the character of your view out of the window.” Drawings: Thomas Köhlmos

The quick transcription of an observation into a picture Exhibition preparations

In dialogue about the drawings

A practice of exercising

Grasping urban landscapes as a whole

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How can an inventive approach be found, whether to metropolitan regions or to tracts of land in the process of being abandoned? How can we go beyond the specific steps associated with official planning and authorization which, as described by Sieverts, are never planned as a whole13? How can we stop the complex interrelationship in which they inevitably become involved from further being ignored? The decisive thesis is that intuitive consideration of the whole is needed if productive steps are to be taken; these will then most likely be of benefit to the whole. Ironically, it is actually impossible to comprehend the whole although grasping urban landscapes as a whole is a precondition for being able to design ideas from these complex conditions. Otherwise the usual (and typical) “project orientation” remains nothing more than an individual examination and treatment of symptoms14 that are at best of speculative effect on a superordinate whole! The term whole will probably trigger different images in each reader’s mind. In actual fact the whole and the relationship to its parts is a philosophical and scientific matter that dates back to the antiquity, the pros and cons of which I cannot go into here. When I use the term whole in relation to urban landscape design, I am concerned with an approach that uses the capacity of intuition and that attempts to integrate the complexity of a landscape into a context which has developed beyond being a mere addition of individual projects. In that context, whole should certainly not be confused with complete: neither a “complete” inventory nor fixed farsighted “complete” overall area planning are possible. It is much more about “comprehending realities intuitively, in a way artistically, on the basis of patterns that include fuzziness.”15 The “essence”, the character of a space must initially be approximated through intuitive analysis providing access to its complexity and a first overall expression. In designing, the term overall expression means a first “picture” that describes the whole in the shape of sketches, plans, models, succinct sentences. This already makes each site inventory an “interpretation” and thus an idea (of sorts). No objective site survey remains independent of the individual person, the individual experience and knowledge. It is precisely this subjective element that – in combination with the subject to be observed (in this case urban landscapes) – provides a specific view and a certain image each time. Research on creativity and neuroscience prove that comprehending complex correlations and problems mostly lies within the spectrum of the holistic part of the human brain. In contrast to a linear-analytical approach, which attempts to apply conclusions drawn from the individual to the whole, intuition16 is capable of comprehending something as a whole – even if there is too much or too little information - and of making complex decisions based

Summer semester 2004, Advanced studies; 2nd exercise: Body-space-movement “…Look for a movement that is closely connected to Welfenplatz and which you would like to understand in more detail. Think about how the movement transformed throughout the history of Welfenplatz. …” (Welfenplatz in Hanover is part of a former military complex and was the exercise area). Photo series: Henry Eickhoff, Hinnerk König

on that.17 The cognition scientist Gigerenzer terms the basic principles of such complex decision-making processes heuristic; they try to “ home in on the most important information and to ignore the rest.”18 He thereby describes “a method of disentangling complex problems, for which there is no complete solution, using simple rules and the aid of minimal information.”19

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Using ideas to navigate Creating Knowledge

Ideas represent “aids to disentanglement” in design, particularly first ideas. They provide decisive “navigation” while searching for the productive starting points that must initially be uncovered (designed) within a complex “tangled mass” of problems (e.g., of a whole region). They facilitate (initial) interpretation and thus an understanding approach despite vagueness. We work within our design teaching on finding approaches that explicitly use intuitive skills (of the students) to foster idea-finding. Creative access – as I call this type of approach to an area or topic – is always emotionally oriented; it allows an individual to develop one’s own feelings for an area, “to make one’s own picture”. In other words, creative access aims at intuitive “disentanglement”, simultaneously producing ideas – ideas in the sense of initial “patterns of order”. There are many types of creative access. Despite the repertoire we have compiled at the STUDIO, which students in the higher semesters possess, they must be newly designed or adapted each time. Creative access can range from on-site chance observations that work according to certain rules (e.g., a conversation with every third person, randomly chosen bus routes but disembarking at every fifth bus stop), working with metaphors, mapping topics not usually found in maps, through exaggerating stereotypes, role-play, meditative or experimental submersion in a place, explicit work with movement, conversations and interviews using open, nonjudgemental interview techniques, to photography or film. Part of such an open type of approach is an open idea of spatial boundaries (boundaries of a project area) and project definitions, as it is only through the project definition that the spatial scope of a search space can become clear. Spaces of potential in large-scale designing

Helga Nowotny asks, “How is the object of knowledge, the designed and to be designed objects uncovered or indeed discovered?”20 Within the design assignments that form part of our teaching we usually specify only one search space (space of potential) within which the students themselves search for and formulate their exact project definition, their actual topic and the explicit subject of their design. Search spaces or spaces of potential are areas, places, regions, landscapes but they can also be topical fields or both. In principle any area could be taken as there are development potentials everywhere. One could say that there are “loud” and “quiet” search spaces; those about which everyone – at least within the profession – is speaking, whose potentials have already been discovered, where topics appear to have already been found, where problems are obvious. In looking for search spaces, we teachers – apart from our specialist knowledge – allow our own intuition and empathy just as much room

Julia werner

Winter semester 2006/07: In the context of the topic for the semester “Schönes Ödland. Ödes Schönland (Beautiful Land of Bleakness. Bleak Land of Beauty). (German) urban landscapes” this advanced studies design project deals with large-scale design using the example of the Altmark region, located in the north of the German county of Saxony-Anhalt. The task is to design a conceptual “image for the Altmark region” and to spatially concretize in smaller (scale) projects that result from strategic reasoning. The exact questions and topics will be developed by the students themselves.

Summer semester 2004; Advanced studies; 3rd exercise: Meditation on Welfenplatz “Immerse yourself in the place! In its uses, movements, colours, smells, noises, the people there, procedures, atmospheres… If your thoughts drift off take yourself back to Welfenplatz. An inner ‘recital’ of what you perceive is a help here. Sit like this for half an hour. It seems like a long time but when you start to feel that it is getting boring and you are not seeing anything new tell yourself again what you are seeing, feeling, smelling… Then get up and make a formation with the other people. Immerse yourself in the place again. No social talk! Express your perception in an object. You can choose any material. Size: stowable in a cardboard box for A4 paper.”

as we foster within the students in the design process. This approach allows us to consider seemingly complex and desolate spaces from the perspective of their potentials rather than being frightened off by apparently unsolvable conditions. The spaces of potential dealt with in student design projects over the last few years have been of varying dimension and have been largely open in their topical orientation: “Border area Hannover Linden/Limmer”21 of approximately three square kilometers, the “Oh Island. Life on the Elbe Island Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg“22 project of fifty-two square kilometers or the Altmark of approximately 4700 square kilometers. As I continue I will jump between these projects, however I will mainly take excerpts from the design project “An Image for the Altmark.”23 Design projects usually last for a period of one semester. Each semester around twenty students take part in a design task; this can increase to twice that amount in interdisciplinary projects. For the first three to four weeks the students work alone or in alternating small groups. This allows them to get to know each other’s different interests, working methods and personalities. Each project incorporates two design workshops. The first, after about three weeks, begins with the survey of the project area and after a maximum four days of onsite work the initial ideas and topical fields are found. From that point onwards the students work in fixed groups (of four students at the most), which have been established from topical clusters in connection with personal preferences. A stringent workshop concept is the basis on which sustainable new ideas can develop within this first design step. The second workshop – nearly half way into the project – focuses on the transition from a strategically oriented general concept to detailed impulse projects, implying a “jump” from large-scale to concrete project idea and work on a smaller scale – from the whole to its parts.

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Before their first real encounters with “their” area, the concept is that students should already develop their own ideas for it from afar as well as topics to work on. Therefore, we consciously forgo classical remote analysis, such as research and data collection from literature and the internet or contact with the authorities ahead of initial on-site investigations. Naturally we, the teachers, have already collected such information at the time that the project begins and we already know initial problems, experts and people who are familiar with the place. For example, for their first remote exploration the students were required to transfer the outline of the “Elbe Island Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg” onto a map of Hanover of the same scale. This made them familiar with the proportions of Hamburg by “measuring” it against the city map best known to them. In the next step ten linear, punctual and planar distributed elements, which were “located on the Elbe Island”, were to be marked onto the interplay of the maps on top of each other. From there the students had to develop a route on the basis of the map of Hanover and to then cycle along that route. During that cycle the students in Hanover had to keep an eye on their position on the map of Hamburg, to know where on the Elbe Island Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg they were located. Their wonderment about the dimensions of a river island, which is only a small part of Hamburg yet “covers” a great deal more of Hanover, was obvious and provided good “preliminary work” for large-scale design. In the run up to our on-site workshop we used mappings to investigate the relationship between hometown, region and Germany as a whole with the students, as the Altmark project was to be part of the STUDIO’s semester topic “Beautiful Land of Bleakness. Bleak Land of Beauty. (German) urban landscapes”. Where was their own hometown located on a blank map of Germany? Could their hometowns and Germany be directly connected to each other or did the students need “something in between” (this dimension is completely normal in planning)? (Home) town – region – Germany?

Julia werner

Approximation from afar

Clockwise (from top right): Amalia Besada: Estimate, misestimate, overestimate, Mirjam Marburg: Declaration of love, Annika Henne: Blue Lagoon, Henning Pagels: Blowing and sweeping, Aline Kamke: Port love

We call this phase of the already ongoing design process “Getting a Feeling for an Area from Afar”. Formulating first ideas as an approach to complex spatial problems requires “free range”, an unrestricted view and a creative approach. The less experienced students are in this type of design, the more important it is that they can initially put their own first impressions, ideas for topics and questions down on paper without knowing too many facts about an area or the plans, projects and concepts envisaged for it. It is difficult to distance and free oneself of such things afterwards. It is even more difficult for those who have no experience of their own ideafinding processes and who are used to working with examples, developing typologies and orienting good designs around them. Naturally, knowledge of and orientation around design projects – past and present – is indispensable and it contains important “orientation and friction potential” for the personal design proc­ess. When considering other designs one understandably focuses on the final results as designs only show how their ideas came about – i.e., in what kind of design process – in the minority of cases. However, a working process influences the types of results it will yield, which is why we place such great emphasis on design processes in themselves at the STUDIO. Just being able to read and evaluate the quality of design results is a long learning process. Students, above all those in earlier semesters, understandably tend to consider project ideas by more experienced planners to be good and they orient their own design ideas around those. Therefore, we consciously withhold information about existing planning and design for an area (which is nearly always there) in the design setting at the STUDIO. There is enough opportunity to get to know other ideas when the students’ first individual ideas have developed.

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The first on-site workshop of the student design project is a decisive step as it allows them to find their own ideas through which to access the project. Over a four-day period the students are taken through a process of exploration moving stringently back and forth between guided yet open investigation and capturing and delving further into their impressions using sketches, mappings or small models. The aim of that is that they find a whole as quickly as possible (intuitively), then a main topic, a first formulation of a question and, at the end of the workshop, a strategic idea. Their investigations of the area consciously work between the poles of maximum openness, which generates individual room for insights, also leaving room for subjective points of view, and (pre)set frameworks and structures. These are based on exact rules and guidelines (usually written), which have been very precisely drawn up by us teachers beforehand. The students “delve” into the place for the first time just after their arrival in the area. A complete survey of a region would be impossible especially in a case like the Altmark which is 4700 square kilometers in size, yet it must still be explored in a manner that allows familiarization with it. We achieve that using many different principles. We use the potential inherent in the diversity of groups.24 The students divide into smaller groups and explore different parts of the whole area. We work with a series of limiting rules and open possible courses of action. The students are free to perceive space individually (although there is also a framework for that). It is, however, compulsory that they document their first impressions in sketches, maps (and texts) – minimum number and format are given – and that they present them to the plenum of the whole group. These presentations practice a further productive principle of group work: exchange and dialogue, the group becomes a type of multiplier of the impressions gathered in exploration. The subjective perceptions of the students are thus broadened by those of the others; they overlap, complement, confront each other. This prevents the students from getting stuck in their personal points of view and enables them to start objectifying.

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Creative design access on location

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We predefined a route of exploration for the first personal encounters with the Altmark in which, in groups of two, the students took regional trains in different directions from a common starting point to various stations – usually practically abandoned ones that belonged to small villages – where they disembarked with their bicycles. They were instructed to cycle at least five kilometers in a direction of their choice in a state of maximum concentration and curiosity (which should be the basis of any inventory) paying attention to everything that they perceived with their senses. They used notes, sketches, photos and objects found to record what they saw, heard in conversations, smelled at field edges, touched in the forest or tasted, such as ripe fruit along country roads. They were instructed to have at least three conversations with people whom they encountered on their bicycle tours through seemingly abandoned villages and to document them in short reports. If we consider space to be a multidimensional – not only built – performative process, then we are naturally interested in all of those dimensions when we encounter an area; the social, historical, cultural, economic, ecological, aesthetic and in the people, who are just as much part of space.25

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Summer semester 2006, Advanced studies; 6th exercise: Urban Landscapes – a research trip “… Embark on your own research trip. Allow yourself to be inspired: you can read, conduct conversations, make sketches, take photos, go on a field trip, watch films… Explore and use everything in which you suspect an answer… Your search should ideally start today and accompany you in the next two weeks, by all means along the way… The task is to sound out your own ideas, thoughts, intuition, attitudes to urban landscapes as well as to research them in books, conversations, films, field trips etc… and to depict your process of understanding and your insights. The focus is on finding your own (subjective) path, your own type of research, your approach and your soundings out of things. …”

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Access models: to express an urban landscape as a whole through a first model 1 Kristina Bäurle, Ingrid Henschel, Conni Lentz: Greetings from Hafenland. Workshop “Situational Design“, November 2002 2 Claudia Lenz: Network city-City-Region WolfenBitterfeld. General topic: Beautiful Land of Bleakness. Bleak Land of Beauty (German) urban landscapes, Winter semester 2006/07 3 Margret Köthke, Berit Miehlke, Andrea Schönbeck: Movement Space. General topic: Border area Hanover-Linden/Limmer, Winter semester 2004/05 4 Dirk Moshövel, Johannes Petzel, Jing Wu: Was(s)Erleben. General topic: Border area Hanover-Linden/Limmer, Winter semester 2004/05

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Authors unknown: The heights of the island: Dike expansion, highways and the Georgswerder waste mountain. Framework subject: Oh Island! Life on the Elbe island HamburgWilhelmsburg, Winter semester 2005/06

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When the students had returned from their tours of exploration they presented their impressions to each other using sketches made along the way, objects found and reports of conversations had. In this case that took place parallel to an evening meal at an eatery that only uses products of the Altmark region. The owner and some of the guests later started to listen in and were obviously touched by the outside impressions of their familiar region. The empathicallyoriented, non-judgemental approach, which is an indispensible element of a process of understanding, was decisive for the conversations had along the way and could also be felt in the stories and sketches. Hüther writes: “Human beings really become creative when they succeed in merging the individual capabilities, insights, talents and ideas that they have acquired in their own world with those of others. Of course in order to do that an encounter and exchange based on trust must take place among human beings with the greatest possible socio-cultural experiences.”26 This is one of the reasons we consider conversations with local people (and not only specialists) more productive within the initial idea-finding process, than early knowledge of planning schemes. On the second day of the workshop the Altmark was already conveyed in first descriptive maps and sentences. Rather than deriving the initial topics in the most rational manner possible, the idea was explicitly to open up to what descriptions, images, impressions “emerge” after the investigations on location and in association with the other people’s reports. The students worked on that alone, as the point is that they first develop their own (intuitive) approach. Although the plenum meetings, which were taking place more often, increase the pressure to produce something on paper, they also make both the statements made by the individual products, the continually growing “picture of the whole”, and the gradually emerging first ideas, clearer and sharper. We repeatedly practiced the “complementary game” between precisely defined framework and creative openness. The first sketches were also to be described by sentences whose beginnings were predetermined, such as, “The Altmark is…” or “My topic is…” which could be completed by the students with whatever form of content they wished to choose. Apart from the sketches, the region was described by sentences such as, “The Altmark …is a medieval reservation;… is a paradise for indigenous wild animals; …needs a village network;…is an East German landscape”. These descriptive characterizations are ideas in the sense of “disentanglement aids” and also provide a specific view of the Altmark. They allowed the students to think ahead in a productive manner without immediately knowing what the solutions would be. Initial (vague) topics became apparent, “My topic is closed-down railway stations…is the discrepancy between a good road network and decaying villages… are the broad areas and landscapes.” First design-guiding questions arose: How can villages work together to prevent them all from “going under” in a demographical sense? (How) could forests expand? Is deserting a concept for the (already shrinking) center? How can the Altmark become an energy landscape? Do old people particularly love the Altmark? It is astounding to observe (which can nevertheless be explained) how capable the students are of quite directly designing first such graphic and then textual concepts and ideas for a whole region based on excerpts from their own investigations – complemented by those of their fellow students. At this early stage of a design process an idea actually means the connotation of a topic, a central supposition, the recognition of a correlation, a path of development – a visionary basis upon which to continue working – and by no means a final solution. It is decisive to take these statements and questions, in all of their vagueness, seriously from the beginning and to iteratively carry them forwards, to bring them to a head and to enlarge upon them. Obviously these ideas that sometimes initially seem banal or “mad” can only be the basis of sustainable concepts if their “core is dissected” and worked through. Nowotny describes this

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from left to right Separated spaces?, Diagrammatic sketch No. 4, Concept for inter-space: “Continuation” of the Wilhelminian plot structure, General concept “new plot landscape” From the first idea to the general concept: Helke de Beer, Thomas Köhlmos, Jasmin Matros: zwischenRÄUME_zwischenGRENZEN. (betweenSPACES-betweenBORDERS) Winter semester 2004; Advanced studies design project; Framework subject: Border area Hanover-Linden/Limmer

procedure as follows: “The durable result, by which the new is created, expresses itself, in the sense of exprimere, in the potential of an idea on the way to realization, which ultimately must prove itself through a sustainable, durable effect.”27 If this is to happen, ideas must already be taken seriously in general and by the students, who often find it difficult to decipher them so soon, in the early stages of design. Their profound connection to concrete design ideas that develop out of them further into the project first become obvious to most at a later date. I ascribe that to the fact that in order to be able to comprehend complex (spatial) correlations as a whole and to express them abstractly, students need to go through their own experiences of creative design access and the conscious experience that comes with that. This gives them the ability to appreciate the potential of intuition and the Creating Knowledge that emerges from it within a design process. Apart from their own investigations and searches for ideas within the framework of the workshop, there are also meetings on location with actors, people familiar with the area, planning and political representatives – however, not from the very beginning. By the end of the workshop the students have formed small groups – through clustering their ideas sketches and the statements on their topics – in which they will work until the end of the project. In the last step of the workshop, each group formulates (and presents) a strategic argumentation for their idea (why this topic in particular, what does it link to?) and a plan of action and they must also specify what the next steps will be.

Of course, it is still a long way to the end of the design project, along which ideas will have to be abandoned, new ones found and worked through. It is nevertheless presumed that creative access to design processes, on which this paper focuses, are decisive for sustainable ideas within the complex field of urban landscapes. Without a doubt, working through designs involves correlations between various approaches to knowledge and their proper positioning within the design process. After the first ideas have been found as described, they must be given “ground to stand on”; they must be underlain with factual knowledge, tested and further developed. The “freedom” of initial idea-finding usually develops into taking further steps into new territory. For example, the idea of designing the Altmark as an “energy landscape” requires firm knowledge of rules, regulations and a possible spectrum within which to position wind turbines and to achieve a balance between economically and ecologically effective sustainable sowing of energy crops. These ideas must furthermore be integrated into a politicaleconomical context and in the end individual components of knowledge must be combined

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The further design process

“The Altmark is an ocean of churches,” Moritz Bellers, Marco Ploeg

“(How) could forests expand?”, Annika Henne

“The Altmark is a medieval reservation,” Moritz Bellers

“In the countryside,” Caroline Hertel

”Exaggerated” landscape spaces, Annika Henne

“Such wide spaces,” Annika Henne

“Abandonment – a concept for the center?”, Moritz Bellers, Marco Ploeg

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to form a strategic-design concept. Another example would be: if the strategic objective is to develop and use forest stands then the questions to be answered would range from the subsidies available for forestation to the significance and potentials of hunting from a tourism point of view. Our students must sometimes get deeply involved in topical fields that they would not normally encounter during their studies of landscape architecture. This kind of assignment definition requires an interdisciplinary network, and even more so transdisciplinary culture – we try to provide this at the STUDIO through corresponding cooperation and through the staff involved. In order to be able to combine knowledge gained in very different ways throughout a design project and to make it productive, we introduced the story as a design aid to accompany and stimulate the design process throughout the whole semester. Just like a film, each story requires a “plot”, which in the case of design is the idea; it must be connected to knowledge of the history of a place, its present societal, economic, social or ecological conditions, legal situation or human activities. It is not important to work comprehensively through all aspects, however the selection must be plausible. The story describes how and why a space changes, who is involved in that and why such development could be successful. It incorporates the required specialist knowledge, which varies considerably according to the topic of a project, and involves actors of various interest and planning authority in its arguments – however, it may also be somewhat poetic. The story allows multifaceted aspects to intertwine and reveals the complex process of which a design consists. Stories that emerge in this way are very different, yet they must always make the changes in function and design of a complex spatial texture plausible. A story also becomes part of the design by posing questions, ordering facts or making definitions and by describing it (in word and image) at the end. At the same time as a strategic idea for a whole is being found and graphically expressed, ideas for concrete projects, for the individual also come up that, as impulses, foster the development of the general strategy. The statements made by the latter are much more concrete from a constructional-spatial point of view; they translate a general concept into real form (Gestalt) and are worked upon in other scales. The sequence of ideas, from impulse pro­ject to general concept, is not predefined. However, our teaching experience shows that a strategic general idea makes access to concrete options for future action probable, allowing impulse projects to be more specifically developed. In the course of the semester many iterative passages and much “hard designing work” were involved in finding results that formulated and expressed plausible strategies for the whole Altmark region. The students also indicated what gestalt – in concrete spatial pro­jects (small scale) – these could take on. We were struck by the fact that their initial ideas remained relevant throughout the whole projects. The “medieval reservation” from the beginning led to a design based on the exact investigation of the area’s history (which surpassed medieval times) and on the influences and ideas brought by immigrants to shape the Altmark over the centuries. It sounded out and showed what kind of “immigrants” would be realistic and conceivable for the area today, also revealing that they would bring impulses to the area and what those could be. A design emerged from the initially not very exciting description of the Altmark as broad areas and landscapes in clusters, with the question as to how forests could spread, encouraging the Altmark-typical “emptiness” to form a “landscape of the unspectacular”. They strategically applied EU and regional development funds to make it economically viable and plausibly practicable. These descriptions only convey an impression of the final results. Together they show that this approach to design not only enables a region to be read, understood and interpreted with all of the senses, it also generates ideas to “draw on” the potentials of a space – in this case the

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The Altmark

An image for the Altmark Student design project in the main course, winter semester 2006/07, Counsellors: Hille von Seggern, Julia Werner, Sabine Rabe, Antje Stokman

Moritz Bellers, Marco Ploeg: same procedure altmark

The Altmark pioneers from the last centuries are transposed into the here and now. How and where must today’s pioneers begin?

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Dutch settlement, dike construction and drainage

Burial mounds and settlements in dry areas

Prosperity, Romanesque churches and buildings

Hanseatic cities

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Natural space and political-financial impacts of the surface in the Altmark

Deep green Rich in contrast

Broad field Floodland Wild limes Landschaftstypenkarte (Original M.1:250.000) Landschaftstypenkarte (Original M.1:250.000)

Forest land

Landscape type map (Original M.1:250.000)

Kerstin, early 30’s, copy editor from Hamburg seeks quiet in the Altmark., Mark, 38, lawyer from Braunschweig enjoys the expanse of the forest.

Altmark. The students received much regard and interest from the local actors for this during the final presentations of their work.28 Designing strategic ideas that aim to initiate development processes often confronts the students with the question as to what extent they can physically and materially alter space. They are torn between fundamental hesitancy and the temptation to design “final states” of being, particularly as that is the understanding of design within the classical practice of landscape architecture, which students come across during internships. Design practice that is appreciative of the extent to which design-effective strategies are required for largescale territorial questions is gradually developing. Competitions increasingly demand strategic ideas and their spatial design on a regional level, thus demonstrating that attitudes are changing. Without being able to go into detail on it here, it is worth mentioning the “Greater Helsinki Vision 2050”.29

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The STUDIO’s way of working requests of the students that they be willing to get involved in a working process which, depending on their formative influences and previous experience, is more or less challenging for them and new to them. A working method that (initially) demands an intuitive-emotional course of action is a risk that calls for courage and trust. An iterative working process that involves searching for and designing the detailed questions to be tackled requires the openness of a mode of action that only personal (understanding) experience can permeate right to the core. The type and quality of the results that are being strived towards are not predetermined either. It is easy to understand that phases of emptiness are an indispensable part of a creative process and essential elements of a design process, however in reality they are extremely difficult to bear. In those circumstances it is no wonder that the students experience despair, helplessness and skepticism – towards their own design skills and the teaching concept – in regular intervals. Hille von Seggern writes that “it is essential to practice repeatedly, taking the path through ‘the void’ in order to arrive at the ‘aha, that’s it’ and a satisfied, gladdened, ecstatic feeling.”30 However, that is coupled with “perseverance”, “bearing dry patches” and “sticking to it”, which are indispensable factors in every design process. Practicing idea-finding skills is always a motor for that. Yet, there are probably still students to whom the modes of working of the STUDIO remained foreign even after several courses. I would like to allow some of the students to speak for themselves in short excerpts from the conclusions they drew on their design work: “ […] The advantages of studio work, which above all are inherent […] in the inspiring communication and learning from and with the other students and teachers, enriched and intensified the work. The project showed, particularly in the workshops, that combining scientific and intuitive learning can lead to comprehensive insights and results.”31 “ […] It was also fascinating to explore and experience the island alone, with all its history and peculiarities, to apply oneself and to develop personal ideas from there.” 32 One first semester student drew the following conclusion at the public final presentation of a project on behalf of her fifteen-person project group, “After eight exercises, two intensive workshops, at least one experiment, countless designs and the diverse results of five different small teams, we are now at the end of a path which was in no way straight, which often resembled a foggy labyrinth. That is probably because we were facing a topic that was not quite comprehensible to us at the beginning. Many question marks arose which still partly remained anchored in our minds towards the end of our projects because we only gradually discovered where our work was leading. It was precisely from there that we learned how to approximate a broad unfamiliar field using different experimental design approaches. We were more or less

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From the students’ point of view

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thrown into designing; we walked into many ’dead ends‘ along the way, which however did no harm to our idea-finding and to our creative dealings with our topic. Prevailing incertitude created much freedom to try out ways of designing, to do research, to open up great potential through ‘apparent’ insights and coincidences in order to finally reach our results. In relation to our project I would finally like to say that design is an iterative process; one must take steps both forwards and backwards in order to achieve a successful result.”33 Conclusion

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It is barely possible to understand mechanisms that are neither linear nor entirely predictable. This applies to urban landscapes, to design processes and above all to idea-finding. However, the design principles outlined here lead to competent handling of such uncertainty. Our special emphasis on intuitive-emotional approaches fosters the students’ own authority and gives them conscious access to idea-finding. Thus idea-finding in the design process becomes teachable and learnable.

Notes

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form as the work at the STUDIO and its teaching are strongly based on teamwork. The teaching projects introduced in this paper have all been carried out in collaboration with Hille von Seggern and/or other STUDIO-members. 3 Cp. Contribution Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge” in this volume, p. 59 4 Bormann, Oliver/Koch, Michael/Schmeing, Astrid/Schröder, Martin/Wall, Alex: Zwischen Stadt Entwerfen. Wuppertal 2005, p. 42; henceforth cited as: Bormann et. al. 2005 5 Vester, Frederic: Die Kunst, vernetzt zu denken. Ideen und Werkzeuge für einen neuen Umgang mit Komplexität. Munich 2002 (amended and enhanced edition), p. 18; henceforth cited as: Vester 2002 6 Cp. Hochleitner, Ricardo Díez: “Geleitwort.” In: Vester 2002, p. 8 7 Cp. Contribution Seggern, Hille von: “Understanding is Essential for Designing”, in this volume, p. 164 8 Cp. for more detail on the spatial concept on which this is based: Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Focus: Urban landscapes, Designing and Innovation strategies”, in this volume, p. 152 9 Dürckheim, Karlfried Graf: Der Alltag als Übung. Vom Weg zur Verwandlung. Bern 1984 (8. Auflage) 10 Grondin, Jean: Von Heidegger zu Gadamer. Unterwegs zur Hermeneutik. Darmstadt 2001, p. 94–95 11 Bollnow, Otto Friedrich: Vom Geist des Übens. Stäfa (CH) 1991 12 Cp. extracts from results of exercises throughout the book 13 Sieverts, Thomas: “Von der unmöglichen Ordnung zu einer möglichen Unordnung im Entwerfen der Stadtlandschaft”. In: disP 169, 2/2007, p. 5–16 (Citation: p.7et seq.) 14 Cp. Bormann et. al. 2005, p. 43 15 Vester 2002, p. 8 16 Cp. in more detail: boxed text “Intuition”, p. 63 17 Cp. for example Hänsel, Markus: “Intuition als Beratungskompetenz in Organisationen.” Heidelberg 2002. URL: http://www.professionelle-intuition.de/Publikation/Dissertation_Intuition_-_Markus_Hansel.pdf. [Position 20.02.2008] 18 Gigerenzer, Gerd: Bauchentscheidungen. Die Intelligenz des Unbewussten und die Macht der Intuition. Gütersloh 2007, p. 26; Gigerenzer is director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. 19 Höbel, Wolfgang: “Sorge Dich nicht, denke! Die richtige Einschätzung von Risiken und die Macht der Intuition.” In: DER SPIEGEL 37/2007, p. 185et seq. 20 Cp. Nowotny, Helga, in this volume, p. 42 21 Design project winter semester 2004/05, General topic “Off Camp – Grenzraum Hannover Linden/Limmer.” Advanced stud­y course Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Counsellors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner; Co-Counsellors: Dipl.-Ing. Börries von Detten; Dipl.-Ing. Henrik Schultz 22 Interdisciplinary design project winter semester 2005/06, General topic “Oh Island. Leben auf der Elbinsel Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg.” Advanced study courses Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning and Architecture/Urban Planning. Counsellors: Prof. Michael Braum, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Dipl.-Ing. Meike Lück, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner 23 Design project winter semester 2006/07, General topic: “Beautiful Land of Bleakness. Bleak Land of Beauty. – (German) urban landscapes: an image for the Altmark” Advanced study course Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Counsellors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner, Dipl.-Ing. Sabine Rabe, Prof. Antje Stokman 24 Cp. Schild, Margit: “Gruppe, Spiel und Regel. Stille Post – zur Nachahmung empfohlen.” In: Haase, Sigrid (Ed.): Stille Post, 11 Disziplinen, 22 Wochen, 33 Transformationen. An exhibition project in collaboration with Universität der Künste Berlin and the Karl Hofer Society, exhibition catalogue, Berlin 2006, p. 13–14 25 Cp. for more detail on the spatial concept on which this is based: Seggern, Hille von/Werner, Julia: “Designing as an Integrative Process of Creating Knowledge,” in this volume, p. 59 26 Hüther, Gerald, in this volume, p. 112 27 Nowotny, Helga, in this volume, p. 42 28 The complete results of the six design projects are presented in: Werner, Julia (Ed.): Ein Bild für die Altmark. Documentation of student designs. Hannover 2008 (Eigenverlag) The paper “Qualitäten des Unspektakulären” has partly been published. In: Fakultät für Architektur und Landschaft der Leibniz Universität Hannover (Ed.): hochweit7. Jahrbuch 2007, Hannover 2007, p. 80 29 Cp. http://www.safa.fi/document.php?DOC_ID=477&SEC=3b7e84702d5cd67f9d9cc253bb456b30&SID=1. [Position 08.03.2008] 30 Seggern, Hille von: “Understanding is Essential for Designing,” in this volume, p. 164 31 Kania, Christiane/Krause, Bettina/Maaß, Malte: unten_durch. Design project from winter semester 2004/05, General topic: “Off Camp – Grenzraum Hannover Linden/ Limmer” Advanced study course Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Counsellors: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner 32 Amalia Besada: kultbrille. Design project from winter semester 2007/08, General topic “IBA Hamburg – urbane Wasserlandschaften.” Advanced study course Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning. Supervision: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Dipl.-Ing. Sigrun Langner; cp. project description p. 79 33 Janna-Edna Bartels on the design project: Auf Achse. Die innerstädtische Entwicklung Hannovers zwischen historischer Laves-Achse und zeitgemäßen FreiraumBedürfnissen. First semester of bachelor studies in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning winter semester 2007/08. Counsellors: Dipl.-Ing. Sabine Rabe, Dipl.-Ing. Julia Werner; cp. description p. 236-239

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1 Cp. more information on STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, p. 54 2 Within this contribution I will repeatedly use the “we”

236 How contemporary is the city planning orientation to classicistic axes? Do these historical orientations for human beings and their day to day open space use (still) play a role? How do human beings „make“ the public space? How do they move about? What happens, if one comprehends inner city space as public landscape? Design question for a bachelor project in the 1st semester, winter semester 2007/08 I Counsellors: Sabine Rabe, Julia Werner

The axis as originally conceived by Laves and the “real” axis

On the axis*

The inner city development of Hanover between the historical Laves-axis and contemporary Open Space Needs

The smoothed axis… Julia Jakisch, Sophie Pourpart, Henrike Steenken: „Are you still organising or are you already (s) ticking?“

* Auf Achse is colloquial German for ‘on the move, on the road’

Natalia Borovsky, Torsten Gräser: On the road_in the course of time

The rough axis structures in the Hanover urban space

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… Instead of “axes” an inner urban spatial network…

…the tidied up axis.

Spaces make up the axis.

… and an inner city network of movement

Janna-Edna Bartels, Mandy Malis, Sascha Seiffert: One axis_Many spaces Experiment: Can space for movement also be recreational space?

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Kröpcke communication bazaar

Chairs cause stopover and communication.

Timo Draeger, Christoph Schnaase: “Laves pulsed“

Thesis: The axis is an artificial line and knows no barriers. An LED banner shows people in motion on the axis as a pulse frequency line.

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Underground

Quickly-get-away-tube

Fast food boulevard Shopping hose

Gateway delta

Communications bazaar

Consumption central Luxury haulage network Error island Traffic ghetto

Never-Never Land

Concept: Types of space

Design is Experimental Invention

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What is the intellectual background to landscape architectural design? There are surely many parameters that would describe that. In the context of this book I intend to shed light on two theses which, in my opinion, are of particular importance in design work. The first thesis is based on the assumption that landscape architectural design always – whether consciously or not – deals with society’s position towards nature. Thus, it makes reference to an inherent paradigm that has guided landscape architecture for centuries. Today, it no longer suffices to consider nature in isolation, as an antipode to cultural creation. If survival on earth is to be safeguarded for the future, technical and natural phenomena, culture and nature must be comprehended as a unit, a continuum. The second hypothesis concerns an approach to concrete design tasks via theories of perception and information. It proceeds from the assumption that design – although it is actually a non-verbal form of communication – is linked with the formulation of “design languages”. If that is the case, there must exist a firm canon of communicable information that can be perpetually expanded with “new notions”. Discoveries made through scientific examinations of language can therefore be applied to design processes. However, how should we know what elements structurally define our object in concrete cases? What criteria do we use to decide? What elements do we choose if we want a new “syntax”, a new “composition”, of landscape to emerge within the design process? A third hypothesis may be derived from the second; it is in fact already inherent in the second. It involves radically concentrating on the object in the design process i.e., qualitatively developing space in all its facets and dimensions, without aiming to improve social conditions, hygiene, politics or even people. These demands represent context and are therefore of great importance. They provide a basis for decision-making, they are the foundations of economic and political frameworks under which changes in space take place. Landscape architectural design is a multilayered process that cannot be sustained in its entirety by artistic-intuitive courses of action. A broad range of specialized knowledge is indispensable to solution-finding, and comprehension of scientifically based methods is also helpful in decision-making processes. The title “Design is Experimental Invention” reflects the proximity of landscape architectural design to the arts on the one hand, and to the engineering sciences on the other. Both “experiment” and “invention” belong to the established terminology and methodology of both the arts and the engineering sciences. I will go into more depth on these theses and paradigms in the following sections and I will illustrate how they are applied to specific examples of design work. I will follow up on the question as to what design or “experimental invention” consists of under the above-mentioned premises. Using three projects as examples, two of them built and one awaiting realization, I will explain the meaning of inherent paradigms for the design process and the choice of suitable methods in the context of the genesis of each project. Natural and artificial systems

Modernism’s influence on the development of the professional field came late, yet it had a decisive effect on the understanding of landscape within the profession. The functionalist understanding of nature was characterized by the idea that building and garden, city and landscape, nature and technology were on opposite poles. Open spaces generally represented the “natural”, nature par excellence, and were therefore expected to appear as

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“wild” and “natural” as possible. Newly emerging open spaces within urban contexts such as city parks and gardens were also expected to symbolize nature and landscape. Idealogically, this continued the polarizing understanding of nature in the nineteenth century. The allegedly irreconcilable contrast between nature and technology was thus further solidified and still determines today how many people view nature and landscape. This contradiction must be removed to safeguard urban landscapes as basic life resources now and in the future. Technological structures or elements within landscape architecture are artefacts which aim at natural processes. These processes are based on ecological rules but are initiated and sustained using technological means. People can use such artefacts as symbols of nature and life in nature. However, they must bear responsibility for the processes behind them. They are both natural and extremely artificial systems. I will use examples of the metamorphosis of industrial wastelands, landfills and infrastructural systems to show experiments that are geared towards this new goal and at the same time preserve cultural heritage and gain a new value for it.

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Landscape as an intellectual construct

We are now living in a predominantly visual era where the world of images increasingly dominates other forms of communication, for example language. Since the age of the landscape garden, landscape has also been portrayed to us as a world of images. The origins of the landscape garden were the opposite of that idea: scenes of two-dimensional landscape images were transcribed into the three-dimensionality of real space. In other words, real objects were put opposite the invented image. Technical terms such as “natural scenery analysis” show that landscape is still largely understood pictorially. In fact, landscape as an image, in the sense of an ordered entirety, does not exist. It consists of various layers of information. These are selectively perceived and newly and diversely combined in the mind of each individual. Landscape is a construct of the mind and is therefore different for everyone. Attempts have always been made within society and the profession to “harmonize” these heterogeneous ideas of landscape or to “cast” them into static idealized images. It is important to know and recognize conventional and ideal concepts about landscape in order to develop one’s own design strategies. Given those premises, what does designing or “experimentally inventing” actually consist of?

Design is a reflexive process that aims to influence the layering of information and the elements embedded in each layer. In other words, design is the invention of information systems.1 While it is relatively easy to analyze, describe, invent and convert actually existing, visible landscape elements, the invisible layers of information (which, for example, may consist of the memory of a place or be based on experience) are much more difficult to grasp. They involve a great many of aspects, often related to social conditions, and can be connected to the real elements of a landscape. In that sense, they make a significant contribution to the construction of landscape. Many components influence the essence, meaning and perception of landscape. Finally, in addition to the concrete perception process, there are multiple associative recognition patterns, which can considerably influence awareness and interpretation of space (Semantics). Designing is not only about making the invisible visible. It goes beyond the visual perception of a landscape to hearing, smelling and feeling. Could it not be that we actually mean the fresh smell of a flowery meadow, the song of birds and the mild air when we sense an open space, a landscape, to be beautiful? Could it not be that the icy cold burning our face, the

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Design and invention of informational layers

fresh wind tousling our hair, and the powdery snow through which our feet trod cause us to find a landscape beautiful - so that space provides only, or perhaps primarily, the possibility for diverse experiences?

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Tools of the trade

I will now go into more detail on the working methods commonly used by landscape architects. I will describe the specific tools used. These methods not only influence the quality of individual designs, they also have a basic impact on the ability of the profession to reform itself and on its creative spirit. By that, they also significantly influence the socialization of students. Separating the engineering sciences from the art and crafts had a huge influence on the methodological repertoire of the building professions. Its partition into construction engineering (technological realm) and architecture (artistic realm) brought with it great freedom on the one hand, yet on the other hand it made interdisciplinary cooperation indispensable. This restructuring of fields of responsibility has had far-reaching consequences for architecture and landscape architecture to this day. Artistic quality and originality have been elevated to the standards by which all projects are measured, while expecting at the same time engineering perfection using the most innovative technology. The methodological repertoire used in landscape architecture must stay abreast of both.

Our technical vocabulary and project depictions are codifications which are indirectly linked to reality, a fact that applies to both analysis and design processes. Drafting a contract using formulations of language always results in text or the design of an image always remains in the same graphic medium. On the other hand, a design for a city square switches between threedimensional space, the two-dimensional plane, the sketch and the general plan. The former could, therefore, be considered elementary codification. Changing the medium during the design process brings about basic communicational problems. I would like to look in more detail at the difficulties that result from “multiple projections.” Multiple changes of medium and scale, which are also connected to multiple codification, occur in architectural and even more so in landscape planning. This part of everyday life in planning offices is so normal that it almost goes unnoticed. However, practicing exchanging media forms a large part of third level education in planning. The phenomenon of multiple codification can easily be described: a three-dimensional place or object of consideration first changes from reality (scale of 1:1) to paper and is represented there through sketches or analytical drawings in a smaller size (scale 1:5, 1:50, 1:100 etc.). These days such drawings are usually produced using computer aided drawing methods. In the medium there emerges its own peculiar reality. Its real elements can only be communicated and evaluated through defined codifications. In order to remain comprehensible, such codes have to adhere to a series of conventions that are influenced by forms of depiction used in geodesy and geography and those of the fine arts and the engineering sciences. Large-scale drawings (e.g. 1:1000, 1:10.000) are even more difficult to read because the high level of abstraction inherent in them is so far removed from reality that in the medium itself no similarity whatsoever is recognizable with the actual object. The result is multiple codification in which symbols can only represent other symbols and information can only be accommodated in a hierarchical manner often far removed from the situation in question. Such multiply coded projections must be read spatially even if they make imagining space or its features extremely difficult. Medium and scale can lead to unintended changes in meaning which can distract from thinking spatially.

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Change of media and multiple codification

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Since the 1920s – when tracing paper was first mass-produced – architects and landscape architects have been encouraged to boundlessly develop and test their spatial ideas using sketches. This is usually done with fine art techniques such as blurring and ambiguous codes, with whose help spatial visions can be created. The idea formed of a situation by the author is sketched on paper using appropriate drawing methods and is then evaluated. Alternative or improved sketches then lead step by step towards the intended graphic result. Such techniques are systematically practiced at professional schools and universities but can not be examined relative to the real world there. There is a danger that quality is sought in the medium itself and that the actual spatial quality is lost. This can be a critical shortcoming, particularly when a medium is taught and used as the exclusive basis for an evaluation. On the one hand, sketches usually end up in the wastepaper basket, yet they also represent the myth of spontaneous creativity. Seventy-two sketches of Philip Johnson’s first work, the Glass House in New Canaan, have survived. They lead step by step to the built result. However, even the last sketch in the series gives the impression that it has little in common with the built structure. I became aware of the over-valuation of spontaneous sketches during the planning of Frankfurt’s Grüngürtel. Walter Prigge, a sociologist friend, took home a sketch I had made on a napkin without my knowledge and then published it in a book. It seems that creative work consists of producing ingenious sketches, quickly drawn over a glass of wine in a pub, which later come to be considered brilliantly creative. The most important thing then is that the caption “Sketch on a napkin” is written under the picture in the book. In reality, such sketches are nothing special because they constitute only a small component of the whole process. For me, the elements that can not be seen on sketches are the most essential. In the case of Philip Johnson these included materials, colors and ceilings which were very important. In landscape architecture the crown canopy is never Drawing of Glass House in New Canaan, Philip Johnson2 shown, although it plays such an essential part in terms of visual effect on the end result. The lower parts of trees are never depicted in drawings, although they represent the actual visual experience that an observer has of trees. They are secondary products within the hierarchy of depiction. For that reason the author of a design is forced to imagine the crown canopy on an abstract level, to transcribe it into an appropriate type and to later insert it into a plan. Another example: trees are often depicted as circles or are represented by numbers and type specifications or colors in the legend. We can only guess how many false decisions have been made using this method, or more precisely these conventions. We have probably all experienced the agony of being forced to imagine spaces through coded symbols. Approaching the result step by step, depicting it more and more precisely and (which is the actual purpose of a sketch) validating a concept, all require highest levels of concentration in spite of practice and technical training.

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Sketches

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Sketch on a napkin, Peter Latz3, 4

Methods of design

Mimesis Mimesis calls for high levels of skill and knowledge on the part of the designer. Mimesis has long been at the forefront of most courses, particularly in the nineteenth century, and is still used by many third-level colleges today. In the planning professions, mimesis involves the repetition of examples that can be copied by surveys, verified and then applied to one’s own work. Using this method either the form or the material are imitated. The buildings designed by Thomas Jefferson in his home town of Charlottesville (before he became American president), are good examples. He used the harmonious temple facades of the Greek gymnasion to design a new university there. Interestingly, he copied the aesthetic rules of the antiquity to give expression to the ideas of the new free America and its educational aspirations. Jefferson had the portico of the main building constructed of real marble columns imported from the Mediterranean to America. The columns of the other buildings were made of wood and covered in a marble imitation coating. Although this was an imitation, the process can certainly be considered creative and innovative, especially in comparison to the neo-gothic building style that was commonly used in America at the time.

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I will now proceed to look at various methods of design, whereby I wish to begin with solution processes for less complex tasks. Imitation or mimesis is at the bottom of the hierarchy.

Citations A further method, almost a trick, is to mix citation and copy. It was practiced in eclecticism and revisited by postmodernism. In such cases citations should not stand alone; but represent elements consciously placed into a new context. Although postmodernism did not produce generally positive results, it opened up new horizons for the landscape architecture profession. It freed it from the paradigm of functionalism and from the constraint of having to depict nature in one particular way. Instead it became “permissible” to freely combine a large variety of images and elements.

University of Virginia in Charlottesville: The American President Thomas Jefferson took the example of the temple facades of the Greek gymnasion to design the university building.

Morphological method The morphological method can be used to reduce the complexity of a task or a situation to less complex elements. Partial results are later verified and then combined to produce highly complex solutions. A variety of alternatives is explored for individual sectors that usually correspond to the fields of expertise of the engineers involved. These must be evaluated and reconciled if a spatial design is to be derived from them in the next step. This method works successfully in team work and it is learnable. Rather than being arduously ceremonious, it should be used as a matter of course and combined with other methods. Examples of the use of this method are shown later. I also applied it to the Hafeninsel project. In that case I dealt, almost academically, with individual layers of information. I divided the tasks into morphological rather than functional units and I recombined them using a kind of “syntax”. The first result is an abstract construct that can be carried over into reality via a set of rules and the definition of materials. It is necessary to mention that a large amount of knowledge flows into this type of work. Acquisition of knowledge can be said to be a “condition of entry” into the profession or a project. It never explicitly appears in a design, but forms implicitly an indispensable foundation if ground, water, climates and vegetation are to be handled professionally and if expertise on material

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Typologies The next and (from a quantitative point of view) probably most important hierarchical level, is the application of typologies. These are solutions that are based on clearly defined principles but allow a multitude of differentiated forms – a learnable methodology. We take a certain type such as the tree canopy and develop a series of variations for specific situations. In the case of the tree canopy, variations may include changes of the pattern, differences in limb removal or species composition, decisions about severe pruning or uninhibited growth, while actually the type itself sticks to the rules of the given solution. One learns therefore how to deal with as many different typologies as possible and to produce “new” results by using this “repertoire” with a certain variance and adapting it to local conditions. We have now looked at relatively simple methods of design, the basic tools with which most known tasks can be tackled. However, what methods are available when it comes to solving more complex tasks?

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Performance model and cyclic specification I rarely use the morphological method anymore. The so-called performance model, developed by Horst Rittel in the late 1960s, has become more relevant to my work now. Using this method he attempts to abstract the iterative process of planning and designing so that transferable systematics become visible. Rittel was one of the first to perceive the essence of planning procedures as a process of continual decision-making between alternative solutions rather than a technological and organizational process.5 I encountered the “Principle of Cyclic Specification”, which Rittel summarizes under the term “Performance”, after I had finished my University studies (I was already working in the pragmatic context of professional everyday life). I began to alter the method step by step and adapt it to the conditions of landscape architecture. Starting with the context of a problem (the framework) and during the phase of a project when decisions can still be made (the alterable), the designer develops a range of solutions which are then reduced to a few workable suggestions. The “alterable” is considered the actual object of designing and, as object information, is radically separated from other information. The other information is also essential to the project. However, it is not alterable in structure and information, at least not within the framework of the project. It describes the task or the environment, the context, or serves the evaluation and development of criteria. However, it does not influence the changes made to the object that is the actual design project. Correspondingly, the performance model connects two partial systems to each other: all object information is assigned to the so-called “object model” and all other information to the “context model”. The objective of this model is to “find the optimal configuration with which to judge different design versions using certain assessment criteria. Continual alteration of the variables sets a learning process in motion and permanently changes and systematizes the perception of the problem”.6 The “process of alteration and decision-making” is repeated several times and reevaluated each time. New analytical or programmatic information and knowledge can be integrated step by step so that the object becomes increasingly well defined, reaching higher levels of value and binding character as the process moves forward. I will use the project examples to further illustrate the principle of a “layered” approach and the rules applied to each individual layer of information. A major advantage of the “performance model” is that the analysis can be integrated in the design process. In other words, the analysis is not separate from the design process in terms of methodology or time. Methodological breaches, which commonly occur in landscape planning, can thus be avoided. Rather than being limited to a certain period of time, the analysis continues throughout the whole planning process. On the other hand, the creative part of the design process can begin with the first available information about the project and its context.

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quality, durability and economy is to be applied appropriately. This knowledge must be continually updated, forcing the landscape architect to embark on a permanent learning process. The controlled application of new knowledge to projects may be considered to be “engineer-like” behavior. The most essential purpose of knowledge-based control is to protect visions from failing to become reality.

Design using “layers of information”

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As I mentioned above, designing is a reflexive process aimed at manipulating layers of information and the elements embedded in them. The first decisive step of this method is to decide which ones of the numerous pieces of information are relevant and should be selected for the remaining design process. With the help of a syntactic approach to design, a specific grammar can be used to associate individual elements with each other and to combine them to form a new structure.7 This method or strategy, allows existing layers of information to be taken into account and preserved while they can still be reinterpreted and further developed. According to this type of theory, planning tasks cannot be perceived as part of an integral holistic concept that relates to a clearly defined space isolated from its surroundings. On a theoretical level, an idealized image can be created in isolated spaces since it does not touch its surroundings. Design using layers of information is much better suited to complex spatial situations and tasks. As a first step, elements are worked out that can be influenced and that extend far beyond the actual space concerned and borders of the intervention. In this way a continuum can be created between the actual planning space and its surroundings. Such a design process can also incorporate “invisible” layers of information by exclusively limiting itself to one abstract system of information, for example a signage system with plant names. Spontaneous languages of design and clichés

Languages of design can develop spontaneously. However, they must be regarded with caution. On closer inspection, they usually turn out to be repetitions or citations of long-existing role models or principles. One of our strategies is to systematically work through the clichés, which are inevitably present in the mind, to push forward to the actual experiment of a new structural construct. Examples from design practice

Hafeninsel Park, Saarbrücken The Hafeninsel (port island) is a nine-hectare former coal port on the banks of the River Saar. Most of it was destroyed during the Second World War and it served as a coal and rubble depot after the war. In the late 1970s planning began to build a new bridge over the river. The island was needed to support the bridgehead and the area, which was completely overgrown, once again became the subject of public attention. The planning authorities responsible for it approached our planning office while looking for a concept with which to improve the value of the inner-city open space and to develop its edges. Successively, we produced three different preliminary designs for the project area. Two of those preliminary designs were based on the risky strategy of using conventional concepts and clichés, systematically developing them, but finally discarding them as they turned out to be unsuitable. The first concept was modeled after the classical historical landscape park, which still has many advocates today. The second concept involved a geometrical urban garden. We designed the third concept, our favorite, according to syntactical principles. It proceeded from the idea of exposing the existing structures on the site and not covering them with for-

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I intend to illustrate with three project examples how we applied the methods described above at various levels of intensity and how we combined them with each other. I will begin with the Hafeninsel Park in Saarbrücken. There we experimented with a conscious avoidance of stereotypical ideas, with the possibilities offered by the morphological method and with a design using layers of information.

Duisburg North Landscape Park The use of the performance model and designing with layers of information can be explained using the Duisburg North Landscape Park as an example. This landscape park was established within the context of the IBA Emscherpark on the site of a closed blast furnace plant. The smelting works in Meiderich produced thirty-seven million tonnes of crude iron while it was running. It left behind a gigantic industrial ruin and 230 hectares of post-industrial landscape, which were to be converted into an unconventional “park.” Within a cooperative-competitive planning process, five international planning offices developed ideas for the area. Our office was commissioned to carry out the project. How did the conceptual idea develop? When we began to work on the design task, rather than first imagining a park, we examined what would be visible from the future “park”: for example, the group of furnaces still in use in the North of Duisburg. We used an analysis plan to depict a panorama with all the elements

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eign elements, rather than developing the park as a “counterworld” to the former loading and storage structures, the building rubble deposited there and the impact of the motorway. The information inherent in the different layers was overlaid with the principles of the surrounding urban structures and served as a starting point for the design of the project. Making structural reference to the surrounding city meant, for example, that the gardens were cut into the hills of debris. In addition, the vegetation that had appeared spontaneously on the hills of the rubble was left to develop freely. An important aspect of the project strategy was the intensive communication with residents, politicians and administration as well as their early inclusion into the planning and implementation process. Gradually, the participants in the project became involved one step at a time. I will now take a closer look at an experiment that we call the “Triangle”. The space was a byproduct of intersecting diagonal pathway axes that we had established to provide long vistas. As a model of organization and design structure we decided to use the Gauß-Krüger coordinate system, a 20 x 20 meter grid, which is mapped over the whole of Germany (only what can be measured actually exists!). In order to jointly design and develop the site, we held a workshop with students and apprentices. The participants were divided into groups and each group was given a 20 x 20 meter plot which they could change as they pleased. First, they were given the task to design and build the space with materials found on site. Participants were asked to verbally describe their working methods. Initially, work proceeded with great enthusiasm, but soon problems began to arise. Negotiations between the groups led each group to relinquish a one-meter wide strip on all four sides of the plots. This led to a grid of two-meter wide paths that made access to the plots easier. Each plot yielded different kinds of building material. Bricks and lumps of concrete that had been dug out of the ground using an excavator were carefully sorted and used in a kind of recycling process to make stone banks, ground coverings and even walls and stairs. The variety of materials found at the site inspired the participants to swap them amongst each other, allowing them to refine the material languages and techniques of their “own projects”. The uniform basic structure allowed use of a wide variety of different compositional languages without getting lost in confusing diversity. Our next step was to invite garden owners in the neighboring areas to come and plant vigorously growing plants from their own gardens in the Hafeninsel Park rather than throwing them away. In doing so we accomplished two things: we were able to equip the new park with robust plants and we provided an opportunity for people to start identifying with the park as a result of this experience.

above: The “Triangle,” excerpt of plan of Hafeninsel Park, below: Materials found on site were used to construct paths and walls – Hafeninsel Park

The Landscape Park

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Areas in the landscape park orienting to the outside

Special places nearby, to which the park’s externally oriented areas relate

Horizon, to which the park’s externally oriented areas relate

The “Blast Furnace Town” Streets, which relate to the blast furnace plant

Duisburg North Landscape Park: analysis of the projections and relationships between the park terrain and its surroundings.

Overlay and connection of independent conceptual layers and structural elements, Duisburg North Landscape Park

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that could be seen from the area we were working on. From the opposite direction we recorded all of the elements within the landscape park that could be seen from the outside. Other areas were quite hidden in character and not visible from the outside. They were marked in white on the plan. Working out the interrelations between the planning area and its surroundings was a decisive step in the design process. It was unusual at first that we did not work on a conventional general plan. Instead, we tried to depict the park as an abstract structure and to pinpoint subspaces that were to be developed following certain sets of rules: the railway park, the water park, the city prome­nades and so on. We then dealt with the individual layers and subspaces completely independently of each other. In the end we combined the independent units to produce a dynamic whole. It was our intention to highlight our development method, the processes and the system of relationships inherent in the project in a general overview rather than merely presenting the planning results. Another schematic shows connecting elements that tie together differently utilized parts of the landscape at appropriate points. Apart from the idea of setting up a ”fabric of interrelations”, the term “metamorphosis” played a central role in our design approach. It allowed us to reinterpret structures like the furnaces, rather than having to stick to their original functions as machines. That meant, for example, that we could interpret the former furnace as a mountain or imagined dragon. The structure was given a new meaning without being physically altered or destroyed. The Piazza Metallica, a symbol for the metamorphosis of an industrial structure into public space, forms the core of the park. Melting and solidification processes have been written into the iron plates that once lined the casting bed of the iron ore foundry. Formed by physical processes, in their new position they will continue to rust and to weather. The railway park is another experiment to transform existing structures by overlaying them with new patterns of interpretation; it involves the reinterpretation of a complex rail system. The tracks are positioned alternately on dams and in valleys, using differences in height between the levels to make optimal use of the forces of gravity. The aesthetic qualities of this so-called “harp of rails” only became visible from the furnace. Nobody had ever consciously noticed the special beauty of this piece of structural engineering. Only from a distance can it be seen in its entirety. The spatial structural principles of the railway park stretch into the neighborhoods of the surrounding city districts, thus reaching far beyond the park’s boundaries. There was no need to add artistic accents to selected places in the railway park since its confrontation with its environs offers enough appeal in itself. Another element of the park, the water park, is intersected by a 3.5-kilometer long canal. This former waste water canal of the “Old Emscher” was transformed into a clear water canal that is fed by rainwater, complete with bridges and walkways. Certain specifications were first laid down concerning the changes that would be made. These included: to move as little earth as possible, to use existing configurations, to use existing pipelines within the industrial complex, to integrate all existing constructions like purification plants and cooling basins into this part of the park, etc. These measures were put into practice step by step: the arsenic-polluted waste water treatment plant was cleaned, a clear water channel was constructed, the gasometer was converted into a diving centre and made into a surreal underwater world, etc. Although the water park is a completely artificial entity based on an abstract idea, it became ecologically balanced after several years. Its biological system works according to natural principles, but is initiated and maintained by technical means. It appears natural now, as if it had always been there. However, in truth this equilibrium is regulated by an elaborate technological system: a wind mill pumps water upwards, through a garden and over walls. In the end the water falls back into the canal. This circulation stabilizes the oxygen content in the water.

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Ore bunker gallery, Duisburg North Landscape Park

Finally, I would like to discuss the former bunker complex. At first there was no way to enter the bunkers and they could only be serviced using a crane. We wanted to preserve their shape, structure and material integrity and to make them accessible. We intended to re­interpret and use them by adding a few minimal elements. A chain of gardens was planned for one of the two bunker plants. Their walls have since become overgrown with climbing plants, whose color subtly contrasts with the ore-colored markings on the concrete walls. We connected the chambers of the second bunker plant to each other, they were supposed to be made into an art gallery. A mountaineering club took over other parts of the complex for climbing practice. It is possible to walk on various levels of both bunker plants so that the spaces can be perceived from a variety of perspectives.

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The final project that I will introduce here involves an approach we took to finding an adequate design language for a very large and complicated project. The subject of this project was the river plain of the Ayalon in Tel Aviv and its development into a landscape park. The main function of the future park will be to act as a retention space for between five and seven million cubic metres of water to accommodate the river’s peak flow. Therefore, the design language of the park is affected by both aesthetic-cultural factors and technological regulations. The “retention space” objective and the “park” objective have to coexist and be developed in parallel processes. A plan was developed by engineers to gain space for water retention by digging up ground near the course of the rivers. A sort of random “design” emerged incidentally from that. The shape of the park would have been determined by the conditions demanded by an engineering construction. We felt this approach to be correct from a conceptual point of view but we also felt that shaping a park around a retention space from the very beginning would be a premature move to make. So we first used a structural plan to transform the area into an “abstract landscape” structured into a grid of square fields, each with an area of one hectare, to which altitude lines were added. Using this altitude plan we were able to abstractly simulate scenarios for the further development of the landscape. For example, we examined how the landscape would change if a lake or a second tributary of the river were added to it above the waterline. The tributary had the task of guiding the water over the edge of the newly emerging hollow into beds of reeds and of allowing clean water to flow from there back into the river plain. The “working model” symbolically depicts historical and agricultural patterns, yet it refrains from prematurely defining a design and instead establishes a kind of structure. In so doing it provides comprehensible parameters for the future topography while remaining open (flexible) and controllable until a very late stage. This abstract design will be translated step by step into a concrete form as the design process moves forward. Our main task within the project was to redesignate and reorganize the 65-meter high waste mountain, Hiriya, whose 45-hectare large gigantic body abruptly protrudes from the wide flat plains of the Ayalon. In numerous studies and workshops, photographers and artists had already carried out much work on the artificial mountain. They primarily considered it an object, which should remain an object in the future. I personally experience it as an accessible space, as a landscape, whose size does not allow it to be interpreted exclusively as an object. We defined five partial spaces, each of which was given its own design regulations: the wadi, the foot terrace, the steep slope, the plateau and the interior depression, the oasis.

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Hiriya and Ayalon Park

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We developed a concrete design for each of these archetypical landscape spaces which corresponded to our own and other languages of design. For example, patterns and structures that are based on the local agriculture are integrated into the design.The streambeds at the foot of the mountain were altered to avoid further pollution by untreated seepage water and to preserve the unique shape of the mountain. This creates a wadi with freely meandering branches of small streams. Scattered groups of tall trees provide shade under luscious tree crowns during Israel’s hot summer. The paths in the river plain will be temporarily flooded. Therefore, elevated paths lead over the wadi to the next area of the park, the foot terrace. This terrace is placed as a counterbalance at the foot of the mountain, which is threatened by erosion. Its design is characterized by plantings similar to those which originally covered this area. Fruit trees and similar fruit bearing plants continue the upper line of the tall tree crowns in the wadi to avoid shading the steep slope. A network of paths and narrow trails guarantees access to this area throughout the whole year already during the early stages of the project. The third landscape element is the steep slope which uniquely defines the fascinating appearance of this mountain in the middle of a broad river plain. It conspicuously reveals its “artificial origins”.There are already signs that the polluted ground around the flanks of the landfill is coming back to life. As the methane pollution disappears, a sort of “gariga”, a characteristic Mediterranean vegetative formation, will gradually develop. Adding large structural elements or tall plantings to the fourth area, the plateau, or to the escarpment area would severely interfere with the silhouette of the mountain. The low sparse plant growth on the slope should, therefore, continue onto the plateau and remain below kneelevel, just like the existing plant cover. The only place where tall vegetation is planned is the depression at the centre since that will not affect the silhouette of the mountain. Layers of sealing will prevent methane gas from escaping the ground and water from penetrating it. The ground above water-collecting drainage layers will support more vigorous plant life. The elements of the interior terrace and the garden at the heart of the mountain form an autonomous landscape which is independent in scale from the surrounding spaces. The fact that an “oasis” can develop in such a dry place is the result of a number of technical factors. During the winter an underground passive reservoir fills up with water. The supply in this cistern is capable of providing water to the trees for several months. Open water zones alternate with covered ones (three quarters of the water body), in order to minimize the water surface and reduce evaporation. In addition, a double canopy will significantly reduce evaporation, making a visit to the oasis a pleasant experience during the hot summer months. The strategy of leaving the plateau open and the steep slope as it is and only securing the base of the formation preserves the object-like character of the mountain. This particularly affects its visual impact from a distance (medial adaption) since close by, the artificial formation is perceived as a landscape. A distinctive connection between the park and its surroundings can be clearly felt from the lookout platform, the Belvedere, as the eye wanders over the skyline of Tel Aviv. The “formal language” of the mountain is further defined by the building materials used. One of our priorities was to conspicuously integrate a recycling plant into the park, which is now up and running and which will process building waste over the coming decades,. The recycled material will be used to construct the foot terrace, the Mediterranean terrace landscape and the path surfaces. It will even be used to produce plant substrates and mineral mulch covering. The characteristic appearance of the waste mountain will not be concealed, it will be developed into a “typical local” landscape.

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above: View over the wadi to the foot terrace and the steep slope of the Hiraya landfill, middle: The “oasis,” an autonomous landscape island with vigorous plant cover in a depression in the sparsely vegetated mountain plateau. Plan and section , bottom: Abstract depiction of the topography of the area, structural plan for the Ayalon Park

Notes

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1 Weilacher, Udo: Syntax der Landschaft. Die Landschaftsarchitektur von Peter Latz und Partner. Basel, Boston, Berlin 2008, p.169

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2  in: Stover Jenkins and David Mohney: The Houses of Philip Johnson. New York 2001, p. 75 3 Latz, Peter: “Paradigma Park” in Tom Königs (Ed.): Stadt-Parks. Urbane Natur in Frankfurt am Main. Frankfurt am Main 1993, p. 23 4 Ibid., p. 24 5 Curdes, Gerhard: Stadtstrukturelles Entwerfen. Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1995, p. 60 6 Weilacher, Udo: Syntax der Landschaft. Die Landschaftsarchitektur von Peter Latz und Partner. Basel, Boston, Berlin 2008, p.180 7 Ibid., p.169

Manifold Horizons

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Henri Bava Creativity is complex

After working for twenty years as a landscape architect, founding the Agence Ter firm, working on projects of all sizes, and teaching at the same time at the ENSP (École Nationale Supérieure de Paysage) in Versailles and at the University of Karlsruhe, landscape architecture still means an intensive dedication to the complexity of the world for me. This rules out a dogmatic approach, and requires each time a departure, a mobilization of all the senses, and a mental tension, from which a design emerges. Interpreting and derivation

I consider as false the usual division of the design in descriptive, analytical and creative phases. There is no neutral analysis, because every description is selective. The information that is selected – explicitly or not – is more or less classified according to explicit and subjective criteria. The analysis is a fixture of the planning and determines how the terrain is understood, what “meaning” it harbors, and how it is therefore to be interpreted. The planning process is then not a linear temporal process, even if it is finally presented as such. However, of necessity the phases of description/interpretation and those of the actual idea-finding do not in fact follow one after the other, but rather are mixed and interact with each other. Depending on the particular terrain, the idea/vision receives new information, orientation and influences from the description and vice versa. An iterative process is involved here. The physical contact with the terrain becomes a fundamental moment of the planning: every design emerges from the confrontation of a unique human being with a unique terrain. The force and radicality of the design depend on this encounter, as does the human capability to recognize what is special about the terrain and to further develop it with creativity and sensitivity. The basis for that is that his view is shared by inhabitants, politicians, those involved with the planning and other actors in the process. Only then can the design surface as a dynamic development.

The expanse as basis The planning procedure entails some constants, whose principals are similar to those found in architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning. However in landscape architecture it must be recognized that the design develops as a main element, which then becomes the basis of each act of planning: the expanse. That means the expanse can not be considered as an accommodating but interchangeable accessory for the objects that are to unfold on it, as a neutral medium (tabula rasa) without its own character, a surface free of constraints (”plan libre“), as an area of operation that can be unconditionally turned inside out, or as a simple construction site. The first step of landscape architecture is the consideration of the specifics of the expanse. That is the initial horizon we perceive, which allows us to orient ourselves in space and to understand the interactions of the location with its immediate and extended surroundings. However, the initial horizon is only the visible part of a complex, manifold entirety, about which the landscape architect must comprehensively inform himself at the beginning of the design process.

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The expanse: The first horizon of the design

The expanse as a source of inspiration The effort devoted to the specifics of the location in landscape architecture is significant. It is more important than that expended on the program. To exaggerate in order to make a point, one could say just as the French philosopher Gilles Tiberghien, that the location in landscape architecture is program-neutral and that a design could be worked up completely without a previous brief. Or, that the landscape architectonic design provides the opportunity to question the brief, to become involved with the expanse as source of interpretation, and to establish the design’s peculiarities as vectors for a new program. It is typical for landscape architecture to draw its inspiration from the expanse, from its configuration, density, history, geography, use, and vegetation, freely interpreted each time. This is especially what distinguishes this discipline from urban planning, in which the brief and the strategic information have priority. The expanse generates the program in landscape architecture.

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The expanse as physical support In its materiality the ground is a base. A base ”construed“ of geology, erosion, the traces of human use and the hydrology. Possibilities, directions and lines of force emerge from the peculiarities of the base from which the design through-line emerges. The base is for landscape architecture no patient carrier of a program that is supposed to rest on it, but rather in collusion with the landscape architects, the trigger and main actor of this program itself. The landscape harbors elements of the history and geography, which, if one devotes the attention and interest to them, provide crucial ideas for designs and become a source of inspiration. The leading forces, from which the landscape design including the architecture and urban construction are developed, are buried in the physical form and the mental extension of the base.

The expanse as a system of meshing locations Every location can have both a transitory and final character, depending on how the people use and consider it. From a landscape architectonic point of view the ground as such can not be limited in its extension, because every location overlaps with its neighbor, and the meshing of transitory and final locations makes for the wealth of the landscape. An enclosed area within an extension can never be autarchically developed, even if the planning calls for a natural, geographically limited intervention. However, it is generally the case that even wall enclosed terrain maintains manifold connections with its surroundings, because after all, people perceive it from inside as well as outside. The interaction between local placing and participation in the

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The expanse as system of interaction Landscape architects do not consider the elements of a territory separately: landscape is not simply what is left over when a terrain has shed itself of streets, railway lines, quarters and buildings. On the contrary, landscape is the totality of all these elements as part of a dynamic system of interaction, which finds itself in ongoing development. It is a territory that requires a new intellectual pervasion, in order to fit its components into something other than the classical hierarchies and to create the ground for a landscape-architectonic influenced design of our life environment. Nature and human being have shaped this territory in equal measure and lent it structure, so that the design should aim to adapt new elements to the existing order of interaction and to be just as appropriate to the logic of the natural space as to anthropological space. This kind of fitting and transplantation can continue the development of the existing connections between individual elements and thereby contribute to a richer design of an interactive system for human beings.

surroundings marks the landscape architectonic perception of the location as a fabric of countless currents, of human beings, wind or water, which traverse the terrain, drawn, sucked in and held there. As a system this logic is valid for the meshing of locations for the object scale as well as for the regional scale. Without consideration of the landscape on a local as well as global level the future of a location can not be designed, neither as a location where one can linger, nor as a transitory location for currents of all kinds. Space is never static. The clear demarcation between transitory and final spaces, which Louis Kahn called “spatial treasures” in his book Silence and Light, will increasingly dissolve and give way to a more complex quality of spaces.

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Layering: Manifold horizons

At the first contact with the design task, the planning process is set in motion, and the associative and creative work begins, even if we have not yet seen the terrain. The physical and emotional confrontation with the terrain is a moment that involves the whole body. We perceive not only visually but also haptically and intuitively. As landscape architects we look for the structure of the terrain. We often find its key characteristics in in-depth studies that confirm our on site observations, and concretize our first hunches. Although most often not visible, this structure carries with it the permanent values of the location, which lend it its permanence and which “bear” it like the statics of a building. The soil characteristics, a particular geological layer (for example a coal seam as in the Green Metropolis project), the subterranean course of the thermal water (as in the Park Aqua Magica project in Bad Oeynhausen), the presence of a municipal underground garage (as in the Festplatz project in Karlsruhe) are less constraints than they are possibilities to be used. If these are defined as bearing elements, it is frequently surprising and rewarding to confront them with completely different elements, which for instance arise from the planning program for the development. The identity of the location emerges from the pervasion of different layers of a location. The landscape architectonic design spreads out the layers of a territory, counterposes them to the demands people make on them and determines one of the layers as a leading force, in order to build the design upon it, to balance out the interaction of the totality of all the layers and to compose anew and decide on an abstract and metaphorical basis, how to proceed with which strategy, in which layer. The design works with manifold horizons. The play of levels was always one of the basic questions of landscape architecture, along with the height of the sky, the depth of the terrain, the position of the groundwater table, the strength of the wind and the thickness of the clouds. Assuming an understanding of the territory as a layering of horizons, as a dynamic and interactive system, the landscape architect selects a path of proceeding, which does justice to and at the same time weights the manifoldness, and which respects the given system and more attractively shapes it for the current and future uses, without taking away its coherence.

Understanding the leading forces and principles of the network of relations of a territory is an indispensable step in order to develop an approach for a landscape architectonic design. The intellectual pervasion can proceed in parallel to the individual interpretation, precede or follow it, provided that the starting hypothesis is adapted to the context each time. The desire for hegemony often arises from the associative capabilities of the human brain, which landscape architects try to express by cultivating every square meter of their project area, just as architects like to build up every last corner of their terrain. This fear of the void is exaggerated, as states Gilles Tiberghien, all the more since in a shared life environment

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Landscape: Process and space simultaneously

there can hardly be a void. The greater challenge for the planner is to not want to master everything, but rather to leave untouched areas, in which the processes of nature take their course without direct influence and guidance by human beings. Every terrain can be understood as a field of development, which contains different processes – perhaps we can arrive at what is crucial in a design in this way. I personally do not think that one should in any case give processes the priority. The concern is much more to bring the structure of space and natural processes in balance with each other. The design always contains all interacting layers and horizons, and it is the task of the landscape architects, depending on location and demands, to select which layers will be activated and which horizons stretched out. Mechanistic thinking about currents and forces leads to designing and viewing spaces as functional levels, whose perception from the interior of the terrain is forgotten. The combination of all scales and the attempt to find the right horizon in every scale, remains the goal of every design. Otherwise the design is reduced to a flow diagram and remains an abstract, bloodless construction. However, the space from which a design emerges must offer more than pure function. After all, it is space to live in, living space. In that way spatial composition and design set in motion biological and social processes, which can fill the space with life on many levels. These processes are bound inseparably with each other and issue the verdict over a design, independent of the intellectual attitude and the ideas of the landscape architects: if they stimulate a location and increase its appeal, then the design is right. Conversely, if they lead to disinterest in the location, then that is a sign of design failure.

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Urban renewal also occurs in the landscape. In Ivry-sur-Seine, the conurbation of Paris, the reconfiguration of an industrial wasteland between the city center and the rail network rewarded the inhabitants with a meadow and open spaces. The realization of the Parc des Cormailles offered an opportunity to experiment within a heterogeneous urbanity with the interactions between these new and important public open spaces and a mosaic of residential ensembles and adjoining quarters. More than in other locations, the concept here can not concentrate on a single goal, like the vegetation, the substrate, the space or style. Instead it must seek the relations among all these factors and the social dimension. The park is not laid out as a ”contrast” to the city. It does not offer a somewhere else, but instead it is located right “in” the city, in an open, central location. It is diffuse and flexible, and its assignment is to be equipped by the inhabitants. There is a very beautiful photograph taken by Raymond Depardon a few years ago, which captures the encounter between these spacious, post-industrial grounds and their playful use by the children, who sit on top of a debris mountain. The project consists of finding everything new without changing what is essential, namely the uniqueness of the terrain, and its land use possibilities. The terrain is marked by the geographical conditions of the Seine valley, in the stratification of memory of floodwater, bottomland deposits and sand. The horizontality is a local characteristic, the result of the river repeatedly overflowing its banks, which temporarily blurred the lot lines and redesigned the floor of the valley. This horizontality is vertically punctuated by the high buildings or a unique event like the debris mountain, which was created from the demolition of the factories on these grounds. Therefore the design of these parks as a whole continues the horizontality with ”surface and expanse,” which creates freedom of movement. The large meadow offers a quiet zone in the middle of the city with smooth forms and surfaces, which represent no formal addition to the already heterogeneous context, but on the contrary give the impression of harmonic order, as if

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Parc des Cormailles, Ivry-sur-Seine

Cormailles: canal, sunken garden

everything had always been there. By their height, targeted planning and vegetation the gardens are inserted as contrast. One of the gardens was laid out in a hollow on the original layer of mud left behind by the floodwater, providing a convergence of water vegetation and recreation grounds. The park, which is supposed to address the requirements of the counties and the city center problem, was an opportunity to combine and offer several scales of perception: the landscape scale with the view from the debris mountain onto the skyline of the capital city and the unending stream of automobiles on the Boulevard Périphérique; the park scale with its avenues, which continue in the streets of the adjoining city districts; and finally the garden scale with locations, materials, textures and surroundings, inviting visitors to stop and rest. This is where the people find a certain seclusion and quiet for different activities like reading under the tamarisks, lying in the grass, picnics, playing ball, listening to music or just relaxing and doing nothing … Whereas every individual scale can be experienced for itself, the task is to characterize and design each one autonomously, but also to fuse them all in an apparently simple, coherent ensemble. Filled as they are with the specific qualities of the terrain, they do not betray their urban character. From the landing of an apartment building to the scale of a large city, from the threshold of a Renaudie apartment to the landscape, the work here is to create a spatial continuum, a generous transversality, thanks to the attention that was given to the boundaries of the parks. Every boundary conducts a dialogue with its contextual elements and its particular design allows the park to draw close to the apartment buildings. Occasionally the boundaries are blurred, in that the fence around the park submerges into a ha-ha, only to become transparent again with a grating, or they arch up into a plinth, upon which, thanks to the perspective effect, the suburban trains glide by. The point is not to create a park that is stuck in an imitation of nature, in order to cover up or forget the densely populated city, but rather the opposite, namely to find a consonance with it. This park is an inseparable part of the city, its cynosure, its green lungs. A city park on this scale is an important facility for the inhabitants, which as it develops is supposed to adapt to the changes in use, taste and new plans that will certainly come. Ten years have passed since its planning and the completion of the last construction phase in 2007. The goal of the Parc des Cormailles is “to keep open the palette of possibilities” in that the incomplete character is maintained.

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For the question of the future design of a tri-national region on the borders between Germany, Belgium and Holland, the interdisciplinary team, which we led as landscape architects, decided in favor of a concept in which the invisible landscape plays a major role. The team first looked for a common value which joined the three countries. At first it seemed to be the countless slopes that crop up everywhere in the landscape. But the team discovered that they are used and viewed completely differently in each country and are therefore by no means experienced as a totality by the inhabitants. They are protected natural spaces in Germany and serve as enclaves for off-limits biotopes, while in Holland they are privately developed recreation landscapes with ski and bobsleigh slopes, and in Belgium they are barely touched recreation areas. Conversely the team struck pay dirt in the geological layers: an underground layer of coal, invisible, but physically present joins the three countries at a distance of about 180 kilometers and is an equally common horizon for the people in Germany, Belgium and Holland. We developed our idea of the Green Metropolis on this submerged seam. Everyone we show our idea accepts it because every family can remember a family member or friend who worked in the mines. This body of carbon was primarily

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The Green Metropolis of Germany–Belgium–Holland

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Center: Subterranean coal seam gives perimeter to the Green Metropolis, top: Masterplan Green Metropolis, right: Urban DNA: Green Route and Metropolis Main Road

exploited in the last century and actually created a new landscape of slopes and strip mining trenches in the otherwise flat land. In its spatial extension the Green Metropolis develops exactly along this element and thereby brings it into the light, laying the landscape foundation, upon which a completely new trans-border region with a new identity is founded. In the main, the design intends to revitalize the communities of the region with two routes – a metropolitan and a green route – as a dynamic urban system. Both routes comprise a kind of urban DNA as the backbone of the region. Development nodes line the routes and offer the communities the opportunity to activate their own potentials and inscribe them in the perspective for the whole region, thereby enhancing its vitality.

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The author thanks Lisa Diedrich, editor-in-chief of Fieldwork-Landscape Architecture Europe and of ’scape, the international magazine for landscape architecture and urbanism, for the collaboration on this article. It was written in parallel to the book Territories, by Henri Bava, Olivier Philippe, Michel Hoessler (Agence Ter) and Lisa Diedrich, published in October, 2008, by Birkhäuser Verlag für Architektur, Basel.

StossWorks: Hybridized, Expansive, Incomplete

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Chris Reed Stoss is a Boston-based design studio that has built its core practice around a set of hybridized design and planning strategies known as landscape urbanism. This positioning within an emerging field, itself a hybridization of landscape architecture and urbanism, enables both a critical and a pragmatic broadening of landscape agendas. Here we move beyond simple visual and decorative approaches to landscape improvements to those capable of addressing more far-reaching issues of infrastructure and function, ecology and sustainability, flexible programming and interim use, fiscal strategy and funding, as well as administration, management, and maintenance. For us, landscapes must be conceived and positioned relative to large-scale geographical, environmental, and infrastructural systems, regardless of whether the landscape in question is small or large. Landscapes must tap into the evolving dynamics of ecological, civic, or social systems in order to remain healthy and resilient. Landscapes must set up conditions for a wide range of uses and appropriations for both those we can imagine now and those we cannot in order to be viable immediately and for years to come. To achieve these ends, we favor a performance-based approach over one that is primarily physical, spatial, or visual. We are especially interested in how landscapes work: how they function urbanistically, socially, hydrologically, environmentally; how they reinforce existing city frameworks; how they invent new ones; and how they may support a range of complementary and sometimes contradictory civic programs across a multifaceted and dense urban field. Such an approach yields new types of open space, landscape, infrastructure, and urban strategies, which simultaneously address functional, fiscal, social, political, as well as cultural goals. These strategies are thoroughly grounded in the particularities of local conditions, yet they are inventive and densely layered in order to tap into broader trends and larger systems. They privilege a regenerative approach to civic space and urban landscapes as complex, living, and evolving entities socially, ecologically, and fiscally robust. Two projects in particular manifest these core principles.

Staging Mt. Tabor is a strategy for reuse, renewal, and regeneration. Mt. Tabor is a 150-acre urban park with three late-nineteenth-century drinking water reservoirs, situated in Portland, Oregon on the west coast of the United States. We were invited along with three other teams to develop landscape schemes for the park in anticipation of a large-scale de- and re-commissioning project for the reservoirs. Three open reservoirs are situated in Mt. Tabor Park. Purified drinking water enters the park reservoirs for temporary storage before being piped almost directly into nearby houses and businesses. Given the public’s unrestricted access to the perimeter of these basins, the city of Portland has always recognized the reservoirs’ vulnerability to potential attack most likely in the form of a vial of something (arsenic, perhaps) being thrown or poured into the basins and contaminating the drinking water supply. (Curiously, no one seemed to be bothered by the ducks and birds constantly swimming and defecating in these constructed ponds).

Chris Reed

Mt. Tabor Reservoirs. Portland, Oregon, USA Stoss with Taylor + Burns Architects, Arup, et al.

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Physical strategies, Mt. Tabor Reservoirs

Hydrologic section through integrated and layered water systems

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After 9/11, however, the fear intensified and Portland‘s Water Bureau became convinced of the reservoirs’ vulnerability: Portland, Oregon, they thought, could be the next target of international terrorism. Thus, they developed a plan to bury the exposed drinking water reservoirs underground in sealed, safe concrete boxes and they did this out of the public eye. They forgot, however, that they were working in Portland, which has a strong reputation as one of the most socially active American communities; where new public projects, infrastructure improvements, and renovation initiatives are fully and extensively debated in public. Given that the proposed drinking water “improvements” would have a significant effect on a beloved park and on treasured water features, and that they would be fully funded by a new levy on water users, the Water Bureau woefully underestimated the public’s response to the plans once they were released. To counter the ensuing uproar, the Water Bureau teamed with the city’s Parks Department, which was quite skilled at engaging the public, to develop a solution: an invited, international landscape design competition that would generate world-class landscape proposals to cover the proposed underground reservoirs. Their hope was that pretty green caps on the underground basins would make the controversy go away. At the outset of the project, we decided to probe these and other issues discovered in our discussions and site visits, embarking on a series of parallel but seemingly unrelated research projects that looked beyond the outlines of the given brief. Through extensive research, we outlined the expansiveness and complexity of the drinking water system that served metropolitan Portland, an impressive system fed entirely by gravity. We discovered that the park was a decent habitat for a rich variety of birds and, upon further investigation, that some of these birds hopped around the state of Oregon throughout the year spending time in the mountains in the summer and the river valleys in the winter while others migrated seasonally to the American Northwest from Central and South America. We learned that there was an avid population of birdwatchers that used the park regularly and managed extensive email distribution lists to keep interested parties abreast of bird sightings. We also examined the park’s role in the city’s park system, and looked closely at the many problems that plagued the park, despite its healthy appearance: erosion due to heavy rainwater runoff; over-maintenance of the vegetative understory, which limited habitat value and exacerbated the runoff problem; and human accessibility issues due to deferred maintenance and lack of physical upgrades. Most critically, perhaps, the decommissioning project was fraught with political controversy and budget shortcomings, due to the Water Bureau’s initial missteps. Opposition groups were well organized, well funded, and energized; in fact, they staged semiannual events dubbed Hands around the Reservoirs, in which participants would clasp hands and stand united around the beloved pools. Curiously, the competition organizers seemed disinterested in taking on these constituencies and the full breadth of issues at hand, and instead sought landscape palliatives that would camouflage and soothe. In contrast, our proposal engages even agitates the project’s inherent challenges and opportunities in the hope of establishing a long-term framework for their negotiation within a more complexly layered and informed project. The goal is to strategically, structurally, and economically catalyze renewal and regeneration of an open space, infrastructure, and ecological resource through time. Physical strategies deploy discrete constructions embankments, furrows, overlooks and boardwalks across the site to redirect water and catalyze new ecological and social occupations. Together, they form rainwater terraces, new habitat zones, floating boardwalks and overlooks, successional meadows and forests, play terraces, and water basins. Hydrologic strategies establish a new, diversified, and intensified water system that collects and cleans rainwater from the site, creates new habitat, remakes reflecting pools, and inte-

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New wetland habitat atop underground drinking water infrastructure

Implementation and management strategies

Lower reservoir recommissioned as public pools

grates a supplementary filtration system for pools and water features. Wastewater is dispersed to irrigate groundwater recharge fields, including a park nursery and ballfields. Implementation strategies capitalize on minimal short-term interventions that yield significant long-term changes; they build in flexibility and adaptability. In part, they defer a portion of the project to a later date, thus buying time to build political support and financial resources. Management strategies look broadly at maintenance practices, park operations, and funding strategies. They include embedded design and funding mechanisms that expand the project’s agenda, renew and reinvent existing infrastructures, and incorporate everything from inventive social programs to new energy generation initiatives. The individual design solutions are necessarily hybridized. For instance, we propose a wetland atop the proposed underground reservoir in the upper basin that collects rainwater from the upper reaches of the park, filters it through vegetated terraces, and allows it to stand in a shallow pool bordered by the historic pump house and basin walls. The wetland is designed as new habitat for specific bird species like the exotic Rufus Hummingbird, both to amplify the commingling of indigenous and foreign elements, and of constructed and environmental systems at work here, and to qualify the project for funding through the US Fish & Wildlife Service’s Neo-Migratory Bird Habitat Program. In another instance, a drinking water bladder system developed by Arup in Australia is inserted directly into one of the existing basins, with a pool of captured and cleansed rainwater on top. The result is a solution that preserves the historic infrastructure, saves the enormous cost of building underground reservoirs, and functions as a living reflecting pool, which rises and falls with seasonal fluctuations in drinking water supply and demand, just as the reservoirs do now. A third strategy installs underground water turbines between the upper and lower reservoirs in the park, in order to take advantage of the existing elevational fall of the drinking water and its potential energy to generate clean hydro-electric power (without damaging native river habitats) that would provide independent funding for park construction and maintenance operations for years to come. Together, the project taps into a number of physical, environmental, and social-political currents at work on the ground. It establishes a new array of physical-hydrologic-ecological conditions that play out through time, able to adapt and respond to a broadened range of ecological, social-cultural, and administrative inputs, which will shape the project for years to come. It takes on the challenges and controversies of the larger initiative directly, setting out an agenda that extends far beyond that of the project brief, yet more capable of addressing the issues at hand. And it recasts the desired landscape veneer as a robust and multidimensional public works project with more far-reaching functional and imaginative ambitions.

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A second project looks at a much larger urban territory and a more complex setting and program, also within the context of an invited international design competition. Toronto’s Don River and Lower Don Lands, a largely vacated 300-acre former port just east of downtown, have long been the victims of short-sighted and single-minded economic and engineering initiatives. Through the work of this initiative, the hardened river and its obliterated estuary marsh have an opportunity to re-establish themselves as primary forces behind Toronto’s emerging waterfront. The task at hand is to re- or de-engineer the mouth of the river (“renaturalize” in the words of the client) and to create a new landscape and urban fabric in an environmentally rich setting.

Chris Reed

The Lower Don Lands. Toronto, Ontario, Canada Stoss with Brown + Storey Architects, ZAS Architects, Nina-Marie Lister et. al.

Here we imagine actively inhabiting the dynamic mouth of the Don at a restored ecological interface between river and lake, and at an expanded cultural interface between Toronto and its lakefront. Rather than re-shaping the river strictly according to the needs of the emerging city, we put the Don first, allowing the river to shape the metropolis, giving rise to unique, dynamic, engaging, world-class neighborhoods and open spaces. Socially vital and ecologically rich, the re-imagined Lower Don Lands are a new kind of metropolitan precinct: a cultural expression of a landscape-based urbanism at the re-established mixing ground of the Don River’s nutrient-rich, life-giving waters and the alternately placid and powerful waters of Lake Ontario.

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Our proposal builds on a few key principles: Amplify the interface: The river-lake interface is the richest breeding ground for fish and other wildlife. Therefore, we choose to re-establish the broad estuarine plate that slopes very slightly toward the harbor, maximizing the effects of both river and lake fluctuation, and ecological resilience. Hybridize the parts: The Don remains a highly engineered river within a very constructed environment. By hybridizing the physical parts of the river system, and by deploying them to form a primary channel, broad marshes, a floodway, and armored uplands, we can set up a framework that both structures and emancipates fluvial and lacustrine waters. Re-ignite dynamic ecologies: Amplifying and hybridizing yields an extremely dynamic estuarine marsh, tuned to both seasonal river events and long-term lake fluctuations. Here, we reactivate the dynamics of the disappearing Lake Ontario Lagoon Marsh, a marsh characterized by especially resilient plant communities that will move significantly further inland in response to both subtle and dramatic fluctuations in lake levels. Re-establish the wilds: The river takes over, spawning successional ecologies in response to short- and long-term inputs, and seeding new life in the Lower Don.

On this framework of a re-engineered, emancipated river we can then build a city. Existing harbor walls along the waterfront are surgically and strategically modified to activate lake cycles and establish new marshes and accessible water basins. A continuous landscape surface gives rise to a high-density but porous urban fabric; the landscape even turns up the face of buildings to create unique ecological and human habitats. When built in combination, buildings allow for the flow of landscape across and around the spits and islands. This strong effect of the naturalized landscape creates a new openness in the building fabric, a permeability of light and space that allows a dialogue between buildings and landscape and creates a rich and distinct social fabric: multiple scales, distinct identities, unique relationships to river, lake, and marsh.

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Re-engage the city: New ecologies give rise to new opportunities for interaction with the river, and new hybrid landscapes.

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Lower Don Lands: hybridized constructions to support newly engineered river ecologies

Fish ecologies: the richest breeding ground is at the river-lake interface

This is the new green city: diverse, robust – a new metropolitan precinct structured by the river, and engaged in the rich dynamics of the lake.

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Both projects as design competitions were won by other teams. In Portland, the jury was not convinced of the expanded project agenda and chose a scheme, admittedly quite beautiful, that better addressed the limited scope of the brief. Unfortunately, the landscape project was put on hold immediately, as the solution did not quell the controversy, and the entire infrastructure initiative eventually succumbed to political pressure – a lost opportunity, given our understanding of the potential impacts. Similarly, in Toronto, the jury chose a very solid scheme with a more conventional relationship between urban fabric and river landscape, citing the ease with which individual properties could be sold and developed, and the project team’s familiarity with Toronto. Our scheme was cited as “innovative,” certainly a death-knell in this context, as was the characterization of our team as “exciting” and “emerging.” The project has yet to play itself out.

Top: The city built upon the framework of river ecologies, middle: The green metropolis, a landscape-urbanist hybrid, left: View of the mouth of the Don River

Markus Gnüchtel “We are born with this condition, that is, that we can become whatever we choose to become.”1 Oration on the Dignity of Man, 1486, Pico della Mirandola Building is our business. However, we are more concerned with the people in the buildings than in the built products. We like to observe how people appropriate space, how they move within it, how they establish themselves, how they make it their own. We wish to produce spaces that set off creative appropriation processes. I will illustrate our approach to design by introducing two of our projects: the conversion of the Maurice Rose Airfield, an American military airport which we2 remodelled in 2002 -2003 for the city of Frankfurt am Main;2 and the Kassel Brückenhof project.

Design, conversion of Maurice Rose Airfield in Frankfurt/Main,-Bonames, completed 2004

Conversion of Maurice Rose Airfield, Frankfurt am Main3

As part of a landscape conservation area and the city of Frankfurt’s “GrünGürtel”, the territory of the former airfield is well protected today. In the early twentieth century it was occupied by swath and grazing pastures, which were regularly flooded by the small River Nidda. An airfield was built there in the 1930s and was modified by the US armed forces between 1948 and 1950. They converted it into a hard-surfaced airfield with a tower and adjacent buildings. In its last years it was mainly used as a heliport and only small aircraft landed there. The Americans left the premises in 1992. The successful conversion of the airfield began with a compromise between the interests of nature preservation and local recreation. A leisure and recreational area were to be established in close proximity to the city, which would at the same time satisfy nature preservation demands. About three of four and a half hectares of hard surface were broken up; the remaining one and a half hectares of remaining airstrip and hangar forecourts were left to be flexible in function. The airstrip drainage system was cut off to allow the natural water levels of the Nidda floodplains to re-establish in time.

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We Focus on People

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this and next page: Part of the former airstrip was left untouched. It is used by the most diverse user groups. A bistro in the old airport building provides catering for the visitors.

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The endogenous potential of the location was the sole starting point of cultivation of vegetation there. Neither was topsoil work carried out nor were seeds sown as starter vegetation. A process of ecological succession will be left to its own devices. No maintenance is planned apart from the large lawn in front of the hangar, which will be mown once a year. The Senckenberg Society will observe, assess and document vegetation growth there, taking it as an opportunity to study rare natural developments. I will go on to report a similarly rare development: “social succession”. I have chosen this term to describe the unrestricted creative appropriation of the airport territory because it involved a process whose dynamics are similar to those of flora and fauna succession. From the moment someone decides to take one path or another through the gravel fields or to walk along the runway of the old airfield, we are already in a position to observe creativity. A process has been set in motion through which new knowledge of the place will be gained. Human beings are carriers of creative knowledge. They bring their ideas for a pleasant afternoon to the old airfield. It is interesting for us to observe how these ideas manifest themselves and how people appropriate a space that hardly sets any parameters. They enjoy the little that has been planned, the unobtrusive concept of this facility. Citizens’ clubs, schools, kindergartens, playgroups, circles of friends, fitness and nature lovers find places that attract them. Minimal planning has created a wide range of different functional options. Since its completion, the former airport at Bonames, Frankfurt is the building site I have visited most regularly in my years as a practicing landscape architect. I find this place so fascinating because we put such an emphasis on the development process. We wanted to provide a structure that would facilitate the emergence and recognition of existing diversity. Our planning does not predefine where particularly interesting areas or areas rich in species will emerge. It is part of the concept to leave that to chance or more precisely to leave it over to the people and nature. We were not interested in telling the story of the conversion of an airport nor in telling any other tale of good design worth knowing. We wanted to re-naturalize the airfield and at the same time to convert it into an intensely useable park; not in the conventional sense of the meaning and without a complicated design to avoid unnecessarily pinning down thought and fantasy. We wanted it to become a place for people and nature. Paths were cut out of the former huge areas according to the functional logic of the old airport and were provided as walkable structures. It is not vital to the emerging “image” and the enjoyment of the park to know that the territory used to be an airport. It is of more importance to us that the people use the knowledge they bring there themselves. The structure of the facility is open to individual interpretation; the image is “subjectively” open. Thus is knowledge freed from the cage of having to directly represent reality. What is there is (real) enough; it is proven because it exists. One could wonder why building is at all necessary when all creativity exists within man’s perception, and not as part of the built environment. At the start of Modernism the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein4 already pointed beyond building. He was concerned with reducing the built imagination to an absolute minimum in favour of maximizing the openness of buildings and their invitational effect. One needs buildings if one is to be exposed to new horizons and if one is to experience the unimagined in their real physical space. A building is like an open window, you see what is outside. It is not about the presence of the window itself (naturally it´s physical presence should not be neglected, but that is a matter for art historians).

The drainage system was cut off; now the natural water levels of the Nidda floodplains can re-establish in time.

Large parts of the sealed areas were broken up and sorted into different grain sizes. The raw surface will accelerate the establishment of spontaneous vegetation. The open expanses of soil are gradually turning green and attracting many different types of birds and insects.

— Having

analyzed the huge airfield areas we differentiated between lines, which could function as pathways, and expanses. Nearly all of the expanses were broken up and different layers of earth and gravel were uncovered and exhibited. The paths were the only elements to be preserved as narrow lines; maximum reduction was carried out to conserve the memorable, rational structure of the airport; only indispensable lines were left behind. — Minimal references are provided to a new “park construction”. Benches, barriers and the stabilization of the edges of the expanses were made of gabion mesh and filled with crushed concrete taken from the areas in front old the hangars. — No new complexes were planned; everything points to undisturbed and free appropriation by nature and man. — Functions were not planned as it was intended that the extent of diverse functional potentials emerge only from the site. That was risky. — The airport was palpably destroyed and devaluated, the concrete plates were broken up, and the “scraps” were left on site. The sea of debris has been left available for each person to create his own personal impression of the site. — At present the place is used by the most diverse groups in a wide variety of ways. The city authorities do not cultivate the vegetation as they do not want a park to become fabricated as a result of regular maintenance work. — The park is developing in the minds of its users and in the brochures about the “GrünGürtel”. All effort and current financial resources are being put into communication, workshops and “green classrooms”. In doing so we have created security or to be more precise: perceptional certainty without planning anything that could be recognized as being a park at first glance. In our opinion certainty of perception must be a prerequisite if the creative process of appropriateion is to unfold in people’s imaginations. The development of the airport territory is a (success) story that was not written by us. Regeneration of Brückenhof housing estate, Kassel5

The large 1960s Brückenhof housing estate was to have its quality as a neighborhood and its image improved within the context of a district regeneration initiative. It now mainly belongs to a local state bank, which considers itself a resource owner rather than a landowner. This self-conception makes conducting business fundamentally different from a local authority or a housing association: the main focus of a regeneration concept is on increasing the value of the property rather than on maintenance, functionality or social mangement. As a result, the property holder wanted to find new ways to positively influence its image as part of the area’s regeneration programme. A broad examination of potentials and image factors was compiled to become the basis of a re-evaluation of the original building stock. Two landscape architectural fields of action were defined as a result of the knowledge gained in the study: The first was to plan steps to improve the quality of the neighborhood and the second was to look for a contemporary way to interpret the estate as the basis for a change of image. GTL landscape architect’s office and Baufrösche6 (architects and urban planners) were given the brief to examine and improve the development potentials of the district. The aim was to improve the residents’ identification with the area using a gradual concept, thus bringing about a change of image towards the outside. A series of questions remained to be tackled before we could begin our work: what is the “right” image for this place? Who has the right to stage scenes, to capture images and to inter-

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What steps did we take?

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Using a lighting concept GTL landscape architects shifted Brückenhof housing estate “into the right light” without making substantial changes to the existing structures.

What steps did we take? — We

did not touch the structure of the large 1960s housing area. district and objects, which could possibly become part of new narratives, were observed and analysed. — In doing so we gave ourselves the freedom to see what we wanted to see. We observed without intervening. — The buildings and objects in the area were made available for reinterpretation by applying a lighting concept. Only the unchanged circumstances were put on nocturnal display. — We understand the newly emerging “impressions” to be an invitation to people to create their own impressions, to develop their own perceptions of things. — The

This is a new story we invented and published ourselves. Notes 1 Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni: Über die Würde des Menschen. Zürich 1992 2 GTL Gnüchtel Triebswetter Landschaftsarchitekten, Kassel 3 The Maurice Rose Airfield project was nominated for the International Urban Landscape Award (IULA) 2006 and won the 2005 German Landscape Architecture Prize. 4 Wijdeveld, Paul: Ludwig Wittgenstein, Architect. Basel 1994 5 Kassel Brückenhof, Survey report: “Ganzheitliche Erneuerung eines Stadtteils” in the context of the “Soziale Stadt” program, Contracting Body: City of Kassel, Client: GWH, non-profit building association, Hessen, Open space planning: GTL Landscape architects, Architecture and Urban Planning: Baufrösche, architects and urban planners GmbH, planning and initiatives: 2002–2005 6 Baufrösche, architects and urban planners GmbH, Kassel, Berlin 7 Engelmann, Peter (Hg.): Recht auf Einsicht (Right of Inspection) (1985). Vienna 1998; henceforth cited as: Recht auf Einsicht 8 Recht auf Einsicht 9 Plissart, Marie-Françoise: Droit de Regards. Suivi de ”Une lecture“ par Jacques Derrida. Paris 1985

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pret them? Who has the right to access? Who has the “Right of Inspection“7? Is it the owner, the planner, the residents of the estate? Everyone has the right to take photos, does this not then imply that anyone has the right and the ability to create their own impression of a place? Who has command of the developers of the images? Who works with those images? What about the things that have been overlooked, forgotten, unsaid? Who has the right to make conclusions? We were not interested in making a conventional inventory with long lists of stock, data and collections of facts. We felt that that would be an indiscretion towards the lives of people unknown to us. To us discretion means that objects of our interest are not forced to make a statement. We took the freedom to see what we wanted to see. By staging certain situations we took the above-mentioned, “right to inspection” 8 for ourselves, we developed an independent story and published it. The concept that we suggested with which to reinterpret the large housing estate was mainly based on the following hypothesis: if this is a city district or a small town then it needs a center with noble buildings. Rather than building new houses we shifted the existing ones into the right light. Only the unchanged circumstances were illuminated and thus put on nocturnal display. Each night when the colored lights shine, the illumination of the facades and trees seems to me to be the right and invitation to create a personal “impression”: the “right to inspect!”9 This demonstrates one possible alternative to previous perceptions. It is flexible enough to allow other imaginative interpretations to be invented.

Ontwerpen door des schalen heen

Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze, Susanne Zeller Landscape, a product of culture

“Landscape” is one of the few Dutch terms that has made it into other languages.1 Although the term is so typical of the historical interaction of the Dutch with their country, today most people are unaware that the topography of their country is mainly artificial in origin. Many people moving from constructed environments to the countryside believe that they are surrounded by a purely natural landscape. This places nature conservation considerations at the forefront of any debates on the future of the Dutch landscape. These days, in the face of huge ecological problems, people do not trust that it is now also possible to create livable and lovable landscapes although there exists plenty of manmade evidence from the past. H+N+S landscape architects would therefore like to steer away from shaping landscape towards considering landscape a cultural task. They combine the functional with the beautiful in their plans and projects, as they always consider matters such as water management, energy production or modern agriculture to be design tasks. To H+N+S landscape architects the Netherlands is a never-ending work of art that will always require further development. Mode of practice and design philosophy

H+N+S planning practice consciously works “mono-disciplinarily” as it exclusively employs landscape architects. The relatively high concentration of professional experts from one field is strategically motivated to keep a constant level of professional debate going within the practice. All interdisciplinary projects are carried out in cooperation with external experts. This approach has the advantage that the choice of disciplines and personalities called in can be made for each project individually and thus exactly molded to suit the subject of the project in question. Flexibility, communication and willingness to cooperate, as well as external professional exchange are thus cultivated. One specific characteristic of the H+N+S planning office is design in different scales. Its tasks range from research on a regional level to intermediary scale designs to implementation planning. Design in different scales is at the core of its design philosophy and may be categorised into three basic principles: The water system as a basis H+N+S designs are arranged in various task and time layers, the water system always forming the basic level. Improvements and alterations within a water system – particularly on a regional level – are so basic that a long-term time horizon must be reckoned with. Development periods of projects can often stretch to over fifty years. Design in a variety of scales Regional planning can only be effective when adequate principles have been worked out for the practical level of implementation, and concrete thought has been given to design. By the same token, designed objects become strategic instruments when their effect on the whole system can be tested and reasoned from case to case. H+N+S always make connections between different levels of scale.

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Multiscale design

Randstad water system

“Tussenboezem” system For the last ten years H+N+S landscape architects have been working on water problems in the strongly urbanized west Netherlands. One of the main tasks there is to improve the limited capacity of the Boezem system. This central canal system determines whether the whole western part of the country, which lies far below sea level, can continue to be drained reliably despite climatic change. After many years of work on the subject H+N+S have come to the following conclusion: ironically the most effective way to guarantee long-lasting “dry feet” in the Randstad is to increase the whole water surface area in the region. H+N+S call this strategic attempt to find a solution to the water problems, “Tussenboezem,”2 and have since further refined it (s. p. 284, above). The “Tussenboezem” system is a water scheme that allows water levels to fluctuate within certain areas independently of the more or less consistent levels of existing drainage systems and adjoining polders. Larger amounts of water can be absorbed there for the short-term. At the start of the debate, H+N+S developed two different spatial models with which to integrate the “Tussenboezem” system into the existing landscape. A network-like system can be established between the large metropolises or large water areas with containment facilities can be developed in the peripheries of the cities involved (s. p. 284, above ri). After much discussion between professionals and politicians the decision was made to opt for the second version although only half of the originally planned area was provided. (20,000 hectares) (s. p. 284, below). Metropolitaan Park When designing on a regional level three topics are of major importance to H+N+S: a sustainable water system, the trial and testing of new forms of agrarian cultural landscape and improved access to the countryside areas for recreational purposes. The Metropolitaan Park design is one example of how these topics can intertwine and overlap. According to the “Tussenboezem” principle an expansive lake area was developed to provide recreational facilities for the inhabitants of the large metropolises. An ample natural park is also planned to the south of the area. At the moment the landscape is largely characterized by biotopes of consistent water level. In the future new biotopes produced by dynamic water levels will emerge. Deliberate water management by the H+N+S practice will bring about new ecological diversity in the landscape. They will strengthen the existing eco system by artificially intervening in it thus causing new elements to appear in the landscape. Apart from the procedures mentioned above, new management and development strategies for the now largely agricultural Veenweide area will be required to defuse the Rand­stad’s water problems. One part of it is to be developed into near-natural wetlands, another part will be preserved in its present Veenweide area character and a further part will be drained more to accommodate modern agriculture and create new reserve areas in the landscape. Parallel to

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Design with the time factor Landscape architects work with living materials and with long-term development processes. Some designs will first reach full completion in fifty years. Consideration of time horizons is always essential for H+N+S. It must be decided for each project which interventions will be carried out by the planners in the initial phase and which development and growth processes should be left to themselves. No end state is designed, in particular when dealing with nature; instead clear and simple interventions set impulses that serve as the starting points of independent evolution. Both of the following projects will illustrate these design principles:

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Tussenboezem principle: dyked reserve areas along the existing Boezem system. They can improve the limited capacity of the Boezem system (the existing drainage system) by accommodating excess water from time to time.

Design for the “Metropolitaan Park” in West Holland with new water system

Network or surface structure of Tussenboezem

Atmospheric image: new nature preservation area with hover craft

Connecting the “Tussenboezem” system to the existing network of waterways is of particular importance. In order to make the area accessible to boat traffic, special facilities such as watergates must be installed to cope with varying water levels between the existing drainage system and the new basins to be established. H+N+S landscape architects have developed exemplary technological solutions for these which are characterized by their low cost and a specific “charm” and which demonstrate how realistic it would be to implement the idea (s. p. 288). Slochteren Project: The development of nature, a cultural task The design for Slochteren plans a nature development area. It was created in reaction to a plan by ecologists for the area using typical natural forms but without any connection to the shape of the Groninger polder landscape in the surrounding area (s. p. 286, above). H+N+S therefore suggested digging the area up into strips to create a washboard-type structure. This approach would significantly simplify the digging work and less earth would have to be shifted. Another advantage would be that the water would travel over a larger distance and would thus become better purified. The result would be a clear structure which fits well into the formal severity of the surrounding landscape. Natural forces such as wind and water will in time break up the manmade shapes allowing an individual natural structure to develop of its own accord. Rather than depicting a final state, the design drawing shows an open-end point of departure, a starting point or a framework for the further development of the area (s. p. 286, below). The ground that is created will be higher dry parcels of land that would be

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these developments a dense network of hiking and cycle paths will be established. Large new water landscapes will emerge step by step in the Randstad for diverse types of recreation, for nature preservation and apartment building. Atmospheric visualisations will make ideas for the different kinds of landscape and their new functional potentials more concrete. (s. below). H+N+S place great emphasis on vivid illustrations of their visions as they believe that their ideas and the potentials hidden in them must be communicated clearly if they are to succeed.

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Groninger polder landscape

above: Design: Slochteren nature development area right: Ecologists‘ planning proposals

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Estate with landscape-typical parcel structure

Design principle: washboardtype excavation of the ground and landfill to create parcels of forest

HANDBEDIENDE --SLUIS

Manual watergate idea

suitable for forestation. Forests will be planted here in long narrow strips in reference to the farm structures which characterise the landscape. The slender plots of forest will underline the typical character of the polder landscape. Space will be left over at the forests’ edges for new pathways to connect to the existing paths in the new natural park. It would also be possible to build scattered apartment buildings in the patches of forest and thus make a contribution to the financing of the project (s. p. 287). Notes 1 Sijmons, Dirk (Ed.): Landscape. Amsterdam 2002 2 The term “Tussenboezem” (tussen = in-between, boezem = channel) can be ana-

logously translated as “in-between channel” meaning that the “Tussenboezem” system is a multichannel system.

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Dynamic Media

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Water and Vegetation in Process-oriented Design

Urban landscapes are in a constant state of transformation. Their morphological appearance, natural balance, settlement structures and living conditions are all in continual change due to interacting natural and anthropogenic forces. In designing transformable spaces it is imperative that the causes and effects of such processes be known and understood. However, often only the spatial results of developments can be perceived; the marks that they leave behind rather than the processes themselves and their formative power. It is usually difficult for human beings to think in terms of time as we quite simply do not possess a sense that enables us perceive time. This is a skill that must be learned and practiced over the course of a lifetime. Spatial phenomena are also always temporal in nature, being inseparably incorporated into a space-time continuum. Yet inner correlations between space and time usually remain hidden and therefore incomprehensible. It is worth our while to devote attention to time-­ related phenomena and to look specifically at the potential we have to influence how matters unfold. It is not enough to merely “add” the time dimension as a further relevant factor in planning and designing space. On the contrary, it should influence thought and action on all levels of design from the very beginning; it must have a direct impact on the design principles applied. What are the consequences of such for interventions in landscape contexts, both small and large scale? How can the time factor be taken into account in design and concept? What strategies and specific methods could come into question for design with dynamic media? Creating Knowledge considers landscape within a larger context, looking at the intertwining of social and cultural processes with morphological, ecological and economic developments. In the following, I will focus on the use of the dynamic media water and vegetation in design; both are relevant in all scales of landscape planning. The two possess their own powerful momentum, they are omnipresent within our world. Used in various dimensions, water and vegetation are important elements, whether in the design of small garden courtyards, parks, industrial wastelands or wide-ranging landscape elements. The principles of design with dynamic processes and systems exhibit fundamental similarities, thus making them basically transferable independent of scale. They can involve individual plants, forest communities, water runs or flowing waters. I will mainly focus on design using plant development processes. While working on my dissertation and for many years afterwards, I looked intensively at how the momentum inherent in vegetation can be put to use.1 Project studies spanning several years and consultation with experts have led me to knowledge of suitable design strategies and principles, the broad outlines of which I intend to present here. Landscape in motion

As elements of dynamic networks, water and vegetation remain in constant states of exchange with their environments. Planning aimed at influencing such complex systems should really commence at their systematic properties. It must be capable of reacting flexibly to the unexpected, must grasp situations in their entirety, must provide networking and must integrate new experience through feedback loops. 2 These principles are essential to process planning; however, they are seldom used in the context of landscape architectural planning.

Lucia Grosse-Bächle

Lucia Grosse-Bächle

New paths in water resource management

Some Dutch projects, which were already dealing in detail with dynamic water resource management at the beginning of the 1990s, demonstrate the increasing significance of process-oriented planning approaches in landscape and open space planning. The insight that the energy required to statically regulate water levels was too high led to changed perceptions of planning in The Netherlands. New ways of managing water resources were explored to allow the natural dynamics of water to be integrated into planning and to be used more effectively.7 Furthermore, increased collaboration between the landscape planning and ecological disciplines brought the processual aspects of landscape to the forefront. Michiel den Ruijter describes this changed attitude towards nature and landscape as a turn away from nature conservation and towards nature development. Landscapes with “little dynamic basic structure yet highly dynamic activity” 8 were defined by the catchword “Cascolandschap”.This was stimulated by the designation of nature development areas that, instead of moving towards a defined final state, demanded a processual planning approach. Projects such as “Zanderij-Crailo”9 in Hilversum or “Uit de klei getrokken”10 in Haarlemmermeer are examples of process-oriented planning strategies. They take cultural elements into account while at the same time integrating architectural and geometrical structures. The design strategies of these two project areas of very diverse dimension have one major factor in common: they use changing water levels and their influence on the composition of vegetation to produce multifaceted, attractive characteristic landscapes with the help of differentiated maintenance strategies. Such images cannot be fixed and are subjected to continuous transition. The design for Crailo Sand Quarry treats the terrain as a natural exhibition area. Vistas of the different types of landscape, which emerge as a result of differences in ground-water levels and cultivation, can be had from a viewing platform. One desired effect of the concept is that

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Systematic planning is based on the assumption that nature is processual and in no way static. It is unpredictable and is characterized by irregularity and coincidence. Newtonian understanding of nature moves within the realm of unvarying rule and legitimacy, making the future linearly predictable. In contrast, the sciences of complexity strive to describe the evolutionary development of nature in its nonlinear structural dynamics.3 In so doing, they question the predictability of complex processes on the basis of acknowledged laws, making it impossible to foresee the consequences of our actions. If it were possible to translate knowledge of dynamic systems into modified planning behavior, new options for future action would grow out of our understanding of what goes beyond the boundaries of practicability. The creative potential of chaotic or irregular states could then be recognized. The landscape architect and theorist Bernard Lassus used these insights to establish the theory in the late twentieth century that garden design must be an ideal medium with which to lend expression to both time and change, as landscape itself is constantly exposed to movement and transformation.4 Contemporary landscape architecture, as an art of transformation, no longer strives to fix place into specific compositions; it is kept in motion so that new projects can be integrated into landscape development processes and thus provide impulses for future development.5 In the face of new challenges such as flood management or upgrading vegetation on former industrial wasteland, knowledge of reality’s processual character has become more relevant than ever before in urban landscape design.6 Processual thinking is establishing itself very slowly within the spatial planning disciplines. It is being particularly integrated into concept and design strategies involving planning with the transitional media water and vegetation within the landscape architectural context.

Flowing Waters

Examination of the dynamic characteristics of water has become more and more relevant in the last few years. Since October 2000, the EU Water Framework Directive, amended by the EU Flood Directive in 2007, demands stronger consideration of naturally dynamic processes in planning and managing flowing waters and their catchment areas. Interdisciplinary treatment of water-characterized spaces, like river basins, is forming a new facet of planning.

Crailo Sand Quarry in Hilversum, the linearity of the formerly stringent geometrical structures will dissolve as time goes by.

Until recently, professional debate within landscape planning focussed almost entirely on ecological and morphological matters, while construction engineers dealt with aspects of hydraulic engineering technology and economy, such as more intensive use of water courses as trading routes. The many demands on the design and use of such water courses and their banks as public open spaces and residential areas remained unconsidered – an unacceptable constraint on urban spaces. If sustainable watershed management is to be established, all aspects of water conservation must urgently be integrated and coordinated, from flood protection to multifaceted use and spatial design. On the basis of the synergetic examination of watershed management, Antje Stokman11 and Martin Prominski12 of STUDIO URBANE

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visitors can observe how the stringent geometry of the originally machine-produced areas of water gradually dissolve in time due to erosion and plant colonization processes. In Haarlemmermeer Nature Development Area, five cultivation concepts and the dynamic regulation of water levels produce maximum bio-diversity. Linear structures such as water channels, streets and boundary lines are being preserved to form a framework for further developments. Within The Netherlands, ideas and visions based on dynamic development are not limited to landscape planning; they are also increasingly becoming integrated into concepts for urban and open space planning. Large urban development projects such as “Leidsche Rijn” in Utrecht demonstrate that dynamic water management can also become part of planning concepts for densely populated spaces. With 80,000 planned residential units, “Leidsche Rijn” is currently the largest residential construction project being carried out in The Netherlands. It was planned and constructed according to the principles of sustainable development; storm water management and dynamic water management have a significant role to play here.

LANDSCHAFTEN conceived a DFG research project under the title “Process-oriented Design and Urban Watershed Management”. It looks in detail at how interaction between spatial design and the dynamics of water in the catchment areas of flowing water can be directed and presented.

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Process-oriented design strategies are not only essential in water management. They are also of great significance when it comes to designing with plants, which are after all living organisms that unfold according to their own laws and rhythms. Change and time are therefore an inherent part of them. They are both a formable material for the designer to use and an independent counterpart that actively changes space. Their “double nature” awakens ambivalent sentiments, making design with plants difficult to calculate in advance. This can also be perceived as a delightful open-ended adventure. A great deal of playful impartiality is required of those involved in shaping natural processes; interference, direction and manipulation. If dynamic forces are to be worked with rather than against, a dialogic type of design is needed. These unusual “material” characteristics mean that design with vegetation requires an attitude of respect and patience. Sensitivity for and appreciation of the beauty of “self-development” are required, while room must also be left for undisturbed development. Our forefathers may have known that plant activity requires attentive waiting,13 which would be the “overture” of a process involving high levels of attentiveness and care. In today’s “process-deprived” era, in which everyday activities are “artificially” accelerated and instant products boom, human beings find it difficult to find enough patience for gradual development. The Danish landscape architect C. Th. Soerensen mastered the “art of waiting.”14 He did not need to worry about where to find hundreds of strong oak trees to plant in the Arhus University complex in 1931. Rather than planting trees he sowed acorns, three to each plant hollow. He selected the strongest seedling from each for further growth. In the meantime the university campus has been survived by grand oak trees, whose gradual process of maturation can be clearly seen. Such an approach would be impossible these days. Who would take the time to wait until tiny seedlings grow into decent-sized trees? Astonishingly, concepts that consciously use the dynamics of vegetation in design play a secondary role in contemporary landscape architecture despite their significance. Most garden or park complexes are designed around an ideal end state, a definite, unchanging image. Concepts that are consciously based on change and that work with the temporality of nature continue to be met with incomprehension by investors and decision-makers. Open spaces must immediately “look good” and be usable so that they do not fall victim to competing uses of apparently greater added value.15 In our fast-moving society, it seems inappropriate to wait for plants to develop gradually. Since it has become technologically feasible to work independently of day and night rhythms and of the changing seasons, construction times are becoming shorter and shorter. Technological aids such as evaporation protection and sophisticated watering systems make it possible to plant large trees at any time of the year. It certainly makes sense to use finished elements such as containerized plants at larger temporary events. “However, if they become elevated to the status of general principle, the powerful creative and artistic potential that lays in the dynamics of planting from the stages of youth to maturity is relinquished upon.”16

Lucia Grosse-Bächle

Design using the dynamic forces of vegetation

In the 1980s, process-oriented design strategies had reached a status of great respect within landscape planning. At that time Louis Le Roy, Karl Heinrich Hülbusch and many other representatives of the Ecology Movement experimented with the idea of using the dynamic and self-organizing characteristics of plants in their designs. Despite the innovative nature of these approaches, they could not stop the ideologized conceptions of the Ecology and Nature Garden Movement from leading it into a cul-de-sac. Dogmatic perception largely obstructed the further development of an aesthetic language as an expression of a dialogic relationship between man and nature. The backlash was that process-oriented design strategies generally lost popularity in landscape architecture in the 1990s. Now, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, interest in the creative potentials of natural processes is reawakening. A series of landscape architects is now looking for strategies with which to integrate, accompany and manipulate dynamic developments. Rather than aiming to protect nature, their objective is to enrich it on the basis of ecological knowledge. The relationship between man and plants is an interactive process, a dialogue. Specific methods of design and vegetation management can take over the task of directing. They strive towards never-ending series of changing images rather than static images. A necessary prerequisite for working with the dynamic powers of vegetation – apart from an attitude of respect and well-grounded knowledge of plants – is a broad comprehension of design-relevant growth and development processes from phenological annual rhythms to succession as well as basic knowledge of ecology and population biology. In this context, Nick Robinson emphasizes that design with vegetation is always connected to the management of natural processes even if the ultimate aim is to produce aesthetically pleasing results. “The plant world has its own dynamic and developmental order. We can only manage it. We cannot change it.”17 In process-oriented design, methods are often Pflanze - natürlicher Prozess borrowed from the vegetation management repertoire while forest planning methods are also experimented with.18 Maintenance and design are planned together so that maintenance strategies can become part of the deEntwerfer - schöpferischer Prozess sign process from the very beginning. Design strategies in practice

The following example projects demonstrate various ways of highlighting and directing the dynamics of vegetation development. Landscape architects must leave room for undisturbed growth while at the same time clearly defining design frameworks and setting down rules with which to direct and guide processes. How can creative design be carried out using the natural dynamics of vegetation?

Dialog = in Beziehung treten reagierend - agierend Verflechtung von Prozessen Annäherung

etwas NEUES entsteht "gemeinsames Schöpfungsprodukt"

Dialogic design: The relationship between man and plants is perceived to be an interactive process.

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Dialogic understanding of design

The concept for the Südgelände Natur Park in Berlin aims to highlight the qualities of a heavily overgrown railway wasteland using minimal design intervention and cautious direction of “self-developing” elements. The objective is to create an attractive park that combines the interests of nature preservation and function with each other. Visitors to the park are involved in the creation process without consciously being creative. Interferences with the vegetation that emerge as a result of the use of the territory will be grasped as development impulses and allowed to continue in most cases. Observations of the wasteland over many years, suggest that the ongoing succession would soon lead to a complete reforestation of the area. The rich diversity of spatial structure would then have yield to the “monotony” of a dense stand of trees. For this reason Kowarik and Langer, the landscape planners of the park, chose to preserve and differentiate the existing structure. As ambassadors of “urban wilderness” they specifically left some selected areas over to free succession, making their observations of the developments the subject of a research project. In these “ruderal woodlands” dead trees are purposely left in place. Using graduated maintenance interventions such as mowing or removing trees, the planners influenced the development process of the vegetation, allowing the spatial coexist­ence of various types of dynamics.19 — In the area of the grasslands and tall shrubs, regular repetition of maintenance measures preserves certain states of being; time appears to stand still. — In the grove-like stands of trees, succession is directed by temporary maintenance; time is slowed. — wooded areas, the omission of maintenance measures leaves the rate of natural processes undisturbed; time appears to flow in a natural tempo. A path leads visitors through the heterogeneous spaces of the nature park. In this manner one moves one after the other through the mosaic of succession stages that are experienced at different degrees of maturity, and therefore as a time sequence. Elements of the infrastructure such as access, viewing points and rest areas are concentrated along an iron boardwalk, which only comes in contact with the sensitive vegetation in a few spots. By bundling the functions in a single setting, large areas are kept free from intervention and space for undisturbed development of vegetation is created. Oerliker Park: Highlighting transition stages

The central idea for the design of Oerliker Park in Zurich – by the interdisciplinary planning group Zulauf, Seippel, Schweingruber, Hubacher and Haerle – was based on the growth of its trees and the ability of spaces to change. Since the park was originally planned to be completed before the neighboring buildings, the planners formulated it as a volume, as a “green body” that would unfold out of the highly spatial characteristics. Ash saplings were planted in a dense grid interspersed by fields of cherry, sweet gum and paulownia trees. They will gradually grow together to form a bright “hall of trees”. The large number of strong ash trees required – altogether 800 – was not available from conventional tree nurseries. So the planners resorted to three- to four-meter high ash saplings from various nurseries and used their diversity as a design principle. Just as in young woodlands the trees should influence each other to grow higher. The idea was to produce trunks that would remain branchless in the lower area, making maintenance pruning unnecessary. However, it has now emerged that the positioning of the trees is not dense enough for branch clearance. In the first few years the state of the trees will be similar to a nursery; only after a few decades will the mature state of an airy “columned hall” be reached. In order to “bridge” the long period

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Südgelände Natur-Park: Directing succession processes

A path of varying design connects the heterogeneous spaces of the Südgelände Park with each other.

DYNAMIK - MODELL

Strategie für die Steuerung der Vegetationsentwicklung

Trockenrasen Halbtrockenrasen Hochstaudenfluren Pioniervegetation (LSG + NSG)

Hainartige Gehölzbestände (LSG)

Waldbereiche (LSG)

“Ruderale Urwälder” (NSG)

NUTZER beeinflusst Prozess

GESTALTER begleitet Prozess

PROZESS

PROZESS

PROZESS

ZE

SS

Rückkopplung

PR

O

Gestaltender Eingriff

PR O ZE

ZEIT

PR

Rückkopplung

Gestaltender Eingriff

O ZE

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SS

SS ZE

SS

PROZE

O PR

ZESS PRO

UNGESTÖRTER PROZESS

ZESS

PRO

PRO

ZES

S

gelenkte Sukzession direkte Eingriffe (Pflege) ZYKLISCHE DYNAMIK regelmäßige + häufige Eingriffe

zunehmend

GERICHTETE DYNAMIK seltene Eingriffe je nach Bedarf

FREIE SUKZESSION indirekte “Eingriffe”

INTENSITÄT DER EINGRIFFE

Dynamic model: Graduated maintenance interventions create different types of dynamics within neighboring spaces: cyclical dynamics/targeted steering of dynamics/indirect influencing of dynamics through use/ undisturbed development in the “ruderal woodlands.”

FREIE SUKZESSION explizit keine Eingriffe

abnehmend

Lohse-Park: Using dispersion strategies

Design strategies that focus on the dynamics and changes of plants are particularly suited to transforming wasteland into low-maintenance green areas. For their Diplom thesis pro­ject, Elke Kruse and Sophia Carstensen designed a dynamic park for Hamburg’s Hafencity.20 It should be constructed before the surrounding buildings are erected to accompany the development of the new urban area. As an identity-providing space, it will grow continually beginning at a nucleus and gradually being greened within a structural framework. Plant dynamics will be used as a long-term tool in forming Lohse-Park. The concept is based on the dispersal and growth potential of three selected pioneer plants discovered on the wasteland: Betula pendula, Acer platanoides and Robinia pseudoacacia. The park’s development will be accompanied by a maintenance concept. Simple rules will define the types of intervention to be made and will provide the park with a rhythm of its own. The individual sections will change constantly due to differentiated maintenance measures. A dynamic window will be shifted over the park to define a so-called active zone. Interventions will be made in that section over a five-year period so that spontaneous plantings can establish themselves there. People will subsequently intervene through selections in the development, thus using the emerging plantings for the spatial formation of the park. Principles and rules for maintenance interventions will produce various images in the individual sections. Plant dynamics will characterize the whole park. Change as a sign of successful life

These design examples break with conventional ideas of how a “beautiful park” or a “beautiful landscape” should look, and experiment with the aesthetics of usual growth and succession processes. The becoming, emerging and passing, the “unfinished” is honored as an aesthetically relevant form of expression. Indefiniteness is seen as a positive force within all of the approaches to design examined; they work with the dynamic media water and vegetation. Independent of the individual object or the scale in question, it is interpreted as a challenge, as potential and adventure. Change is considered to be enriching rather than problematic and as a sign of successful life. Constructive interaction with the unpredictable is ultimately a question of attitude. This is an essential precondition for planning and designing urban landscapes as it not only involves the characteristics of certain partial aspects, it also embraces a universal principle: urban landscapes are generally unfinished, dynamic and are determined by unforeseeable developments.

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of time between the initial and final states, the development phases should generate their own independent spatial qualities. The growth and transition processes will be guided by maintenance meas­ures, which will also function as design interventions. A detailed development plan lays down the rules. Over the decades, the 4 x 4 meter tree grid will be systematically widened, in some places to 8 x 8 meters. The thinning technique used here is comparable to thinning a forest stand. Apart from the control mechanisms, room is also left for casual developments to take place; trees that die will not be replaced with the effect that the grid will gradually dissolve over the years. The basic idea of the concept could be described as follows: planting trees in an open space at regular intervals is comparable to the initial setup of a game. As in a board game, new constellations emerge in time as a result of planned interventions. The rules of the game are familiar; the final positions only approximately predictable. A differentiated structure of the space, marked by dense and open spaces will develop step by step through the thinning of the homogeneous fields of trees.

Ash saplings are planted in a dense grid in Oerliker Park interspersed by fields of cherry, sweet gum and paulownia trees.

The young saplings have since grown into sizeable trees.

Directing the development process: the situation on the ground is surveyed before maintenance measures are put into practice (feedback).

Targeted maintenance leads the homogeneous fields of trees in Oerliker Park to transform into a heterogeneous spatial structure over the course of time.

Lohse-Park should be constructed before the neighboring buildings are erected as an identityproviding space at the center of the HafenCity. Starting from a “nucleus”, the wasteland will develop step by step into a low-maintenance park.

A cultivation concept accompanies the development of the expanding park. The individual sections will continually change as a result of differentiated interventions. Simple rules will determine the rhythm.

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chung an Beispielen zeitgenössischer Landschaftsarchitektur. Beiträge zur Räumlichen Planung Volume 72, 2nd edition. 2005 (Dissertation supervision: Prof. Dr.-Ing. Hille von Seggern, Second reviewer: Prof. Dr. Volkmar Seyfang) 2 Federal Office for Building and Regional Planning (Ed.)/Seggern, Hille von et al.: Systemische Planung. Materialien zur Raumentwicklung No. 82, 1997, p. 81, in the context of this study Hille von Seggern developed the criteria and principles of systematic planning. 3 Cp. Poser, Hans, in this volume, p. 104 et seq. 4 Lassus, Bernard: “Steinbruchskulptur an der Autobahn”. In: Topos. No. 24/1998, p. 94 5 Jacobs, Peter: The Sensual Landscapes of Bernard Lassus. The Landscape Approach. Pennsylvania 1998, p. 2 6 A good example of this is the research project “Design Strategies for Using Common Local Vegetation to Revaluate Unused Space in Settled Spaces”, that is described in more detail in the article “Design Knowledge” by Martin Prominski in this publication. 7 Cp. the projects by H+N+S planning practice which are described in more detail in this volume. Nieuwenhuijze, Lodewijk van/Zeller, Susanne: “Entwerfen im Wechsel der Maßstäbe – Ontwerpen door des schalen heen”, p. 403 8 Ruijter, Michiel den: “Niederlande: Landschaftsarchitektur – ein Prozess”. In: Topos. No. 27/1999, p.32 9 Planning: VISTA, Amsterdam. 10 Planning: VISTA, Amsterdam 11 Junior professor Antje Stokman has been head of the department “Ecosystem Design and Watershed Management” since 2005 with a focus on “Water and Landscape” at the STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN at Leibniz University Hannover and has written many articles and contributions to books on the subject including Stokman, Antje: “Shifting the urban Landscape Paradigm – the Ecosystem Engineering and Design Approach.” In: Bunce, R.G.H. et al. (Hg.): 25 Years of Landscape Ecology: Scientific Principals in Practice, IALE Publication Series 4. Wageningen, p. 234–235 12 Cp. Vita Martin Prominski in the appendix of this volume 13 Flusser, Vilém: Gesten. Versuch einer Phänomenologie. Frankfurt am Main 1994 14 Grosse-Bächle, Lucia: “Die Kunst des Wartens”, In: Garten + Landschaft. No. 5, 2005, p. 9f. 15 Klingberg, Tina: “Instant-Landschaften”. In: Anthos. No. 2, 2001, p. 14 16 Seyfang, Volkmar: “Pflanzenverwendung in der Krise?” In: Gartenbau Report. No. 7, 2000, p. 12 17 Robinson, Nick: The Planting Design Handbook. Aldershot Hampshire 1992, p.10 18 Cp. Henne, Sigurd: “Mit kultivierter Wildnis Landschaft pflegen.“ In: Garten + Landschaft. No. 5, 2002, p. 11–13, in this article Henne examines vegetation management as a method of landscape architecture. 19 Grosse-Bächle, Lucia: “Tiefgekühlt. Landschaftsarchitektur und der Faktor Zeit.” In: Polis. Zeitschrift für Stadt und Baukultur. No. 2: Zeit, 2004, p. 36 f. 20 Cp. Kruse, Elke/Carstensen Sophia: Hafencity: Lohse-Park, Initiierung und Begleitung einer Parkentwicklung. Unpublished Diploma thesis at the faculty for Architecture and Landscape of Leibniz University Hannover, 2003 und Kruse, Elke/Lentz, Cornelia: “Lust auf das Unbekannte. Dynamische Pflanzenentwicklung als Grundlage von Entwurfskonzepten.” In: Stadt + Grün. No. 7, 2005, p. 11–15

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1 Cp. Grosse-Bächle, Lucia: Eine Pflanze ist kein Stein. Strategien für die Gestaltung mit der Dynamik von Pflanzen. Untersu-

Designing through Experiment

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Design is always experiment; it is never possible to exactly predict the result of a design process at its beginning. What characterizes experiment when taken as a methodological tool and at the same time as the conceptual framework of a project? It moves in an ambivalent field between uncertainty-triggering risk and positive forward-marching, “learning by doing,”1 between knowing and not-knowing, between precision and openness, between usual and unusual, between theory and practice. Experiments have in common that they are in search of something new, whether they be logically structured, goal-oriented, controllable and repeatable scientific tests or – in the sense of experimental art – a one-off instance of playful, undirected and creative trial and error. In the course of this search, existing knowledge and given circumstance are questioned, new knowledge is produced, future options are sought and boundaries are sounded out. Because experiment aims to discover the unexpected, solutions are found that would otherwise never be revealed. To this day “the city of the planned worlds […] mostly rejects the uncontrollable and the open.”2 Conventional planning tries to reduce uncertainty and thus the experimental to intellectual creative processes 3 and the “experimental testing of hardware”4 to a minimum. However, despite computer visualization, it still usually remains difficult to imagine how designs will work in reality without having “tried them out” beforehand. In times of uncertainty and indeterminacy5 this approach to planning proves deficient in the face of open questions and of unpredictable complex developments. It comes up against gray zones for which there are as yet no answers and no “definitions of human design experience.”6 In these uncertain places begins “an endless expanse for the human spirit of adventure,”7 the starting point of experimentation. Open doors and balloons

Planning targeted at specific user groups8 can be defined as exactly this type of gray zone. One of these groups are the young who have constantly changing needs and whose demands on public space are difficult to grasp. In order to find fast answers there must exist a flexible planning instrument with which to carry out reversible experiments at little expense for limited periods of time. Two projects will now be introduced which have delivered concrete practical experience as a result of self-conducted experiments. They were drawn up in summer 2002 within a research project on youth in public space in the city of Hannover, and were carried out in different types of open space as temporary interventions.9 The experiments took place in periods of time that ranged from one day to one week; interventions were made in the socio-spatial context through planning/composition or activities (e.g., street theater). Spatial investigations, observations and interviews were carried out before the experiments began. These revealed that in each of the six areas observed there existed a “lack of appreciation” of the interests of the youth and thus an unused potential. The aim of the interventions was to gather ideas on the design of public space in the interests of young people. This would have been impossible to achieve through mere observation of the current situation. The experiments were test setups that originated in clearly formulated questions on the one hand, but on the other hand – because of the fact that they took place in real situations and explicitly altered their context – left room for openness and surprise (situational). The group of researchers was especially concerned to arrange settings that would express their interest in the needs of the youth in order to gain new insights rather than – as could also have been an option – provoking conflict. The experiments were rela-

Daniela Karow-Kluge

Daniela Karow-Kluge

Raschplatz experiment

Drafting without design – feasibility study

The above examples are only two possible experiments in space. Nevertheless, they reveal properties that characterize design through experiment. To experience something (new) requires openness in the interrogation and interrogator. It demands a different approach to “conventional” design processes. A designer usually gathers information with which he uses different design variations in a creative-intuitive process to simulate possible future realities. In contraposition to Musil’s “sense of possibility”11 Eisinger calls these figurative visions of the future “ranges of reality.”12 Using plans and drawings “a future reality” emerges.13 However it remains to be seen in real space, in the midst of society, whether these visions of the future will really spring to life. Prinz-Albrecht-Ring experiment

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tively low-cost, small, yet targeted interventions. Proposals were made with the intention that the young people take them up and develop them according to their own ideas, thus participating in the configuration public space. The experimental phase was observed, documented in a report-style log and ultimately evaluated. Scenarios were developed for each of the spaces based on the results and experiences of the experiments. These describe possible future spatial developments in which, apart from temporary spatial changes, activities, programs of action and economic considerations have been included. One of the experiments was a one-day intervention on Raschplatz at the center of Hannover. The youth are welcome consumers there, however, the square offers them no enticement whatsoever to spend longer periods of time. The aim of the experiment was to install something playful and aesthetically inspiring on the square and to give the young people the opportunity to creatively form their own space. In order to make the focal point of the square user-friendlier, 2,800 blue, white and orange balloons were arranged in a field at its center (s. p. 303). A four-by-six meter platform covered in blue artificial carpeting was placed at the center of the balloon field. There was stage in the middle of the square with a protected area for more privacy and the facilities to observe goings-on from a hidden spot. This gave the youth a (communication) platform free of charge. They were given the opportunity to creatively reshape the space using an object familiar to them (s. p. 303, below). In another experiment in the Prinz Albrecht Ring housing area, a large vacant tank hall at the centre of the district was made accessible to young people for a week as a type of “open space event.”10 The idea was to see if and how the youth would make the place their own and use it, although no function was pre-determined by design or content. The hall and its surroundings were tidied up beforehand. Tables and chairs were provided as were drinks and painting tools. Apart from that, the hall remained empty as an invitation to the young people to install their own space or niche there (s. below). During the experiment, the hall and its surroundings including the row of shops opposite developed into points of attraction in the area. Due to their positions as intersection points of various paths, the outside space around the hall and its entrance area became more significant within the housing area. However, the week also showed that the youths found it difficult to set up a space for themselves for such a short period of time and to fully make the best use of its potentials.

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In contrast, the special thing about designing through experiment is that it survives without arriving at a concrete design as the end solution. This must be a condition, since only through openness does space remain for unpredictable discoveries. However, design is still carried out in this process: sketches and simple models accompany it; it largely consists of the “design” of a spatial question; it is a visualized question. The sketches, open questions and directive hypotheses formulate a rough framework and stage directions with which the experiment can be carried out. If at all, only the location of the experimental intervention, its dimensions and main elements are described (s. below). Yet the composition is not determined by arbitrariness and accident; it is based on a spatial question, which is carefully designed for that place.

left: Raschplatz experiment, right: Prinz-Albrecht-Ring experiment

Asking questions becomes particularly important in design through experiment. If the “potentials inherent in a design” are put on a par with the scientist’s14 “theoretical realm of hypothesis” then the process of posing questions and creating hypotheses becomes part of the design process; it is verbalized design or “narration though experiment.”15 Experimental intervention in real space then constitutes a visualized question; intellectual experiment takes place beforehand in the shape of questions, hypotheses and sketches. Experiments are “ranges of possibilities”. They try out options for the future in the present and thus have a direct, live relationship to reality in contrast to conventional planning methods. Experiments in space take the “future possible”16 into the present reality. In design through experiment the “doing” does not only consist of a graphic expression of ideas. The design process is carried further into reality though practical action and the influence of the users of a space. They and the designers as low-key directors and “enablers”17 fill out the

experimental “questionary framework”; learning takes place in and from real space. Practical knowledge is created by this practical, situational action18 It is not design planned and cut off from practical implementation as in the case of composition. On the contrary, von Seggern calls this situational design.19 Apart from the characteristics normally attributed to design such as intuition, sense of flair and subjective-creative action, design through experiment also requires improvisational skill and curiosity. Fritz Böhle calls this “subjectifying action”20 in which planning and implementation are intertwined. It is an approach that may be described as “dialogically-interactive as well as explorative and tentative.”21 Experimental design mainly takes place directly on location; it combines sketching, planning, building and research 22 and therefore science, society and art. Experiments in space thus extend the “intellectual and at the same time the graphic exploration of new worlds”23 Just as in experimental tradecraft activities of former centuries in which conception and production were closely connected to each other, new territory is being explored through trial and error and “recursive learning processes.”24 In this sense the architect and planner of experiments is taking on a new role. He is researcher, practitioner and designer in one. He gives impulses, holds an overview, establishes contacts; as an experimenter he is part of the experiment. In doing so he delves into real life and gets his “hands dirty” there.

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The “conventional” designer may dismiss the two examples described as not being “proper” design; they are not representative enough, too imperfect, they do not provide enough “hard facts” and they are probably even too sociological, although experiments are not unplanned trial and error. Nor do they only find what has been looked for or confirm or refute a previously created hypothesis. Precision and openness for the unexpected are equally and concurrently present. There is a need for exactness in the question posed and in the compositional positioning of the experiment in space. At the same time the experiment must be open to any type of results, must work with the conditions on location and must leave room for errors to occur. Openness also means that there is no expectation of producing a completed work. Failure is allowed, even desired to occur within this “open work.”25 It speeds up the knowledge process and the search for new ideas. In its dichotomy experimentation in space requires scientific stringency on the one hand and creativity, improvisational skills, imagination and inspiration on the other. It is essential to be accurate in the observation and research of space and in the collection of the diverse information needed to be able to formulate a spatial question and to discover what should be changed temporarily on its basis. This collection of material is not limited to scientifically correct analyses and data. Using methods that intentionally include personal experience and coincidence – as in “bricolage,”26 the research methods of a reporter27 or “experimental urban walks” in the shape of “systematic and unsystematic investigations of place”28 – a complex picture can emerge on the basis of different levels of perception. At the same the familiar, the already existing should be observed as if looking at it for the first time ever. The method depends on “forgetting, an exclusion of familiarity with the observed object and of all experience and knowledge of it.”29 This “coasting” opens up new perceptions. Surprises emerge from the unprejudiced gaze in which “the unexpected” is discovered “in the ordinary and familiar”.30

Daniela Karow-Kluge

The open, imperfect work

This very shortened presentation of experiments in space and the reflections of their potential has revealed the following31: They possess characteristics that are borrowed from the methods and strategies used in science and art. At the same time they are located in real space and therefore in direct contact with the people for whom they wish to develop new ideas and solutions. The complexity of real space demands special skills for design through experiment. The experimental designer must be able to improvise, must possess curiosity and willingness to learn but must also be capable of being skeptical and be courageous enough to think the unusual.32 This requires an experimental attitude and the basic willingness to open oneself up to new situations. The examples indicate how experiments can be incorporated into practical planning activities as part of a design process and what positive changes in spatial-use situations can be achieved with relatively simple means. Experiments can operate as “pilot boats”. They are the “advance guard” and they explore unsafe territory. They examine gray areas in which methods of conventional planning do not work and they try to find answers to open questions. In experimental work, the application of tried and tested knowledge goes hand in hand with the search for new knowledge. Experiments recognize space as a source of the new. Thus an exchange of experience in two directions comes into being: through experiments the knowledge, experience and ideas of the designer are carried into space; at the same time new knowledge can be drawn from him. Experiments have the ability to deal with uncontrollability, uncertainty and openness and thus constitute the ideal addition to common instruments of planning. Planning experiments, therefore, build a bridge between theoretical and compositional speculation and the irrevocability of a real implemented, permanent and irreversible project. They create a connection between theory and practice. Notes 1 Sheldrake, Rupert: Sieben Experimente, die die Welt verändern könnten. Frankfurt/Main 2006, p.14 2 Eisinger, Angelus: Die Stadt

der Architekten. Anatomie einer Selbstdemontage. Basel[amongst others] 2006, p. 161–162 3 Cp. amongst others Conzett, Jürg: “ordnung und experiment im ingenieurbau.” In: Fakultät für Architektur und Landschaft, Leibniz Universität Hannover (Hg.): hoch6: experiment und ordnung. Hannover 2006, p. 26–29 4 Brands, Bart/Loeff, Karel: “Holland: Hardware versus Software”. In: Topos. No. 32, 2000, p. 87 5 “Since new knowledge also opens up the potential to recognize new lack of knowledge and to better define it incertitude will become one of the key features of the knowledge society. Experimenting under uncertain conditions will probably become one of the defining characteristics of decision-making in societies of the future.” In: Groß, Matthias/Hoffmann-Riem, Holger/Krohn, Wolfgang: Realexperimente. Ökologische Gestaltungsprozesse in der Wissensgesellschaft. Bielefeld 2005, p. 74; henceforth cited as Realexperimente. Ökologische Gestaltungsprozesse in der Wissensgesellschaft 6 Bollnow, Otto Friedrich: Mensch und Raum. Stuttgart [amongst others] 1971, p. 213; henceforth cited as: Mensch und Raum 7 Mensch und Raum, p. 213 8 Other borderline areas are for example new development processes in our society such as shrinkage or changing structures in city and countryside. There is often too little knowledge about public space in itself and about specific spaces and their potentials for use. The problems of current natural phenomena such as flooding are also emerging parallel to these which call for their own spatial solutions. 9 Cp. Herlyn, Ulfert/ von Seggern, Hille /Heinzelmann, Claudia/Karow, Daniela: Jugendliche in öffentlichen Räumen der Stadt. Chancen und Restriktionen der Raumaneignung. Wüstenrot Stiftung (Ed.). Opladen 2003 10 The „Open Space Technik“ (OST) is intended to mobilize knowl­edge and creativity for new approaches to thinking. Only a simple framework or frame of thought is defined and the participants are left to create their own topics in a self-organized manner. They develop their own agenda, divide up into groups of specific interest and plan things together. 11 Musil, Robert: Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (1987). Hamburg 2006 12 Eisinger, Angelus: Die Stadt der Architekten. Anatomie einer Selbstdemontage. Basel [amongst others.] 2006, p. 15 13 Deleuze, Gilles/Guattari, Félix: Tausend Plateaus. Kapitalismus und Schizophrenie. Berlin 1992, p. 196 14 Realexperimente. Ökologische Gestaltungsprozesse in der Wissensgesellschaft, p. 32 15 Schöne, Albrecht: Aufklärung aus dem Geist der Experimentalphysik. Lichtenbergsche Konjunktive. Munich 1982, p. 112; henceforth cited as: Aufklärung aus dem Geist der Experimentalphysik. Lichtenbergsche Konjunktive Friedrich von Hardenberg formulated an accolade to visual and narrative verbal experiment at the end of the eighteenth century: “Experimentiren mit Bildern und Begriffen im Vorstell[ungs] V[ermögen] ganz auf eine dem phys[ikalischen] Experim[entiren] analoge Weise”, in: Aufklärung aus dem Geist der Experimentalphysik. Lichtenbergsche Konjunktive, p. 136 16 Aufklärung aus dem Geist der Experimentalphysik. Lichtenbergsche

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Konjunktive, p. 132 17 Oswalt, Philipp/Overmeyer, Klaus/Prigge, Walter (2001): Experiment und Utopie im Stadtumbau Ostdeutschlands. http://www.oswalt.de/de/index.html, 23.06.05 18 Cp. Böschen, Stefan/Schulz-Schäffer, Ingo (Ed.): Wissenschaft in der Wissensgesellschaft. Wiesbaden 2003; Böhle, Fritz: “Wissenschaft und Erfahrungswissen – Erscheinungsformen, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer Pluralisierung des Wissens”. In: Böschen, Stefan/Schulz-Schäffer, Ingo (Ed.): Wissenschaft in der Wissensgesellschaft. Wiesbaden 2003 19 von Seggern, Hille: “Experiment. Aneignung. Jugendliche. Öffentlicher Raum. Räumliche Planung – Eine Skizze zur experimentellen Aneignung von öffentlichem Raum”. In: Deinet, Ulrich/Reutlinger, Christian (Ed.): “Aneignung” als Bildungskonzept der Sozialpädagogik. Beiträge zur Pädagogik des Kindes- und Jugendalters in Zeiten entgrenzter Lernorte. Wiesbaden 2004, p. 249–255; von Seggern, Hille : “’Alles Kunst’ – Soziale Differenzierung, Polarisierung und öffentlicher Raum – ein Plädoyer für komplexe Experimente”. In: Harth, Annette/Scheller, Gitta/Tessin, Wulf (Ed.): Stadt und soziale Ungleichheit. Opladen 2000, p. 310–321; von Seggern, Hille: “Stadt, Land, Fluss – Let’s call it Landschaft. Chancen der Landschaftsarchitektur”. In: Deutsche Akademie für Städtebau und Landesplanung (Ed.): Neue Landschaften – zum zukünftigen Umgang mit Freiraum. Preliminary contributions to the annual conference 2004 in Munster 20 Böhle, Fritz: “Wissenschaft und Erfahrungswissen – Erscheinungsformen, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer Pluralisierung des Wissens”. In: Böschen, Stefan/Schulz-Schäffer, Ingo (Ed.): Wissenschaft in der Wissensgesellschaft. Wiesbaden 2003, p. 167; henceforth cited as: “Wissenschaft und Erfahrungswissen – Erscheinungsformen, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer Pluralisierung des Wissens” 21 “Wissenschaft und Erfahrungswissen – Erscheinungsformen, Voraussetzungen und Folgen einer Pluralisierung des Wissens”, p. 168 22 That does not mean that as in the case of the examples described experiments must be carried out within a research project in order to be classed as experiments and in order to be able to design through experiment. 23 Sieverts, Thomas: Zwischenstadt – zwischen Ort und Welt, Raum und Zeit, Stadt und Land (1997). Brunswick[amongst others], p. 183 24 Realexperimente. Ökologische Gestaltungsprozesse in der Wissensgesellschaft, p. 15 25 Cp. Eco, Umberto: Das offene Kunstwerk. Frankfurt/Main 1977 26 Lévi-Strauss, Claude: The Savage Mind. Chicago 1966 27 Cp. Lindner, Rolf: Walks on the Wild Side. Eine Geschichte der Stadtforschung. Frankfurt/Main [amongst others] 2004, p. 139 et seq. 28 Bader, Markus: “Stimmen aus dem Off. Ein Email-Gespräch zwischen Arch+ und raumlabor_berlin”. In: Arch+. Nr. 167, 2003, p. 19; Raumlabor_Berlin (2003): Projekt Kolorado – Perspektiven für Halle Neustadt. http://raumlabor.net/, 17.08.2005 29 Flusser, Vilém: Dinge und Undinge. Phänomenologische Skizzen. Munich 1993, p. 53; henceforth cited as: Dinge und Undinge. Phänomenologische Skizzen 30 Dinge und Undinge. Phänomenologische Skizzen, p. 11 31 I will discuss this subject in more detail in my doctoral thesis. It will be published under the title Gewagte Räume. Experimente als Teil von Planung zwischen Wissenschaft, Gesellschaft und Kunst online in the summer of 2008 under http://www.tib.uni-hannover.de/spezialsammlungen/dissertationen/elektronisch/ 32 Cp. Lichtenberg, Georg Christoph: “Schriften und Briefe”. In: von Mauthner, Franz H. (Ed.): Sudelbücher, Fragmente, Fabeln, Verse. Band 1. Frankfurt/Main 1983; Schöne, Albrecht: Aufklärung aus dem Geist der Experimentalphysik: Lichtenbergsche Konjunktive. Munich 1982

The “Park of Least Resistance”

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An Inventory

Boris Sieverts Journey into unknown territories1

Boris Sieverts guides tours through unknown territories in conjunction with his “Büro für Städtereisen”; under motorways and beyond to gravel pits, DIY store car parks and modern residential areas. Territorial continuity is provided by the sophisticated spatial sequences that he puts together in areas otherwise considered extremely disparate. He creates visions and far-reaching interpretations of the landscape and settlement structures he explores. Just a few kilometers before the city of Bergisch Gladbach begins is the location of the pro­ject shown here, which he calls “Park of Least Resistance”, in his own neighborhood on the right banks of the River Rhine in Cologne. The area encompasses one of Cologne’s oldest man-made landscapes, bordering on two motorway junctions and is crossed by a whole batch of imaginary planning areas and transport arteries. A superimposition of old and new, built and unbuilt structures created the strange geometry that characterizes it. The sophistication of Boris Sieverts’ chosen routes consolidates the aura of this landscape. He used Google Earth to glance over the areas for Creating Knowledge in order to demonstrate the fascination of these traces (s. p. 311/312, 315/316).

In the east of Cologne a trapeze-shaped area extends north of Merheim Cross between the A4 motorway to the south and Strunderbach to the north, the Mauspfad to the east and the A3 to the west. It has long been considered a source of potential space for future urban development, although the middle-class residents of the neighboring area have always managed to sporadically engage in enough lobbying to block any plans for urban and infrastructural expansion there. These conflicting conditions have created a random distribution and configuration of office buildings, strangely shaped fields, settlements from various eras, infrastructural facilities, manor house estates, meadows, and enigmatic, rabbit-inhabited, grassy, mossy moorlands within the expanse of these fields and former bog landscape. Coincidentally the location of these elements has come to resemble the distribution and configuration of buildings and plants in a romantic landscape park. A new object comes into view now and then only to reemerge from different perspectives throughout the rest of the tour, sometimes as a surprisingly strong gesture, until it becomes an indispensable feature of the whole ensemble. Notes 1 Boris Sieverts on Boris Sieverts 2 from the invitation for the travel through the “Park of Least Resistance” on 3.20.2005

Boris Sieverts

The “Park of Least Resistance” – an inventory2

The space-forming elements of the Park of Least Resistance: residential area – forest– special elements (headquarters of AXA-Germany, Holweide comprehensive school, Holweide hospital, GEW power station, KVB (Cologne’s public transport company) depot, cotton bleachery, Madaus administration, Mielenforst manor, Iddelsfeld manor, Isenburg, Iddelsfeld mill, Wichheimmill, GEW transformer station, Holweide SC clubhouse)

Synopsis of space-forming elements (light green: grazing pastures, fields, sports pitches, streets etc.)

39-stop/ walking tour Map with 39 stops, landmarks (A-H) and paths

Pictures of park from Google Earth. They show self-similar structures.

39-Stop Walking Tour

1 Underpass of the A4 motorway Cologne-Olpe: south gate to the “Park of Least Resistance” 2 Merheim Fields: large fields. View of the “Im langen Bruch” housing estate, forest edges, Mielenforst manor, office buildings to the west, the Colonia (now Axa) headquarter on the horizon. Neubrück high-rises to the south, ascending above the forest fringe along the motorway. 3 “Entrance” forest path with hunters’ lookout tower. 4 Forest path 5 View between two areas of forest to vast grazing pastures. Reminiscent of English landscape parks. 6 Horse paddocks. Pine forest in the background and a “St. Nikolas house” 7 Triangular meadow with playground equipment 8 Oberiddelsfeld housing area with bench beside a garage. Former Northrhine-Westphalia Prime Minister Heinz Kühn lived here. He allegedly made sure that the motorway feeder road to Bergisch Gladbach (see 9 and C) would not pass by his door. In the end the feeder road was never built. 9 Grubo housing estate on Heinz Kühn Strasse. One of Cologne’s largest residential building projects from the 1990s. The housing development is located exactly on the route of the planned motorway, which had been irrevocably scrapped by politicians shortly before. It was allegedly built to provide concrete facts in the battle over the roadway, which had been going on for years. The new street constructed to it was named after Heinz Kühn (s. 8). 10 Grazing pasture in front of old mill. A street connecting the ring road on the right banks of the Rhine to the Bergisch Gladbach motorway feeder road would have run through here. The ring road was never built either. It was planned that tunnels be built for the street due to a railway line that would have crossed it. 11 Herrenstrunder Strasse cul de sac. Grazing pasture. In the background the mill, a converted Franconian manor estate and a city hospital. In the foreground the cul-de-sac, barrier fencing, a pine tree, a garage entrance way, a private house 12 Herrenstrunder Strasse 3–5: politically correct transformer station built in the style of a detached single-family house 13 Dellbruck Heath: typical grassy area grazed by rabbits with steep slope to central terrace. Until recently it was an impressive little fragment of land, half of which has now become a building site. This area also only still exists because a connection to the motorway feeder road to Bergisch Gladbach (at Dellbruck Mauspfad) was planned here. 14 Neufelder Strasse Crescent (Crescent 1): The crescent forms the western end of a new residential development along Neufelder Strasse. The light-colored row houses with extremely high stepped gables attract attention from afar, particularly from the west. For a long time there was only a lone row house standing here like a leftover “piece of cake”. It has now become much more boring. 15 Green corridor Grubo settlement. The long, slightly curving lawn area interrupted by only a few other elements, seems like a gentle homage to the unbuilt motorway. 16 Crash barrier-blocks off country lane 17 Oberiddelsfeld Crescent (Crescent 2): This is where the Rundlingsbote (Crescent Messenger) is published once a month. From the west Oberiddelsfeld Crescent marks the clearly visible edge of the new district. 18 In den Bruchwiesen: Leftovers of former moorlands on the banks of the Faul and Fleh streams. The large, semicircular bushes distributed around this meadow are known as “shrubbery islands.” 19 Tree house in Bruchwald Broichwiese: Probably the most professional improvised tree house in town. It remains a mystery as to who built it, alters it now and then, and drinks vodka cocktails here. Perhaps it was builders from the large nearby Axa-extension building site? 20 Sudden end to the motorway. See C: Merheim Cross 21 Bruchbachaue nature protection area: The access street to Cologne’s public transport company’s depot runs right through this piece of marshland. It was realized despite huge protest by local environmentalists. The roadway runs through a waterproof trough over which the marshes were preserved at great cost. 22 Willi Zon’s model railway. The large-scale weatherproof model railway was erected in 1973 by Willi Zons in his garden. It offers a panorama of its own with the power station and the entrance to the KVB depot in the back-

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ground. Unfortunately, some of its highlights have fallen victim to generational changes such as a brewery and its tanks in the shape of “Becks” cans and a rundown building made of styropor packaging which had gathered moss over the years. Wichheimer Kirchweg cul-de-sac. Wichheimer Kirchweg is one of the many “Kirchweg”s that lead to St. Gereon in Merheim. Since most of these do not fit into to modern street networks they have often simply been “clipped.” The children from the neighboring houses play ice hockey in the dead end of the Wichheimer Kirchweg. “China”. For a long time the collection of houses in Wichheim Kirchweg formed the most northerly point of the Merheim community and was also the residential area furthest from the village square. Such places are otherwise labelled “America”. Former Siemens-Nixdorf-office building (Robert Smithson´s crystal): The building has been vacant for the last ten years. A caretaker visits it regularly. Having penetrated the surrounding evergreen forest and overcome the light shaft to the basement floor, one can peer into halls that stretch uninterrupted over whole stories, into which light falls through bronzed glass onto a green carpet. It is perhaps the most surreal place in the whole park. Robert Smithson would have loved it. Adventure playground in building gap. All new developments should produce seven percent of gaps between buildings. Not only because they make such great playgrounds but because when building has been completed they make tangible such things as a “new settlement”, an ”allottment“, a “development” and a” neighbor”. Turkish gardens and little forest: This piece of Ruhr area in middle-class Holweide emerged in the hide of a dense forest. It developed after the former allotment gardens here were bought by the city of Cologne for a school that was then never built. It was only through the children who play in this little piece of forest that the residents of the surrounding apartment blocks found out about the Turkish gardeners who had established themselves right in their midst. Only a small part of this forest has remained. A kindergarten is to be built here soon. Crossroads with diagonal barrier. After the Turkish gardens this is the second stop on the tour which doesn’t actually belong to the “Park of Least Resistance.” However, this crossroads, and incidentally the whole of Schweinheimer Strasse, is such a highlight as far as “charming architectural chaos” is concerned that it should not be left out when one is so close to it anyway. Schweinheimer Strasse used to be a popular secret route with which to avoid the constantly over-crowded Bergisch-Gladbach Strasse. The highly controversial diagonal barrier has put a stop to that over the last 15 years. See also www.diagonalsperre.de Cologne Holweide city hospital and clinic café. Until the 1970s Neu-Iddelsfeld manor house occupied this spot. By carrying out a site swap with Iddelsfeld Mill opposite it, the city managed to secure the site. A conference room, church and café are housed in the pavilion building which is connected via a glass bridge. The church and café are particularly popular among residents from the neighboring area. Locally celebrated artists regularly perform in the conference room. Hospital park. Large, always-deserted semi-circular lawn. Newly added: Children and youth psychiatric clinic buildings in parts of the park. Crossroads of Schlagbaumsweg/Ostmerheimer Strasse. Crossing point of one of the most important north-south and east-west connections in the “Park of Least Resistance.” In this section Schlagbaumsweg can only be traversed on foot or by bike and Ostmerheimer Strasse has simply been cut through by the AXA buildings (then Colonia). Beautiful empty views to the south, east and west. Small forest with cross-bike terrain. Leftover grassy patch with football area. The development of the Schlagbaumsweg settlement came to a halt here, creating this wonderfully shaped patch of wasteland. Residents have created a football area in the meantime. In the early evening hours the calls of mothers and fathers for their children echo from the surrounding buildings. Schlagbaumsweg housing area. “Suburban development” of the first post-war years. Its is built on the grounds of a former brickworks. The oldest barrack-like buildings provided accommodation and offices to brickworks employees. Schlagbaumsweg housing area is a further settlement enclave in this landscape (see “China”). There is a strong solidarity of interests here resulting from the campaign against the motorway extension and a motocross course on the neighboring terrain of a former gravel pit.

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35 Holweide SC clubhouse. One of the few eateries between the railway lines to the north and Merheim to the south. 36 Urban dirt track through corn fields. This dirt track along the border between two fields is taken by school children from Schlagbaumsweg to Holweide comprehensive school. When residents asked the city of Cologne to install pedestrian lights at the crossing of the dirt track and Schlagbaumsweg or to at least seal the path with a water-bound surface, the city authorities merely removed the pedestrian way sign whose pole still sticks out of the mud. 37 Holweide comprehensive school with outdoor facilities. One can enter the huge lawn areas from all sides, the asphalted yards and the beach sport area on the school premises through small holes in the wire-mesh fence. 38 Wichheimer Strasse, Strunderbach, Crash barrier motif. Actually belongs to “Band of Sentimental Urbanisation” (see diagonal barrier) 39 Wichheimer Strasse tram stop Landmarks along the route: A Headquarters of AXA Germany (formerly seat of Colonia) B RWE power station C Merheim Cross. Motorway crossing with two missing connections. Originally with overfly forking off. Now “reinstated” as a normal motorway exit. D Mielenforst Manor. Former manor, then country residence of an industrialist from Mülheim. Now exclusive residence. E Service building of the old gas meter F Isenburg House. Also old manor house. Now exclusive residence. G Im Langen Bruch housing area. At the edge of the fields, the silhouette of the St. Nikolas House greets this interwar housing area. H Chimney of cotton bleachery. One of the few industrial companies within the territory of former Merheim town hall.

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The authors Beatrice von Bismarck studied art history in Freiburg, Munich, London and Berlin. She is professor for art history and visual studies since 2000 at the Academy of Visual Arts Leipzig and programme director of the gallery there. She worked a. o. at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, at the Städel Institute for Art, Frankfurt am Main and is the co-founder of the „Kunstraum der Universität Lüneburg“ and the /D/O/C/K-Project Space of the Leipzig academy. In the publication Beyond Education. Kunst, Ausbildung, Arbeit and Ökonomie (2005), which she co-edited, she analyses the relation of art, economy and creativity. Henri Bava studied botany and scenography in Paris. He finished his studies in landscape architecture at the Ecole Nationale Supérieur du Paysage in Versailles. He is professor for landscape architecture and design at the University of Karlsruhe and the owner of the Agence Ter planning office in Paris and Karlsruhe. One focus of his work is the design of large-scale projects and parks. Agence Ter received many prizes and recognitions, for among others the European pioneer project Grünmetropole, which was awarded the special prize for urban design in 2006. Hinderk M. Emrich studied medicine and philosophy and did his PHD in both disciplines. He works as a neurologist and psychoanalyst, has directed the division for clinical psychiatry and psychotherapy of the Medical College in Hanover (MHH) since 1992 and is chair holder for psychiatry. In addition he regularly lectures at the philosophical faculty at the Leibniz University in Hanover and at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (HfG) in Karlsruhe. In publications like Scham und Berührung im Film (2008) he addresses neurobiological problems together with philosophical and artistic considerations. Undine Giseke studied German studies, sociology and landscape planning at the Technical University (TU) Berlin. She is professor for landscape architecture and open space planning at the Technical University (TU) Berlin and owner of the bgmr Becker Giseke Mohren Richard planning office in Berlin and Leipzig. She focuses in her work on the investigation of open spaces in mega-cities, the development of new types of open spaces and trusteeship in the framework of a process of transformation in East German cities and the development of post-industrial mining landscapes. The firm has received many awards and recognitions, among others for the Leipzig Olympic Village 2010 project. Markus Gnüchtel studied landscape architecture at the University of Kassel under Professor Lucius Burkhardt. He is the owner of the GTL Gnüchtel Triebswetter Landschaftsarchitekten planning office with offices in Kassel, Düsseldorf and Beijing. In 2005 the Maurice Rose Airfield project in Frankfurt am Main received the German Landscape Architecture Prize of the Association of German Landscape Architects (BDLA) and was nominated for the International Urban Landscape Award in 2006. Jean Grondin (D.Phé Tübingen) studied philosophy, classical philology and theology at the Universities of Montreal, Heidelberg and Tübingen. He is professor for philosophy at the Université de Montréal since 1991 and is considered one of the world experts on Gadamer, whose work he has treated in many publications. His Von Heidegger zu Gadamer. Unterwegs zur Hermeneutik (2001) is a basic treatment of the development of philosophical hermeneutics as espoused by its main representatives, Heidegger and Gadamer. The main focus of his work is on German philosophy, hermeneutics and metaphysics, on which he published numerous books, the last one being Vom Sinn des Lebens (2006). Gerald Hüther studied biology in Leipzig and worked as professor for neurobiology at the MaxPlanck Institute for Experimental Medicine. He set up the division for neurobiological basic research at the psychiatric clinic in the University of Göttingen, which he has directed since 1994. He is the co-founder of the “Forum Humanum” and the educational network “Win-Future”. He has published many scientific and popular science articles on the effects of stress and fear on the brain and behaviour as well as the suggestibility of brain development to psychosocial factors and the evolution of consciousness. In 2008 he published Die Macht der inneren Bilder. Wie Visionen das Gehirn, den Menschen and die Welt verändern. Daniela Karow-Kluge studied landscape architecture and open space planning at Leibniz University in Hanover and in Wageningen Agricultural University, The Netherlands. She worked in landscape architecture offices and was a member of the scientific staff for research and instruction at the Institute for Development of Open Space in Hanover. She did her PhD in 2008 with the subject “Bold Spaces. Experiments as Part of the Planning Between Science, Society and Art” and is working in the scientific staff at the Faculty of Architecture at the RWTH Aachen University since 2007. Wilhelm Krull studied German studies, philosophy, pedagogy and political science in Marburg. In 1996, after assignments as DAAD lecturer at Oxford University and in leading positions in the Science Council and at the headquarters of the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, he became the Secretary General of the Volkswagen Foundation. In addition to his professional activities in science policy and re-

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search funding, he occupies many positions in national and international committees. For instance, from 2003 to 2005 he was chairman of the Hague Club, comprised of the chief executives of Europe‘s largest foundations. As a member of the advisory board of the Federal Association of German foundations and chairman of the European Foundation Centre he has been nationally and internationally active in fostering the role of foundations. Peter Latz studied landscape architecture and town planning at the Technical University (TU) Munich and the RWTH Aachen University. Together with Anneliese Latz he founded his office in Aachen (since 1988 Latz+Partner landscape architects and planners in Kranzberg near Munich). From 1973–1983 he was professor at the University of Kassel, from 1983–2008 professor for landscape architecture and planning at the Technical University (TU) Munich. For the trailblazing design of the Duisburg-Nord Landscape Park, he received the first European Prize for Landscape Architecture Rosa Barba 2000, the Grande Médaille d’Ùrbanisme de l’ Académie d’Architecture Paris 2001 and the EDRA Place Planning Award 2005. The project was presented to an international public in “Groundswell – Constructing the Contemporary Landscape”, MOMA New York 2006. Gustl Marlock is a certified pedagogue, certified psychotherapist and child psychotherapist; lecturer, training therapist and supervisor for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and for Bodypsychotherapy. He directs the Training in Unitive-Body-psychotherapy At the Centre for Integrative Body Therapy in Frankfurt am Main. In the Handbook of Bodypsychotherapy (2006) (English edition 2009) coedited with Halko Weiss, he collected the knowledge of the close connection between the body, the soul and the mind as the basis for Bodypsychotherapy. Lodewijk van Nieuwenhuijze studied landscape architecture at the Universiteit Wageningen in Holland. From 1976 to1990 he was active both as a landscape architect and member of the board of the Staatsbosbeheer Gelderland and in the De Dorschkamp Research Institute in Wageningen. In 1990, along with Hamhuis and Sijmons in Utrecht he founded the planning office H+N+S landschapsarchitecten. The focus of his work is in the area of regional landscape planning and landscape architectonic conceptualization in the framework of water and federal planning, development of nature and dam reinforcement. Helga Nowotny has a doctorate in law (University of Vienna) and a PhD in sociology (Columbia University, New York). She is professor emerita for social studies of science at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich, former director of its Collegium Helveticum and founding director of “Society in Science: The Branco Weiss Fellowship.“ She was Chair of the European Research Advisory Board of the European Union (EURAB) until 2005 and is currently Vice-President of the European Research Council (ERC). In publications like Re-Thinking Science. Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty. Oxford 2001 (with P. Scott, M. Gibbons) she examines the changing relation between science and society. Together with Michael Gibbon and Peter Scott she developed a new understanding of science, which she calls Mode 2 science. Martin Prominski studied landscape architecture at the Technical University (TU) Berlin and Harvard University, Graduate School of Design. He completed his PhD „komplexes landschaftsentwerfen“ in 2003 at TU Berlin and has worked since then as professor in theory of contemporary landscape architecture at the Leibniz University in Hanover. Starting from the standpoint of complexity theory he discussed in Landschaft entwerfen (2004) the opportunities for an expanded concept of landscape and designing. He is founding co-editor of the Journal of Landscape Architecture (JoLA) and a member of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN since 2008. Anne D. Peiter studied German studies, history and philosophy in Münster, Rome, Paris and Berlin. She did her PHD at HumboldtUniversity with a study on “Humour and Violence. A literary analysis of the two world wars and the Shoah“ (2007). She worked at the Sorbonne IV as a DAAD lecturer, and is a lecturer (maitre des conferences) for German studies at the Université de la Réunion (France) since 2007. Her research includes: Exile and Shoah literature, comparison of dictatorships, German-French cultural transfer, eco-criticism, gender studies, and a post-doctoral project on the history of interrogation. Hans Poser studied mathematics, physics and philosophy in Tübingen and Hanover. His work as professor for philosophy at the Technical University (TU) Berlin (emeritus since 2005) is focussed on the fields of philosophy of technology and philosophy of mathematics as well as epistemology and theory of science. In the 2001 publication Wissenschaftstheorie. Eine philosophische Einführung he explained philosophical aspects of the theory of science. In Entwerfen als Lebensform. Elemente technischer Modalität (2004) he considered the limits and possibilities of techno-scientific thought. Chris Reed studied urban and open space planning at Harvard College and at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a Design Critic at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and has taught frequently at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the principal and founder of Stoss Landscape Urbanism in Boston. The office became known for strategic designs for large scale projects. Ecological, infrastructural, aesthetic and pro-

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grammatic requirements are combined in projects like “Lower Don Lands“ in Toronto or the “Mt. Tabor Reservoirs” in Portland. Stoss was named a Finalist in the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Awards and a 2008 Emerging Voice by The Architectural League of New York. He also has been named winner of a number of international open space design competitions, including the Erie Street Plaza in Milwaukee. Boris Sieverts studied fine arts in Düsseldorf and afterwards worked for several years as a shepherd as well as in offices in Cologne and Bonn. He is the founder of the “City Travel Office” in Cologne, that familiarizes travellers with the landscape perspective on cities in walking tours of one or more days duration. In addition he has participated in many projects like “Land for Free” in the framework of the programme for the European Capital of Culture Ruhr 2010. Thomas Sieverts studied architecture and city planning in Stuttgart, Liverpool and Berlin. He is professor emeritus for city planning and settlement at the Technical College for Darmstadt and partner of a planning office in Bonn. From 1967 to 1971 he was professor for city planning at the College for Fine Arts in Berlin and guest professor at the Urban Design Programme of the Graduate School of Architecture of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He directed the International Building Exposition Emscher Landscape Park as one of the scientific advisors. From 2003 to 2005 he was the scientific director of the Ladenburger Kolleg of the Daimler-Benz Foundation “In the middle of the periphery – city in between: Towards a qualification of an urbanized landscape“. He received the 1995 German City Planning prize, in 2006 the special prize of the German City Planning prize and many other awards. He has been a member of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN since 2006. Susanne Zeller studied landscape architecture and open space planning at the Leibniz University in Hanover. She has been working since 2002 as a landscape architect at H+N+S landschapsarchitecten in Utrecht, Holland. In addition since 2007 she has been working on the scientific staff at the Leibniz University in Hanover and works on research projects for STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, like the Framework Masterplan for Changde, China or the Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg Mapping Project Water Atlas – the Elbe Island and the Water.

The editors Hille von Seggern studied architecture and urban design at the University of Braunschweig and University of Darmstadt (Germany) and completed her PHD on relationships between people and space. Together with Timm Ohrt, she headed Ohrt – von Seggern – Partner, Architecture, Urban Design and Urban Research Office in Hamburg from 1982 to 2008. The office worked on projects ranging from research and individual buildings to open spaces and planning projects for urban districts and large-scale (urban) areas. The office won many competitions. From 1989 to 1993 she was National Chairwoman of the Association of Town, Regional and State Planning (SRL) and from 1995 to 2008 she was Professor of Open Space Planning, Design and Urban Development at the Leibniz University in Hanover. Her research has focussed on the relationship of people to space, especially children and young people, and sustainable development of Raumgeschehen (urban landscapes), with particular reference to Infrastructure (transport, (waste)water, education). Examples of her work include the projects Water Atlas. New Waterland Topologies for the Elbe Island (ed.: IBA Hamburg, Berlin 2008), Stadtsurfer, Quartierfans & Co. (ed.: Wüstenrot Stiftung, Berlin 2009) on youth and the network of urban public spaces and “Unterwegs in deutschen Bildungslandschaften” (“Expeditions in German Educational Landscapes”). From 2008 to 2010 she worked on large-scale urban landscape projects such as “Tidal River Elbe” (2010) or “Dyke Park” (2010). Together with Julia Werner, she founded STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, based on her hermeneutically, situationally understanding of design (research through design). Together with Timm Ohrt, she currently works on projects in the field of “Everyday Life-ResearchArt” and is senior advisor to the landscape design practice Rabe Landschaften. landschaftsarchitektur. stadt- und raumforschung. Julia Werner studied landscape architecture and open space planning at the Leibniz University in Hanover. After receiving her diploma (2000) she worked in practices in Germany and Australia before becoming a member of the teaching and research staff at the Institute for Development of Open Space in the Department of Open Space Planning, Design and Urban Development at the University of Hanover from 2002 to 2008. In 2009, she joined the School of Architecture and Design at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia, where she lectures on Landscape Architectural Design. She is a co-founder and board member of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, whose content and method she co-developed. She worked at the STUDIO on the creation of an innovative teaching concept and on several research projects, among others Water Atlas. New Waterland Topologies for the Elbe Island (ed.: IBA Hamburg, Berlin 2008), Stadtsurfer, Quartierfans & Co. (ed.: Wüstenrot Stiftung, Berlin 2009) on youth and the network of urban public spaces. Together with Hille von Seggern, she co-founded the research field of Innovation Strategies for Designing Landscapes, which includes the above research projects, and has expanded this further in Melbourne into the field of large-scale water-sensitive urban design. She is currently completing her PHD on the subject of the Potential of Creative Design Beginnings in Large-scale Urban Landscape Design. To this interdisciplinary research she brings additional insight from her degree and practice in relational Gestalt psychotherapy.

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Lucia Grosse-Bächle studied landscape and open space planning at the Leibniz University Hanover. She works as a freelance landscape architect and publicist. From 1991 to 2000 she worked as a member of the teaching and research staff at the Institute for Green Planning and Garden Architecture and the Institute for Development of Open Space and Planning Related Sociology. She completed her PhD in 2003 on process-oriented design strategies (scholarship). Since then she has concerned herself, in different contexts, with the dynamic media of water and vegetation and has published numerous articles in this field. In 2004 she started her own practice and from 2005 to 2007 was responsible for the coordination and organisation of the NEULAND Landscape Art Prize of the Lower Saxony Foundation. From 2009 to 2013, she worked as a freelance landscape architect on projects for the development of the river Elbe water landscapes including projects for the IBA Hamburg and for activating urban development in the context of the CITY AS CAMPUS network. She has been a member of STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN since 2005.

Picture index p. 7 Julia Werner p. 9 1-2 e.serra©landscapechoreography, 3 Christopher Haase, Eva Harmel, Tanja Murko, Corinna Wassermann & Felicitas Wiener p. 10 Julia Werner p. 11 Julia Werner p. 13 1 und 3 e.serra©landscapechoreography, 2 Malte Maaß p. 15 Verena Butt p. 17 Henrik Schultz p. 20 1 Francesco Giusto©, 2-3 e.serra©landscapechoreography p. 22 Julia Werner p. 23 Julia Werner, Antje Stokman p. 24 Julia Werner p. 25 Hille von Seggern p. 26 Anke Schmidt, Julia Werner p. 27–28 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN p. 29 osp urbanelandschaften/STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN,Hamburg p. 30 le above: Hagen Stier, ri above: Julia Werner, below: Sabine Rabe p. 31 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, Hamburg p. 32 le above: Christiane Diehl; re above: STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, Hamburg, below: Ohrt-von Seggern-Partner mit Sabine Rabe, LRW Architekten und Stadtplaner, gbmr Landschaftsarchitekten, BRW Ingenieure p. 33 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN, Hamburg p. 34 Stein+Schultz, Stadt-, Regional- und Freiraumplaner, Frankfurt am Main mit Anke Schmidt p. 35 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN: Rabe Landschaften; C23, Leipzig p. 36 arge STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN unterwegs p. 37 above: Institut für Landschaftsplanung und Ökologie, Uni Stuttgart (ILPÖ), le below: Marius Ege, ri below: 1-2 ILPÖ, 3 Marius Ege, 4 Evelyn Merino-Reyna , 5 ILPÖ p. 38 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN p. 39 STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN Antje Stokman, Anke Schmidt, Sabine Rabe p. 44 Anke Schmidt, Marco Ploeg p. 45 1–2 Moritz Bellers, 3–4 Julia Werner p. 46-48 above: 1 Margit Schild, 2–4 students; center: 1, 2, 4 Berit Miehlke; 3 Julia Werner; below: Julia Werner p. 51 1 Hille von Seggern; 2, 3 Julia Werner; 4 Ursula Stein p. 54-55 all Julia Werner; except 5 Moritz Bellers p. 57-58 Christina Schodry p. 62 Timm Ohrt p. 66 1 Christian Berger; 2, 3, 7, 8 Julia Werner; 4, 6 Moritz Bellers; 5 Amalia Besada p. 68 Sabine Rabe, Eva Bönsch p. 74 1, 4–8 Julia Werner; 2, 4 Sabine Rabe; 3 Isabella de Medici p. 82 row 1: Thomas Köhlmos; row 2: 1–2 Jasmin Matros, 3–5 Yongrong Zhang, 6 Christina Kania; row 3: 1–5 Christina Kania; 6 Annalen Gruss; row 4: Annalen Gruss; row 5: 1–4 Annalen Gruss; 5–6 Lia Deister; row 6: 1–4 Katrin Weide; 5–6 Jasmin Matros p. 84-85 Börries von Detten, Berit Miehlke, Sabine Rabe p. 90 Michael Charbonnier, Johannes Rehausen, Alexander Teichmann p. 100 Margot Schmidt p. 106-108 Hans Poser p. 123 Film still from The Matrix (USA 1999, dir. Andy + Larry Wachowski) p. 126-131 Hinderk M. Emrich p. 135 Beatrice von Bismarck p. 137 above: Sabine Falk p. 137 below: Juliane Wenzl, Tom Holert, Felix Reidenbach, Jana Reidenbach p. 139 yvon chabrowski, Angela Dressler, Stefan Hurtig, Eduard Klein, Angela Köntje, Vera Lauf p. 143 below: Anke Gesell p. 135 Udio p. 145 yvon chabrowski, Angela Dressler, Stefan Hurtig, Eduard Klein, Angela Köntje, Vera Lauf p. 151 row 1: 1–3 Daniel Baum, 4–6 Lia Deister; row 2: 1–3 Timo Thorhauer, 4–6 Jing Wu; row 3: Daniel Baum; row 4: 1–2: Christiane Kania, 3–6 Dennis Ziegert; row 5: 1–5 Annalen Gruss, 6 Isabelle Renaud; row 6: 1–2 Isabelle Renaud, 3–6 Nengshi Zheng p. 153 1, 3 Julia Schulz; 2 Caroline Hertel; 4, 6 George Vrastaminos; 5 Stadtverwaltung Halle p. 155 1, 6 Sabine Rabe; 2, 3 Julia Werner; 4 Stefanie Ruff; 5 George Vrastaminos p. 160 1, 4 Julia Werner; 2, 5 Julia Schulz; 3 Börries von Detten; 6 Hille von Seggern p. 165 Hille von Seggern p. 167 Timm Ohrt p. 169 Hille von Seggern p. 174-175 Hille von Seggern p. 178 1 Johanna Reisch; 2 Herr Kohner; 3 Christian Kamer; 4 Marco Motzek; 5 Jeannot Braquet; 6 Florian Hans p. 179-180 Stein + Schultz, Stadt-, Regional- und Freiraumplaner p. 181-182 Anke Schmidt, Börries von Detten p. 196 below: bgmr Landschaftsarchitekten p. 196 above: AS&P und bgmr Landschaftsarchitekten p. 197-199 bgmr Landschaftsarchitekten p. 200 below: Irina de Cuveland p. 200 above: Anne-Cécile Jacquot p. 205 Martin Prominski p. 206-211 Sigrun Langner p. 216-219 Julia Werner p. 243 from: Jenkins, Stover/ Mohney, David: The Houses of Philip Johnson. New York 2001, p. 75 p. 244 from: Latz, Peter: “Paradigma Park.” In: Königs, Tom (ed.): Stadtparks Frankfurt, Frankfurt 1993, p. 22–27 p. 245 Latz & Partner p. 249 left: Latz & Partner p. 249 right: Monika Nikolic p. 250 Latz & Partner p. 252 Michael Latz p. 255 Latz & Partner p. 261-263 Henri Bava, Agence Ter p. 266-273 Stoss p. 274 GTL Gnüchtel Triebswetter Landschaftsarchitekten p. 275-280 Markus Gnüchtel p. 284-288 H+N+S landschapsarchitecten Utrecht/NL p. 291 Antje Stokman p. 293-295 Lucia Grosse-Bächle p. 297 Volkmar Seyfang p. 298 Lucia Grosse-Bächle p. 299-300 Sophia Carstensen, Elke Kruse p. 303-304 Daniela Karow-Kluge p. 305 from: Wüstenrot Stiftung (ed.): Jugendliche in öffentlichen Räumen der Stadt. Opladen 2003, left: p. 66; right: p.185 p. 310-311 Boris Sieverts p. 312 above: Google Earth; below: Boris Sieverts p. 315 above: Google Earth; below: Boris Sieverts All designs of student work and design projects at STUDIO URBANE LANDSCHAFTEN: Copyrights by the students

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