En route to work staged invisibilities in the city Conference Wuppertal 14/15 January 2016

Transcription

1 En route to work staged invisibilities in the city Conference Wuppertal 14/15 January 2016 University of Wuppertal (in collaboration with Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal) organising committee: Christoph Grafe, Elke Krasny and Oliver Ziegenhardt When Friedrich Engels published The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1845, it caused a great sensation. For the first time a social science and empirical work, intertwined with observations on political and philosophical theory, had been drawing attention to living conditions of the working classes. On the occasion of the 120 th anniversary of the death of Engels in 2015 it seems appropriate to examine the current discourse on the city and its economic and cultural dimensions. In The Condition Engels provides a study of the social geography of the fully developed industrial city. His research method is empirical; departing from the visits of slums and working class areas in Manchester in the mid nineteenth century, which he undertook with Mary Burns, he provides an analysis of the spatial patterns, including the social segregations and the life conditions in the residential quarters of the industrial workers, in the city. The illustrations showing the physical arrangement of the industrial city are few, but remain unparalleled in the study of life conditions in the nineteenth century city. Underlying his vivid accounts of the urban realities of Manchester, Engels draws attention to the logic of rendering invisible the presence of the workers, thereby creating the image of a bourgeois city eliminating the darker aspects of its existence.

2 The condition is, therefore, a unique documentation of the spatial logic of capitalism in the Industrial Revolution. The present situation is characterised by changes in the economic and cultural geographies of cities that seem to be as dramatic as those Engels analysed in the mid nineteenth century. A society dominated by the service industries has created a new precariat, often with a migration background (and without the opportunities for political action afforded by representative democracy), that has to find a place in cities in which the systems of planning which were established in order to alleviate some of the symptoms of Manchester Capitalism are increasingly abolished. In a way that is comparable to the situation Engels described for the city of the industrial revolution, the new precariats who survive as servants of corporate industries, in the services industries or of the wealthy residents whose presence indicates the urban renaissance in cities like London, New York, Brussels, Vienna or Amsterdam (and on a smaller scale in successful cities like Cologne or Düsseldorf) tend to be invisible. As cities, once again, become more socially segregated than they have been for a long time, it is mainly in daily situations of early morning rush hours on public transport systems that the demographic and economic changes come into view. It is there that we can meet the cleaners, the nurses, the security workers or those making a living in catering, travelling between home (usually in the periphery) and various work destinations and combining more than one job in order to survive. The city of the new underclass is a city en route to work. What does Engels' demand for spatial justice mean in the current circumstances? Which forms of representation lend visibility to processes which are usually left out of the accounts of the urban renaissance that many cities need and wish to present? Can designers address the volatilities of the current situation and which programmatic and organisational, but also aesthetic, strategies can be developed to achieve this? These are some of the questions we would like to discuss in Engels home town in the En route to work conference planned for 14/15 January 2016 in Wuppertal. The conference, hosted by the new Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering of the University of Wuppertal (in collaboration with the Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal and the Wuppertal Theatre) will bring together social scientists, philosophers, historians and designers to examine how these new challenges are already shaping our cities and how they could be addressed by intelligent strategies of representation and design.

3 En route to work staged invisibilities in the city Conference Wuppertal 14/15 January 2016 University of Wuppertal (in collaboration with Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal) organising committee: Christoph Grafe, Elke Krasny and Oliver Ziegenhardt Speakers Ewald Engelen, Amsterdam financial geographer, professor at the University of Amsterdam, co-author of the article how to build a fairer city (The Guardian, 24 September 2013) Karel Williams, Manchester Karel Williams is a Researcher at the Centre for Research on Socio-cultural Change and Professor of Political Economy at the University of Manchester, co-author of How to build a fairer city Franziska Bollerey is Professor emerita of History of Architecture and Urbanism, TU Delft and head of the Institute of History of Art, Architecture and Urbanism IHAAU. Her special fields of interest are Utopian Concepts, Metropolises and the urban history and architecture of the 1920s. She has been acting as visiting professor and researcher at various universities including Barcelona, Braunschweig, Berlin, Budapest, Istanbul, New York, and Zurich, and published numerous books and articles including Architekturkonzeptionen der utopischen Sozialisten (2nd ed. 1991), Cornelis van Eesteren. Urbanismus zwischen de Stijl and C.I.A.M. (1999) and Myth Metropolis. The City as a Motif for Writers, Painters and Film Directors (2nd ed. 2010). Amongst other memberships in international boards and committees she was head of the Bauhaus Scientific Advisory Board of the Bauhaus Foundation Dessau until In 2015 she was a contributor to the exhibition Wohnungsfrage at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin.

4 Urban research Meike Schalk, Stockholm Meike Schalk is an architect and assistant professor on tenure track in urban design and urban theory at the KTH School of Architecture and the Built Environment. While her first discipline is architecture, she holds a PhD in theoretical and applied aesthetics of landscape architecture from SLU, Her research on architecture and urban questions combines critical inquiry into issues of sustainability, questions of democracy and critical-creative participation in urban development processes, and participatory practice-led research. Design practices Lionel Devlieger, Brussels partner in Rotor, Brussels: Founded in 2005, Rotor is a collective of people with a common interest in the material flows in industry and construction. On a practical level, Rotor handles the conception and realization of design and architectural projects. On a theoretical level, Rotor develops critical positions on design, material resources, and waste through research, exhibitions, writings and conferences. In 2014, Rotor launched a spin-off, Rotor Deconstruction, as an autonomous player engaged in salvaging and reselling remarkable elements recovered from architecture slated for demolition. Tom Emerson, Stephanie Macdonald (6A Architects), London Tom Emerson BSc(hons) DipArch(Cantab) RIBA studied architecture at the University of Bath, the Royal College of Art and the University of Cambridge. He has taught at the Architectural Association and the University of Cambridge and published articles on architecture, literature and art. In 2010 he was appointed Professor of Architecture at the ETH Department of Architecture in Zurich. Stephanie Macdonald BA(hons) DipArch studied fine art at Portsmouth College of Art and following a scholarship to Japan, architecture at the Mackintosh School of Architecture, the Royal College of Art and London Metropolitan University with Caruso St John. She has developed the practice s collaborative approach working with artists, fashion designers, scientists. She leads the material research of the studio and recently 6a s innovative architectural residency at the ICA.

5 Katherine Clarke, MUF, London Since 1994 muf architecture/art has established a reputation for pioneering and innovative projects that address the social, spatial and economic infrastructures of the public realm. muf are specialists in public realm architecture and art. The practice philosophy is driven by an ambition to realize the potential pleasures that exist at the intersection between the lived and the built. The creative process is underpinned by a capacity to establish effective client relationships that reveal and value the desires and experience of varied constituencies.

6 En route to work staged invisibilities in the city Conference Wuppertal 14/15 January 2016 University of Wuppertal (in collaboration with Historisches Zentrum Wuppertal) organising committee: Christoph Grafe, Elke Krasny and Oliver Ziegenhardt Programme (preliminary) Thursday, 14 January Reception and Get together at the Engelshaus, Wuppertal Dinner Performance Wuppertaler Bühnen: Letters from Manchester/ Briefe nach Wuppertal Friday, 15 January Introductory statement: Elke Krasny, Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna/ Christoph Grafe, University of Wuppertal 9.30 Ewald Engelen, University of Amsterdam/ Karel Williams, Manchester University Franziska Bollerey, Delft/ Berlin Meike Schalck, Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Stockholm lunch MUF, London Lionel Devlieger (Rotor), Brussels tea break Tom Emerson, Steff Macdonald, 6A architects, London Concluding conversation