XI Bienal de Sao Paulo: Grande Caminhada

Performance zur 11. Biennale der Architektur in Sao Paulo

Eine kollaborative Wanderung 8 Tage / 148 km
Als Eröffnungsprojekt der Biennale der Architektur von Sao Paulo war die Wanderung eine Einladung die zentrumsfokussierte Sicht auf Architektur umzudrehen und als physische Bewegung zu erleben. Mit ethnografischem Interesse und einem Fokus auf Architektur ohne Architekten wanderten eine Gruppe mit wechselnden Teilnehmern durch die Randbereiche Sao Paulos und durch die verschiedenartigen Stadtwelten jenseits des Zentrums. Begleitet wurde die Wanderung auf Social Media, Fernsehbeiträgen, dokumentiert in einem Twitter Livestream und einer Karte, die den Standort der Gruppe in Echtzeit anzeigte.

Beitragen konnte jeder durch Mitwandern, kommentieren im Social Media Space, Teilen eigener Inhalte oder die Bereitschaft eine Stop für die Wanderung zu bieten und ein Projekt oder Idee vorzustellen.

press:
TV GLOBO
TV: Jornal da Cultura

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PUBLICATION

An Experience-Based Learning Framework: Activities for the Initial Development of Sustainability Competencies

Caniglia, G., John, B., Kohler, M, Belina, L., Wiek, A., Rojas, C., Laubicher, W., Lang, D. 2016. „An Experience-Based Learning Framework: Activities for the Initial Development of Sustainability Competencies“. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education 17(6):827–52.
 
This paper aims to present an experience-based learning framework that provides a bottom-up, student-centered entrance point for the development of systems thinking, normative and collaborative competencies in sustainability. Design/methodology/approach The framework combines mental mapping with exploratory walking. It interweaves mapping and walking activities with methodological and theoretical inputs as well as with reflections and discussions. The framework aligns experiential activities, i.e. mental mapping and walking, with learning objectives, i.e. novice-level sustainability competencies. The authors applied the framework for student activities in Phoenix/Tempe and Hamburg/Lüneburg as part of The Global Classroom, a project between Arizona State University in the USA and Leuphana University of Lüneburg in Germany. Findings The application of the experience-based learning framework demonstrates how students started developing systems thinking (e.g. understanding urban systems as functional entities and across different domains), normative (e.g. using different sustainability principles) and collaborative (e.g. learning across disciplinary, social and cultural differences) competencies in sustainability. Originality/value The experience-based learning framework contributes to the development of curricular activities for the initial development of sustainability competencies in introductory-level courses. It enables students from different disciplinary, social and cultural backgrounds, e.g. in international education, to collaboratively start developing such competencies. The framework can be adapted to different educational contexts.
 
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/ijshe/17/6
https://www.researchgate.net
PUBLICATION

Walking through instead of flying over: A way to see the flux of urbanization in Istanbul and other places?

Kohler, Martin. 2014. „Walking through in stead of flying over – a way to see the flux of urbanization in Istanbul and other places?“ in Walking the European City. Farnham, Surrey; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.
 
This chapter aims to discuss walking as a method of studying urban social space that can be used to interpret and explain city regions. In the first part I present references to the fields of aerial photography in urban theory and planning, the challenge of global urban diversity for urban analysis and especially comparison and walking as a multi-sensual experience of places as a “poor methodology.”
These fields situate the practice of “Stadtwanderungen” or Big Urban Walks that will be exemplified in the second part presenting the walk through Istanbul.
 

„The usefulness of walking-based research is more evident when the object of analysis is a large urban area. In these cases, maps and satellite images rely on highly aggregated data and only allow for the identification of visual patterns from a large distance. As an alternative, Chapter 8 proposes „big urban walks“ crossing whole metropolitan areas. This method produces information that while subjective, it is also coherent and systematic, and can be used to understand the complex social and physical factors behind the patterns observed in maps.“

Anciaes, Paulo Rui. 2014. „Walking in the European city: quotidian mobility and urban ethnography“. Urban Geography Book Review 2014 2014.
 
 
https://www.routledge.com/
https://www.researchgate.net/

Sideways – Walking Arts Festival

Sideways is a translocal, experimental festival for contemporary art and cultural
research, exploring different ‘pathscapes’ in the northern region of Belgium.
This first-time event did unfold on the go across a four week period in the summer
of 2012. It exhibited a broad program of visual art, walks, live art and sitespecific
interventions. Ubiquitous yet overlooked, these pathscapes comprise a
broad diversity of ‘spaces of going’: crooked rural footpaths; cycleways spanning
many kilometres; straight tow paths on the banks of waterways; transient ‘desire
lines’ leading from one urban area to another; barely perceptible, overgrown
backroads; picturesque hollow ways; etc.
The festival aims to question the past history, present use and future potential
of these landscape features, as well as our conceptions of time, space, movement
and memory and create a collaborative meeting ground.
The festival was structured in 1. a journey 2. festival nodes and 3. concluding
conference.

PUBLICATION

Guided Walking to Urban Transformations

Kohler, Martin. 2008. „Guided Walking to Urban Transformations“. Barcelona.

Walking „safaris“ into industrial wastelands, transformed into temporary art installation sites draws attention to the potential for rebirth and revitalization of places in limbo. Urban development is characterized by a kind of cycle and phases of prominent and favoured places of living and working on the one hand and less liked urban spaces on the other hand. Those areas are usually the problematic cases of urban planning and in many cases these areas are former industrial or harbour areas. The derelict landscapes show fragmented remains of formerly important symbols and uses. These shattered codes of past meaning can be used to create new meaning, new symbols and new patterns of activity. But the waiting land is not easy to access. The landscapes are confusing and empty, the possible future seems far away and is intangible. A translation for the history, the quality and the potential of the site is needed focusing on the real place in question. A possible way of translating the history and the future by walking is shown with site-specific art installations and guided walking tours to the abandoned land for future use.

https://www.researchgate.net/