Defending “No One’s Land”

La Biennale di Venezia's 16th International Architecture Exhibition

In the context of the Biennale Sessions - Special Programme for Higher Education Institutions
With:
Iva Čukić and Ksenija Radovanović || Ministry of Space (Belgrade)
Giorgio De Finis || MAAM - Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz / Museum of the Other and the Elsewhere (Rome)
Milly Reid and Enrico Tomassini || The Ground Tour Project (nomadic)
 
Critical discussants:
Jens Brandt || Tampere University of Technology (Finland)
Participants of the Social Design Summer School 2018 (international)
 
Defending “No One’s Land”
In line with this year’s Biennale Architettura’s theme of “Freespace”, we would like to open up the discussion on the necessity of “dysfunctional spaces” in our cities. According to the Swiss sociologist Lucius Burkhardt “dysfunctional” refers to spaces which are not bound to a predefined function. Being undetermined in function, these “No Man’s Land”s offer a high openness and freedom to be transformed and appropriated. As undisciplined spaces they become urban grounds, which invite improvisation and open up various opportunities meeting the existential needs of its informal users.
 
“No Man’s Land does not exist, at least not in any decently planned city. No Man’s Land is a product of planning. Without planning, there is no No Man’s Land. But once planners realize they have planned a No Man’s Land, its end is already nigh. It is even renamed then – as »a dysfunctional zone«.“ (Lucius Burkhardt, No Man’s Land, 1980, In: Why is Landscape Beautiful? The Science of Strollology)
 
What are the potentials and challenges of dysfunctional spaces in our city? What does it mean if an individual or a group claims spaces (temporarily)? How to exercise a collective right to access, reclaim, use, shape and (re-)make our city but still ensure multiple uses and users of spaces?
At our Biennale session, we will exchange international experiences and discuss the methods developed and applied to trigger artistic, social and political actions and interventions motivated by a critical view on societal power structures, capitalism and established politics.
 
Social Design
University of Applied Arts Vienna
www.socialdesign.ac.at
www.dieangewandte.at
Veranstaltung