Road to Bavarity – part 6

Out social and political freedom is contoured by constitutions and laws. Our freedom as planners and designers is described by the reality of the resources that are at our disposal. This corresponds to the need for sustainability in a world that is subject to rapid change. We should not underestimate what it means for planning and design to focus on these aspects. The risk exists that we become path-dependent and lose the capacity to think outside of the box. It is important to acknowledge that the reality of things limits the range of available opportunities in a substantial manner. It is also important to maintain the freedom of thought to be at least capable of imagining "what if?". One important reason for doing so is to become aware of the perspectives of those actors who can't participate in current discussions on planning and design, for various reasons. An earlier experiment (featured in "Architekturkultur", edited by Alexander Gutzmer and Stefan Höglmaier) served to illustrate a fictitious, even impossible discussion. Historic actors of building were assembled across time and space, meeting in an impossible place in order to develop a project together. In my book "Bavarity" I employ a similar approach to approximate answers to the question on "what if?". My aim was to achieve insight on which form a planning project in Munich might have assumed with a different planner at the helm, in order to substantiate a critique of the current and real situation. As counterfactual architectural criticism, this approach is also intended to demonstrate how we can express the freedom of planning and design ideas in a world of justifiable limitations.

"Bavarität: Krisenbewältigung im baukulturellen Raum" is available from Springer Spektrum and all booksellers.