SKuOR 2011: Urban culture, public space and resources: Aesthetics and materiality

In March 2012 the new City of Vienna Visiting professor 2012 – Prof. PhD. Maria Kaika (University of Manchester, Manchester/UK) – is starting to work at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (SKuOR) in the field of 'Urban culture, public space and resources. Aesthetics and materiality'. Together with Dr. Sabine Knierbein, Head of SKuOR, the PhD candidate Dipl. Ing. (Arch) Tihomir Vidermann, MSc, Levente Polyak, MAS, external lecturer from Budapest (Hungary) and Markus Maicher, MSc, external lecturer from Vienna, she will be involved in teaching an research activities during summer term 2012. This term SKuOR offers a set of integrated courses compiled as Module 11: Urban culture, public space and resources. Aesthetics and materility at the interface of the fields of urban studies and urban design/urban planning related to the yearly focus 2012. These courses at Vienna University of Technology mainly address master students in related disciplines, such as planning, architecture, urban design, geography, sociology, landscape architecture, cultural studies, ... . Nevertheless, late bachelor students as well as PhD students are most welcome to join in too! In line with SKuOR's basic principles, the team aims at combining interdisciplinary perspectives with explorative approaches in urban design, urban planning and urban research. Read more.

Publications

KNIERBEIN Sabine and MEGYERI, Matthias (2011)

Private Public.
London: Lost Books.

For Private Public, Sabine Knierbein and the artist Matthias Megyeri contributed their perspective on the privatisation of public space.
As our attention span is measured and commodified, and as private sponsorship becomes the most visible cultural influence in our cities, we have to ask ourselves: just how public is our public space??
English/German. 104 pages, 20 images, ISBN: 978-3-9814930-0-9
French/German. 104 pages, 20 images, ISBN 978-2-910036-68-3.
Lost Books
KNIERBEIN Sabine (2010)

The production of central public spaces and the economy of attention. Aesthetic, economic and medial restructuring by design-related coalitions in Berlin since 1980.
Wiesbaden: VS Verlag.
Since the 1980s public spaces are challenged by manifest aesthetic changes. This book follows the assumption that institutional transformations are expressed by these aesthetic changes. Institutional transformations which point to changing roles of the state and of markets in public space production processes. Read more.
Foreword by Max Welch Guerra. 437 pages. 51 illustrations, 2 of them in colour, and 14 tables. Br.
ISBN: 978-3-531-17424-2.
VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften

Dates

19th to 22nd of March 2012
Teaching Block I: Module 11 Urban culture and public space.
21st of March 2012
06.30 pm: SKuOR Evening Lecture on "Beyond Green Utopias:  From dreams for collective transformation to lifestyle blueprints and beyond" by MArch Dr. phil. Maria Kaika. Hörsaal 12, Vienna UT Main Building, Karlsplatz 13, 1040 Vienna, Section 6, 2nd floor.Poster
26th to 29th of March 2012
Teaching Block II: Module 11 Urban culture and public space.
28th of March 2012
06.30 pm: SKuOR Evening Dialogue on "Public space. Resources and materialities" chaired by DI (FH) Dr. phil. Sabine Knierbein with invited experts from Vienna. Seminarraum Argentinierstraße, Argentinierstraße 8, 1040 Vienna, ground floor. Poster
29th of May to 1st of June 2012
Teaching Block III: Module 11 Urban culture and public space.
30th of May 2012
06.30 pm: SKuOR Evening lecture on "Designing the Post-Political City and the Insurgent Polis" by Prof. Erik Swyngedouw, MSc MSc PhD. Seminarraum Argentinierstraße, Argentinierstraße 8, 1040 Vienna, ground floor. Poster
20th to 22nd of September 2012
EURA conference on "Urban Europe – Challenges to Meet the Urban Future” in Vienna. Conference website.