15th September | Day 1

Morning

Territorial Turn!
Opening and introduction to the Symposium
Aglaée Degros Head Institute of Urbanism & Petra Petersson Dean Faculty of Architecture

How to design the territory?
Keynote by Susanne Eliasson GRAU - Good Reasons to Afford Urbanism

The keynote will address the challenges of the current shift from an urbanism of extension to an urbanism of transformation, dealing with a specific type of urban organization that we call the Garden Metropolis. Neither the centre nor the periphery, it refers to the major residential urban growth that occurred in the last hundred years as a direct extension of traditional city centres. Through the main example of Bordeaux we will discuss the importance of a common horizon and how the merging of architecture and landscape play a crucial role in a “piece by piece” transformation of the territory

Coffee break
 

Who owns the ground?
In the past decades, our urban environments have considerably changed. Urban growth in peri-urban areas as much as densification of inner city areas are fuelled by real estate and urban planning dynamics. While this process is on-going and creates heterogeneous forms and conditions, exacerbating socio-economical polarization, how can we look at the ground as commons to transform, infuse and come up with different spatial orders for urbanity and habitability, capable to form socio-economic and cultural connections for a territorial urbanism? How could collective actions and models improve the environmental conditions of these inhabited territories?

Papers by Slobodan Velevski, Marija Velevska, Elena Andonova, Irena Milojeska |
Tommaso Pietropolli

discussion with
Marcel Smets, Susanne Eliasson, Andrea Jany, Andreas Lichtblau, Julia Fröhlich, Sandra Guinand

Coffee break
 

How to deal with obsolescence?
Keynote by Stefan Rettich Universität Kassel - Fachgebiet Städtebau

A foresight on the recycling of land and houses - a strategy of the circular city - is becoming increasingly essential in the face of climate change. While the aspects of the circular economy are already being discussed at length, a theory of obsolescence and reuse at the level of the district or even of the entire city has not yet been developed. On what rules is the phenomenon of obsolescence in architecture based, are there systemic connections and what does that mean for the current situation?

How to deal with transformation?
Our contemporary settings are faced with increasingly disruptive phenomena creating extensive uncertainty. These episodes have a strong impact on our urban environments - leading to the obsolescence of infrastructures, housing, factories, public spaces, etc., sometimes demanding a radical shift in their contemporary uses or functions. Which attitude should we implement to approach these infrastructures differently? What positive role could these urban elements play in connecting urban territories rather than exacerbating their fragmentations? How could they become strategic locations for territorial urbanism?

Papers by Johannes Bernsteiner | Beatrice Galimberti

discussion with
Han Meyer, Stefan Rettich, Maik Novotny, Anselm Wagner, Anna-Maria Jäger, Radostina Radulover-Stahmer

Lunch – buffet on the rooftop

Afternoon

Unbuild environment. Why is it relevant now?
Keynote by Eva Pfannes OOZE Architects and Urbanists

After a long era of unprecedented economic growth generating an over-expansion of build space, now is the time to protect and reconstruct nature, in other words, to reorient the future of the profession as a matter of urgency towards the production of nature as a long-term objective. The talk will explore and illustrate, through examples of OOZE’s work, how understanding and deploying natural processes could be a methodology and a strategy to heal and repair our immediate and wider environment. 

How to repair the territory?
Urban settlements and their extensions have produced degraded and contaminated areas, informal settlements, anonymous commercial zones as well as plain new housing developments. These landscapes require actions to repair them and turn them into places of possibility and habitability by unravelling their potentials. How can we envision environmental and social approaches to the territory to create alternative paths to the traditional urbanization processes and urbanism practices? What could be these innovative approaches?

Papers by Julio de la Fuente & Natalia Gutiérrez | Ward Verbakel

discussion with
Marcel Smets, Eva Pfannes, Karl Steininger, Andreas Lichtblau, Isabel Stumfol, Anna Bagarić

Coffee break
 

Urbanism Fellow Graz - Award Ceremony

Musique and Apéro on the rooftop

16th September | Day 2
 

Morning

How to create the territorial turn?
Keynote by Paola Viganò EPFL Lausanne, IUAV Venice
 

How to negotiate common visions?
Our urban territories are composed of a multitude of actors with various profiles, faced with diverse conditions and issues, as well as holding different values and objectives. This diversity can be a real challenge for planning and co-constructing territorial urbanism. How can we share and build a common vision for our urban territories and our environment at large? How can we override conflicts and oppositions for co-construction?

Papers by Stefan Devoldere | Lilli Lička, Hannes Gröblacher

discussion with
Han Meyer, Paola Viganò, Kaye Geipel, Günter Getzinger, Oskar May, Markus Monsberger

Coffee break
 

Territorial Turn !
Paola Viganò, Susanne Eliasson, Juliette Bekkering, Stefan Rettich, Han Meyer, Marcel Smets, Eva Schwab | Host: Aglaée Degros
 

Lunch basket
 

Afternoon
 

How to work with existing urban qualities to secure territorial continuties?
Guided walk through Graz
DI Sophia Walk