Blog | Urbaner Raum

In this blog post, CRC members Séverine Marguin and Jamie-Scott Baxter reflect on a trip they took with their students to the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh as part of the project seminar "Nature, Space and Biopolitics: Understanding the Conservation Regime in Planetary Urbanism." With the aim of investigating the refiguration of the modern institution of the botanic garden in the face of multiple socio-environmental crises, they summarize the key insights they gained by comparing two of the most important European botanic gardens from an interdisciplinary perspective: the Botanical Garden in Berlin and the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh.

On 20th-21st of October the CRC 1265 held its fourth international conference, this year titled “My City is a Battleground – Intersectionality and Urban Violence”. After two years of COVID restrictions, we could finally meet in person again, which in itself provided a cause for celebration as participants pleased to mingle with new as well as familiar faces. This year’s theme followed up on the CRC’s interest in socio-spatial conflicts, looking at the way intersectional tensions accompany processes of urban spatial refiguration. Taking its inspiration from decades of research on social inequality, class struggles, migration, violence as well as from intersectional feminist work, the conference turned its attention to intersectional experiences of violence and the way conflicts manifest intersectionally in and through urban space.

Martin Schinagl reflektiert im Nachgang seiner Feldforschung über Stadtplanung in New York City über eine Stadt der Widersprüche und Extreme sowie ihre Entwicklungen aus Perspektive eines forschenden Flâneurs: „Läufst du durch New York, siehst du die Welt. …“

Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2019 has been commenced on the 7th of September with the official title “Collective City”. It consists of multiple exhibits grouped within five different platforms: Thematic Exhibition, Cities Exhibition, Public Programs, Live Projects and Global Studio, each of which represents a variety of urban planning projects from around the world. The aim is to create a space for communication and engagement of the public in the development of their cities. New collective phenomena and strategies of participation in the socio-urban dynamics of the city are presented.