CITAMBULOS Urban Strategies, a Mexico City – Berlin Dialogue (Program)

Posted on 23. November 2011 by kristienring

+++ A dialogue between experts from Mexico City and Berlin will present informal urban strategies on one side and formal governance on the other. The discussion will focus on current political challenges and planning strategies.After a boat excursion on the Spree, the discussion will be held at the German Center for Architecture DAZ in Berlin, where the exhibition “Citámbulos: Journey to the Mexican Megalopolis” is on show. +++

Background: The Urban Age is seeing a steady increase in new city-dwellers all over the world. These inhabitants of new and changing urban environments are constantly redefining the urban, suburban and new “rurban” (rural-urban) social and physical make-up while finding their place in the global urban society. In this context, the relationship

between present and future citizens and their environment as well as their political representation must be examined in order to be able to focus on the changing needs of the urban structure, space and social organization. Experts will discuss experiences from two emblematic, yet contrary cases – Mexico City, the still-growing megacity, and Berlin, the ever-transforming capital of the German urban system. Their
backgrounds include architecture, landscape architecture and urban planning, as well as cultural studies, aesthetics and practical urban intervention in the social sphere.

Panel 1: “The Urban Public, Strategies of Collective Construction in the City”. The first panel seeks to raise questions about how the inhabitants of Mexico City and Berlin find both spontaneous and managed ways of dealing with what the city offers. The active mode of appropriating the city by means of conscious experiencing of everyday life and alternative transport use in a highly car-dominated context like Mexico City enters into dialogue with Berliners’ activation of urban residual land through temporary usage as well as new cultural strategies for encouraging urban participation. Speakers: Peter Krieger, Jochen Becker, Philipp Oswald, Felipe Leal.

Panel 2: “Urban Governance, Colleges and Opportunities for the City”. The second panel discusses the relationship between local forms of government and the citizens, as well as alternative bottom-up strategies of organizing daily urban reality. Representatives from the urban planning departments of both City Governments will present their specific ideas and projects to deal with the current and future needs of Berlin and Mexico City. Inside knowledge about informal forms of organization in Mexico City are put into context by the broad international experience arising from three years of Urban Age conferences run by the Alfred Herrhausen Society and LSE. Speakers: Wolfgang Nowak, Argel Gómez, Hella Dunger-Löper, José Castillo

The colloquium will be held in English.

> 19.09.2008 | 10 – 5.30 pm, DAZ, Taut Auditorium.

Link Project

The exhibition and the colloquium are a collaboration of the DAZ, the research collective ‘Citámbulos’ (Mexico City) and the Alfred Herrhausen Society, Berlin and is under the patronage of the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit.

2008, Ausstellung and Program curated by Kristien Ring, DAZ Berlin, together with Ana Alvarez, Fionn Petch, Valentina Rojas Loa, and Christian von Wissel, Mexico City.

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