Speculations On Space: Urban interventions, Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007

Anderson, B; Bittner, R

Speculations On Space: Urban interventions, Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007

Anderson, B

Bittner, R

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Citation:: Sibiu, Romania and Luxembourg

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Anderson, B https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8387-340X	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Bittner, R	en_US
dc.date	2007-06-14	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Sibiu, Romania and Luxembourg	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/17504
dc.description.abstract	In 2007 the cities of Sibiu (Romania) and Luxembourg (Luxembourg) shared the role of European Capital of Culture (CCE 2007). Themes for the Cultural Programme included 'public space', 'social dimension' and 'European perspectives'. Speculations on Space comprised a series of spatial interventions carried out by the Bauhaus Kolleg, an international program focusing on EU Urbanism involving architects, urban designers, sociologists, ethnologists and visual communicators. As an advisor to the Bauhaus Kolleg in 2006/07, I curated these events. The pairing of the poorest (Sibiu) and the richest (Luxembourg) EU member states presented a series of challenges for the positioning and referencing of events. The radical change underway in Sibiu's urban environment created a range of possibilities. Each of the eight projects was site-specific, embracing interdisciplinary relationships. White Stripes, for example, took at its impetus the everyday, illegal entrances to the city's train station that also resulted in dangerous pedestrian crossings. In response, the painting of a new zebra crossing created a false but nevertheless 'true' and safer traffic condition for pedestrians and drivers. On the other hand, the five interventions created in Luxembourg were based on highlighting the youth homelessness and the everyday migration (60,000) of the city's transitory workforce from Germany, Belgium and France. One intervention entitled, Welcome, for example, was aimed at animating a rethinking of typologies related to mobility and migration. The passerelle (gangway) at the Luxembourg Central Station was âpavedâ with doormats symbolizing the threshold of micro-geographies, and the tensions of inside and outside, private and public. Meaning was also layered across partnered projects. While Welcome imported the quality of arrival as found in Sibiu, White Stripes questioned the hyper-regulation of infrastructural spaces as found in Luxembourg.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Sibiu, Romania and Luxembourg	en_US
dc.title	Speculations On Space: Urban interventions, Sibiu - European Capital of Culture 2007	en_US
utslib.location.activity	Sibiu, Romania and Luxembourg	en_US
utslib.for	120399 Design Practice and Management not elsewhere classified	en_US
dc.location.activity	Sibiu, Romania and Luxembourg	en_US
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building/School of Design
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CCDP - Contemporary Design Practice
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access
pubs.start-date	2007-06-14	en_US

Abstract:

In 2007 the cities of Sibiu (Romania) and Luxembourg (Luxembourg) shared the role of European Capital of Culture (CCE 2007). Themes for the Cultural Programme included 'public space', 'social dimension' and 'European perspectives'. Speculations on Space comprised a series of spatial interventions carried out by the Bauhaus Kolleg, an international program focusing on EU Urbanism involving architects, urban designers, sociologists, ethnologists and visual communicators. As an advisor to the Bauhaus Kolleg in 2006/07, I curated these events. The pairing of the poorest (Sibiu) and the richest (Luxembourg) EU member states presented a series of challenges for the positioning and referencing of events. The radical change underway in Sibiu's urban environment created a range of possibilities. Each of the eight projects was site-specific, embracing interdisciplinary relationships. White Stripes, for example, took at its impetus the everyday, illegal entrances to the city's train station that also resulted in dangerous pedestrian crossings. In response, the painting of a new zebra crossing created a false but nevertheless 'true' and safer traffic condition for pedestrians and drivers. On the other hand, the five interventions created in Luxembourg were based on highlighting the youth homelessness and the everyday migration (60,000) of the city's transitory workforce from Germany, Belgium and France. One intervention entitled, Welcome, for example, was aimed at animating a rethinking of typologies related to mobility and migration. The passerelle (gangway) at the Luxembourg Central Station was âpavedâ with doormats symbolizing the threshold of micro-geographies, and the tensions of inside and outside, private and public. Meaning was also layered across partnered projects. While Welcome imported the quality of arrival as found in Sibiu, White Stripes questioned the hyper-regulation of infrastructural spaces as found in Luxembourg.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/17504