Abstract

Existing public infrastructures are challenged by the thread of economical, ecological, and social changes which lead to their abandonment or sale, including infrastructure systems for mobility, such as airports, ports, motorways, or rail-bound infrastructures. Unlike public buildings, these structures often have no clear address, no front façade, no marked entrance – as soon as they lose their function they create linear spaces, niches, or open constructions in the urban context which are often perceived as leftovers. But just like public buildings they had been built with public money, were maintained for, and served the public for decades and belong to the public.

Often, mobility infrastructures are places which were closely interwoven with the everyday lives of citizens, and so the abandonment of these places often means saying goodbye to places that had become dear to people.

Some structures are reused and reproposed fast and they experience a second life – also as public infrastructures, others are sold, reused but lost for the public but many structures, for various reasons, are not easy to repurpose, neither for the public nor privately.

The Elective deals with a series of such public infrastructures - bus stops in the Burgenlandkreis - which might become obsolete in the context of transforming mobility services (on-demand transport, automated driving) and for which no clear reuse strategy has yet been defined.

Program

The elective is split into three parts, during the first part students will get accustomed with the theoretical and technical background of the transformation of public infrastructures both by reading key texts, and by researching and analysing reference projects for transformation processes of public infrastructures.

During the second part students will get introduced into the local context, collecting data, and creating analytical drawings to analyse the effects and dependencies between mobility infrastructures and urban/ rural life.

In the third part the students will develop a strategy and/ or design (permanent or temporary) for one or more soon to be abandoned bus stops in the Burgenland district.

The elective will be accompanied by guest-lectures, a workshop and two daytrips to Berlin and Leipzig where we will visit both - old and brand-new approaches in urbanism and architecture that explore the idea of RE_SOURCING public infrastructures. Bi-weekly discussions as well as regular pin-ups and two presentations with guest critics will accompany the process.

Qualification

The elective addresses highly motivated students, skilled in drawing, modelling, and other media. You should be curious and open towards research and design processes, which seeks to explore innovative solutions.

Further Information

Go to Moodle or to INCOM

First meeting

Thursday, October 16th, 4.30 pm – 6.00 pm, building 08, studio 0.23