Strategies and intervention of the production of space

Link: TISS 280.534

VO Vorlesung / Semester hours: 2.0 / ECTS 4.0

**Barbara Pizzo is the New TU Wien Visiting Professor for Summer Term 2018. She is a Research Professor at University La Sapienza in Rome, Italy. The course will be offered by Prof. Dr. Pizzo and Prof. Dr. Knierbein in Co-Teaching Fashion. This outline may become subject to change and amendments**

i. Aim of the course

This lecture revisits the division between public and private space in the city. This division has been one of the key issues when addressing the qualities of public life and the urban fabric in urban history. Public space has been conceived of as being limited through different shades of private borders, boundaries and property lines, whereas urban planners state that in order to build real cities and not just dwelling units, private space needs to be interwoven with the urban fabric through the connective tissue that is public space. This dialectical relation has also been expressed through the shifting balance between tenants and owners of a city. A manifest change in these patterns has been induced by financial and speculative modes of housing production in which through subprime lending an increasing number of tenant households have been offered loans, in order to tempt them to become property owners and despite them being at high risk not to afford the loan.  This, for instance, has been the case in Spain in recent years. It is the aim of this lecture to explore to what extent the relation between public space and housing schemes (and related policies, research and activism) has changed over the last decade, particularly as regards the new urban extension areas. How are these new dwelling areas conceived as built environments, and for whom? Another set of questions that lie behind this investigative lecture-approach could be to find out to what extent traditional ‘tenant cities’ have been developing into ‘cities of home owners’, in which the manoeuvre particularly of cities as owners of public housing stocks for renting has been diminished? How have political and medial agendas been shaped in order to stimulate people to consider becoming property owners?

ii. Subject of the course

Unit 0: Introduction: Urban transformations: how, why and for whom?
Unit 1: Negotiating urban space_1
Unit 2: Post-Positivist Planning Theory
Unit 3: Negotiating urban space_2
Unit 4: Feminist Planning Theory
Unit 5: Claiming urban space_1: Problematizing self-organization
Unit 6: Planning Theory, Performativity and Affect
Unit 7: Claiming urban space_2: Self-organization and public policies
Unit 8: Planning Theory and Everyday Life
Unit 9: Contesting urban space_1: Uneven development, unexpected. Conflict and unintentional outcomes
Unit 10: City Unsilenced. Theorizing urban movements.
Unit 11: Contesting urban space_2: Who plans?
Unit 12: Public Space Unbound. Post-foundational thought and planning theory
Lecture Unit 13: Summary of lecture units, debate
Lecture Unit 14/15: Oral group exams or Individual Essay Submission

iii. Additional Information

The course language is English.

The lecture (VO) “Concepts and Critique of the Production of Space” is part of the module 11 “Urban culture, public space and housing” (consisting of three courses, VO 280.534, SE 280.535 and UE 280.536) which is offered during three five-days intensive teaching blocks (ITB) by the Interdisiciplinary Centre for Urban Culture and Public Space (SKuOR). Module 11 compiles a set of integrated courses at the interface of the fields of urban studies, urban planning and urban design. In 2018, the main focus will be on “Urban culture, public space and housing”.

The courses mainly address master students (late Bachelor or early PhD) from the fields of  spatial planning, architecture, urban studies, urban design, geography, sociology, social design, landscape architecture, cultural studies. The course language is English. We support students’ active participation in debates and interactive teaching formats, and encourage you to bring in and develop your own ideas and critical perspectives. We seek to create an international level of debate and exchange and welcome students from all countries and cultures. Just contact us (info@skuor.tuwien.ac.at).

iv. Dates