MAXIMILIAN MEINDL, JULIEN REINHART and ANNE ROTTER in their own words, quoted from the handout and film accompanying their project:
“Our CITY is full of UNEXPLOITED POTENTIAL! In many other cities, like LINZ, large CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS have been and are BEING WAVED THROUGH in POLITICAL PROCESSES and the NEEDS of the CITIZENS have been PUT ON THE BACK BURNER – ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY rules PLANNING.
The following WORK is a PROPOSAL between MANIFESTO and FEASIBILITY STUDY, a CALL to RETHINK urban and SPATIAL PLANNNING BUREAUCATICALLY, POLITICALLY, and CONCEPTUALLY - and to REPLACE the EXISTING STRUCTURES. We see ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES as RESOPNSIBLE to INCLUDE more COMPETENCE and EXPERTISE in the POWER of DECSION and ACTION ENTRUSTED to them, and partly even to PLAY IT BACK to their MANDATE GIVERS: We DEMAND that the COMPLEXITY that URBAN DEVELOPMENT entails is to be dealt with in widely SELF-ORGANIZED NETWORKS in order to establish NEW CONCEPTS of SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT! We demand A CITY FOR ALL! We demand SUSTAINABLE and INTEGRATIVE planning!
We NO LONGER want to GUESS urban planning or architecture but develop them out of the POTENTIALS of the PLACE and THE PEOPLE living there! We want a new, DISCURSIVELY and INTEGRATIVELY NEGOTIATED ORGANISATION of the PROCESSES that SHAPE CITY DISTRICTS, PLACES, and SPHERES! We want to ACT, NOT JUST REACT! As a DYNAMIC NETWORK, the new PROCESS-ORIENTED MODEL should create a sense of belonging to one's own IMMEDIATE sphere and ENABLE PARTICIPATION. We strive for SELF-GOVERNED and SELF-ORGANIZED COOPERARTIVES that bring TOGETHER people from the CITIES and the COUNTRYSIDE as well as EXPERTS in DECISION-MAKING, thus working on and with their ENVIRONMENT in order to REPLACE the current urban and spatial planning. We call this MODEL: "RAUMVERTRETUNG [spatial representation]"!
"Raumvertretung" promotes the FORMATION and SHARPENING of PERSPECTIONS of SPACE, AESTHETICS and CULTURES FOR ALL. Not everyone has to deal PROFESIONALLY with architectural or urban planning ISSUES. EMOTIONAL CONNECTIONS with the ENVIRONMENT alone make it POSSIBLE to perceive spaces and their CONTEXTS and to UNDERSTAND them SOCIALLY; FUNCTIONALLY and AESTHETICALLY.
Our STRATEGY is to understand the CURRENT prevailing PROCEDURES and METHODS and to understand WHY processes develop the way they do. The AIM is to PUT AN END to SYSTEMATIC ERROR MESSAGES – PROCESS ERRORS as UNSATISFACTORY RESULTS of COMPLETED processes - to think and METHODICALLY test NEW COOPERATIVE SYSTEMS, to DEFINE FRAMEWORK CONDITIONS and to sharpen them in DISCOURSE with experts. In order to be ABLE to TEST and to DETAIL such NEW SYSTEMS, we have REFLECTED and TRIED OUT the PRACTICE of such processes PROTOTYPICALLY in a MODEL CITY DISTRICT. Our reflections were BASED on THEORETICAL MODELS of the REORGANIZATION of COMMUNITIES, DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES, LEISURE and WORK, DISCUSSIONS from SOCIAL MEDIA and our OWN working and training REALITY in THE FIELD OF ARCHITECTURE, as well as CONVERSATIONS with EXPERTS, ACTORS and PEOPLE ON SITE.“
The three reveal more information about the heterarchical model of "Raumvertretung" in their presentation video, which is viewable on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHchNRm06oQ
This project is a result of the studio “Interregnum I: Urban Agencies & Dei Ex Machina”.
Concept and teaching: c/o now - Andrijana Ivanda & Tobias Hönig + Markus Rampl, Paul Reinhardt, Duy An Tran, Ksenija Zdešar
Das Projekt wurde im Rahmen der Ausstellung BestOFF 2022 gezeigt.
