The Entanglement of Class, Marriage and Real Estate: The Visual Culture of Egypt’s Urbanisation

A majority of scholars consider Egypt’s urban development a product of the neo-liberal political economy facilitated by the country’s central government. In this article, we want to shift our attention towards the public and its demand for housing. We describe the urban everyday experiences of a population within a country in which a visual culture established via public media creates an urban imagination that does not reflect the lived social, spatial, and economic reality of the majority of the population. Exploration of the general public’s attitudes towards media narratives that focus their advertisement campaigns on high class residential projects launched this investigation. The argument that follows is based on empirical studies within the Greater Cairo Region (GCR). In this setting, a puzzling trend from our collected data guides our central research question: Why aren’t ads for luxury housing—a market segment clearly beyond the reach of most Egyptians—condemned by those who cannot afford it? To tackle this phenomenon, we shed light on how the pre—and post-marital demand for housing among young couples and their families influence the market, and particularly, the market for upscale and luxury housing in Cairo. The research consists of four phases, including (1) field interviews with Uber and Careem drivers, (2) an online survey targeting inhabitants across varying urban and social segments of the GCR, (3) the first author’s personal story, which posits that marriage culture acts as a key driver for real estate narratives, and (4) a visual analysis of a real estate advertisement. To conclude, the article discusses how far a hegemonic visual culture that caters to socio-economic links between class, marriage, and real estate engages the support of a large part of the population, which in turn, co-produces a spatially unjust urban development scheme that works against their own interests

Placeholders : 13 pavilions on 13 future construction sites in Berlin

Zugleich gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der Technischen Universität Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2442-8ADIP, the chair for Architecture Design and Innovation, is a laboratory for new ideas and changing input, run by guest professors at the Institute for Architecture at the Technische Universität Berlin. In 2011, ADIP welcomed Bostjan Vuga, founding partner of the architectural office SADAR+VUGA in Ljubljana, Slovenia. PLACEHOLDERS are forecasters of the future object at the select location. They are areas for socializing, games, new experiences and showrooms for main public activities in the future object. Placeholders encourage cooperation and interaction between their visitors and users. 13 future construction sites are chosen, 13 urban spots in Berlin where a new construction is not only planned, but already defined with an architectural project. It is shown how a design of 13 pavilions influences the way we see ourselves and how we interact with others today

Defining pathways to healthy sustainable urban development.

Goals and pathways to achieve sustainable urban development have multiple interlinkages with human health and wellbeing. However, these interlinkages have not been examined in depth in recent discussions on urban sustainability and global urban science. This paper fills that gap by elaborating in detail the multiple links between urban sustainability and human health and by mapping research gaps at the interface of health and urban sustainability sciences. As researchers from a broad range of disciplines, we aimed to: 1) define the process of urbanization, highlighting distinctions from related concepts to support improved conceptual rigour in health research; 2) review the evidence linking health with urbanization, urbanicity, and cities and identify cross-cutting issues; and 3) highlight new research approaches needed to study complex urban systems and their links with health. This novel, comprehensive knowledge synthesis addresses issue of interest across multiple disciplines. Our review of concepts of urban development should be of particular value to researchers and practitioners in the health sciences, while our review of the links between urban environments and health should be of particular interest to those outside of public health. We identify specific actions to promote health through sustainable urban development that leaves no one behind, including: integrated planning; evidence-informed policy-making; and monitoring the implementation of policies. We also highlight the critical role of effective governance and equity-driven planning in progress towards sustainable, healthy, and just urban development

Visual Communication in Urban Design and Planning: The Impact of Mediatisation(s) on the Construction of Urban Futures

Christmann G, Singh A, Stollmann J, Bernhardt C. Visual Communication in Urban Design and Planning: The Impact of Mediatisation(s) on the Construction of Urban Futures. Urban Planning. 2020;5(2):1-9.This editorial introduces the subject matter of the thematic issue, which includes a diverse collection of contributions from authors in various disciplines including, history, architecture, planning, sociology and geography. Within the context of mediatisation processes—and the increased use of ever-expanding I&amp;C technologies—communication has undergone profound changes. As such, this thematic issue will discuss how far (digital) media tools and their social uses in urban design and planning have impacted the visualisation of urban imaginations and how urban futures are thereby communicatively produced. Referring to an approach originating from the media and communication sciences, the authors begin with an outline of the core concepts of mediatisation and digitalisation. They suggest how the term ‘visualisation’ can be conceived and, against this background, based upon the sociological approach of communicative constructivism, a proposal is offered, which diverges from traditional methods of conceptualising visualisations: Instead, it highlights the need for a greater consideration towards the active role of creators (e.g., planners) and recipients (e.g., stakeholders) as well as the distinctive techniques of communication involved (e.g., a specific digital planning tools). The authors in this issue illustrate how communicative construction, particularly the visual construction of urban futures, can be understood, depending upon the kind of social actors as well as the means of communication involved. The editorial concludes with a summary of the main arguments and core results presented.</p

Fabrication of space: The design of everyday life in South Korean Songdo

Constructed from scratch on land reclaimed from the sea, Songdo was planned to embody new ‘smart city’ life. In reality, it has come to exemplify enclave urbanism that commodifies securitised living for upwardly mobile middle classes. While the political economy of this urban project is by now well studied, the sociological ethnography of the resultant space and its experiential correlates remains less developed and imperfectly contextualised. One needs to connect the dots of power and space. The present paper aims to do that and thematises the ‘design of everyday life’ which rests on (1) the intensification of privatised digital surveillance of mass housing compounds which in turn occasions (2) the remaking of spatial markers and symbolic boundaries between private/public, inclusive/exclusive, inside/outside. As such it is a combination of two different registers of visibility that gets jointly orchestrated by the public–private partnership of Korean state and corporate actors. In order to recognise these regimes as strategic visions of controlled social life we extend James Scott’s notion of ‘seeing like a state’ to include the corresponding regime that we call ‘seeing like a corporation’. This allows us to show that they are mutually elaborative in Songdo through a hybridised fabrication of its lived environment, particularly in the case of one branded housing typology located in the city’s centre called International Business District. This elucidates not only the local entrepreneurial urbanism that gave rise to the controlled environment of Songdo but also more general logics of the ‘compressed modernisation’ in the region which sets a global mode for production of space and re-territorialisation of power.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft https://doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe

Spaces of identification : potentials and quality of large-scale housing estates

Gedruckt erschienen im Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, ISBN 978-3-7983-2924-9Bisher wurden Großwohnsiedlungen vor allem als potenziell belastendes Erbe der Moderne diskutiert. Ihr Ruf ist zweifelhaft, zu wirkungsvoll lebt im kollektiven Gedächtnis das Stigma fort, soziales Ghetto zu sein; Großsiedlungen haftet der Ruf an, a priori unter räumlichen, sozialen und infrastrukturellen Defiziten zu leiden. Allenfalls ein paar spektakuläre Beispiele werden heute wieder unter baukulturellen Gesichtspunkten diskutiert und als Zeugen einer vergangenen Epoche des Städtebaus respektiert. Die Publikation versammelt Beiträge der Tagung „Identifikationsräume“ im November 2013 an der Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (FRA-UAS). Die Beiträge wollen auf die besonderen räumlichen und Identität stiftenden Qualitäten von Großwohnsiedlungen aufmerksam machen. Zugleich ist die Zusammenstellung auch ein Plädoyer für die Pflege sowohl der materiellen Substanz als auch des Gemeinwesens der großen Siedlungen.Until now, mass housing settlements are being discussed as a potentially burdened legacy of modernist urbanism. Their reputation is problematic, the stigma of social ghettos is firmly embedded on in our collective memory; they are seen as a priori spatially, socially and infrastructurally deficient. Only some spectacular cases are re-appreciated today for their cultural and historic value, as witnesses of a bygone era of urbanism. This publication assembles contributions from the conference “Identifikationsräume” (Spaces of identification) which was held in November 2013 at the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences (FRA-UAS). The contributions shed some light on the specific spatial qualities of mass housing settlements and their ability to establish environments of identity. At the same time, the collection is a plea for the continued maintenance of both the material substance of and the communities that have developed within the large housing estates

Das Kotti-Prinzip : urbane Komplizenschaften zwischen Räumen, Menschen, Zeit, Wissen und Dingen

http://ruby-press.com/book-launch-and-discussion-das-kotti-prinzip-urbane-komplizenschaften-zwischen-raumen-menschen-zeit-wissen-und-dingen/The publication consists of 2 parts: A large-format booklet with axonometric drawings introduces the visible and invisible accomplices of Kotti & Co. The detailed mappings show how actors, places and actions work together over long periods of time and how complex “interfering from below” is in urban development policy processes. It’s about making the strategies and tactics of Kotti & Co understandable so that they can become a model for others. This visual analysis is supplemented by a smaller booklet containing a series of essays, that shed light on the power of civil society and academic engagement for urban development.Die Publikation besteht aus 2 Teilen: Ein großformatiges Heft mit doppelseitigen axonometrischen Zeichnungen stellt die sichtbaren und unsichtbaren Kompliz*innen von Kotti & Co vor. Die anschaulichen Übersichten zeigen, wie Akteure, Orte und Handlungen über längere Zeiträume zusammenwirken und wie vielschichtig sich das „Einmischen von unten“ in stadtentwicklungspolitische Prozesse gestaltet. Es geht darum, die Strategien und Taktiken von Kotti & Co nachvollziehbar zu machen, damit sie zum Modell für andere werden. Ergänzt wird diese visuelle Analyse durch einen Textband, der in einer Reihe von Essays Handlungsmöglichkeiten im Spannungsfeld von zivilgesellschaftlichem und akademischem Engagement beleuchtet.Wem gehört die Stadt? Wer darf wohnen – wer muss gehen? Wer entscheidet darüber? Und mit welchen Mitteln? Ein halbes Jahr lang begleiteten Christine Bock und Ulrich Pappenberger die Mieter*inneninitiative Kotti & Co um zu verstehen, wie Sozialmieter*innen zu einflussreichen Akteuren der Berliner Stadt- und Wohnungspolitik wurden. Die Studie folgt der Akteur-Netzwerk-Theorie und erzählt von der Macht des Kollektivs. Sie beleuchtet anhand von Mappings, wie sich Räume, Menschen, Zeit, Wissen und Dinge zu Kompliz*innen eines wirkungsvollen Akteur-Netzwerk verbinden.Who owns the city? Who is allowed to stay – who has to go? Who decides about it? And by what means? For about six months, Christine Bock and Ulrich Pappenberger accompanied the tenant initiative Kotti & Co to understand how tenants had become influential actors affecting Berlin’s city and housing politics. The study employs an actor-network theory approach in order to talk about the power of the collective. By means of mappings, it sheds light on how spaces, people, time, knowledge and things connect as accomplices of an effective actor-network.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Beyond Normal and Pathological. Translating Experience Schindler Workshop, ETH Zurich 08./09.11.2006

This workshop on exhibition design was aimed at exploring architecture’s capacity to communicate with all senses. The working thesis was that space becomes an activator translating and interpreting works of art in such a way that the phenomena and experiences aligned with the art pieces could be shared and discussed by all. Learning from the spatial experiences of our disabled / differently abled experts, the team wanted to challenge architecture beyond the normative established by the limited “normal ” perception. Taking into consideration the huge number of buildings and cultural institutions that are still lacking an alignment to what the emerging quest for accessibility already encompasses. Not only is architecture not accessible for all. It is the discourse of architecture that has been and still is exclusive. From the very start of architectural theory, architecture was defined as less concerned with housing the human body, but about transfiguring and making visible the contemporary concepts of the human body. Thus, the production of architecture and architectural theory was closely bound to those concepts stemming from philosophy, politics and medical science. The Italian Renaissance is a good example of how closely the concept of an ideal human body was linked to the concept of an ideal architectural body. Throug