Architecturewriter

Katrina at 20: Evacuation is a common strategy to protect populations from the impact of disasters. This was also true in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The big problem was that evacuation was contingent on car ownership, leading to highly stressful post-landfall search-and-rescue and evacuation procedures. And while many long-term evacuees eventually found a new home and a new job in cities they were displaced to, Houston being the most significant destination, the process raises serious planning questions. In particular, vulnerable New Orleanians were left with little to no choice regarding their displacement. Is it possible to "design" such a process, by giving people a choice which way forward they prefer once they have been evacuated to safe havens in the surrounding region? My contribution on "Schismourbanism as Design" was published in Yana Milev's extensive edited volume "Design Anthropology". On 29 August 2005 Hurricane Katrina made lan...

Katrina at 20: In the context of urban climate risks, it is important to acknowledge that urban planning and emergency management planning and preparedness are two different planning domains. The related institutions are more often than not staffed by professionals from completely different academic backgrounds. The first relates to everyday planning in cities with the aim of achieving sustainability and resilience, against the background of uneven development and differential access to resources that cities offer. The second encompasses planning for urban disaster recovery and reconstruction in order to facilitate rebuilding efforts after a storm, a flood, an earthquake or another kind of natural hazard caused destruction of the built fabric. One of the lessons learned in the second case is that a return to "normal" or a condition that (presumably) existed prior to the impact of disaster is inadequate to make cities and their citizens resilient against future disasters. The ...

One recovery planning aim in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina would have been simple – for the Road Home program to prioritize the rebuilding of small rental properties, thereby recreating multiple residential units at once, which would have allowed many more residents evacuated to distant locations to return and rebuild their homes without needing FEMA trailers, which never materialized in sufficient quantities anyway. Why didn't rebuilding the city after the storm happen that way? Why the obsession with single family home construction in a city with such a high share of renters before the storm? "Early on 29 August 2005 Hurricane Katrina made landfall and resulted in the failure of the city’s flood protection system, the submergence of urbanized areas in floodwater, environmental problems through debris, contamination, and accelerated coastal erosion, and the death of almost 2,000 people. The city was confronted with “severe but not catastrophic winds, record rainfa...

Nearly 20 years ago, Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Ten years later, I had been researching the outcomes for some time and published "Adaptive strategies of urban disaster recovery planning" as a book chapter in a volume titled "Cities at Risk", edited by G. Sands, P. Filion, and M. Skidmore. Around the same time, I was interviewed by a committee of very high-ranking German academics on the topic and one of them suggested that there had been no planning at all in New Orleans. Based on my research I was necessitated to politely disagree, and explained why – which actually caused agitation in my interviewer. The book chapter shows that the problem wasn't the absence of planning, but instead, its ad-hoc character and the circumstance that it neglected the situation in the city before Katrina – shrinkage, inequality, uneven development, and vulnerability. So, what does the book chapter say? When disaster impacts cities, planners are required to address tw...

About one third of the texts featured in my book "Bavarität – Krisenbewältigung im baukulturellen Raum" are based on previously published contributions of different kinds. When I began working on the book concept, I had a much larger selection of published and unpublished texts that I considered including in the book. This was also the case for a group of texts that dealt with the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the way we inhabit the built environment of Bavaria (and elsewhere). They are good, but they didn't fit into the book. And a blog is a great place to make them available. So I begin today with a brief series of outtakes. The first one is in English and essentially a photo report: De­ser­ted Ci­ti­es of the Heart For a long time, world city with a heart – “Weltstadt mit Herz” – was the official marketing slogan of the city of Munich. Nowadays, like any city subject to a stay-at-home-order aimed at mitigating the impact of the Corona pandemic, it is more akin...

Ein Fachbuch vom Deutschen ins Englische zu übersetzen ist eine verantwortungsvolle Aufgabe. Der Text soll informativ sein und dabei fließen. Für einen Übersetzer ist es sicher hilfreich, wenn man die "Sprache der Architektur" kennt. Da ich am Anfang meiner Berufstätigkeit in der Praxis in deutsch- wie auch englischsprachigen Ländern tätig war, kenne ich die meisten Dinge, die in so einem Fachbuch "verbaut" werden. Doch der Anspruch an die Übersetzung ist größer: Verstehen Leser in allen Ländern, auf allen Kontinenten tatsächlich, worum es geht? Können sie für ihre eigene Praxis Erkenntnisse gewinnen, die auf eigene Projekte übertragbar sind? Und macht es ihnen Spaß, das Buch zu lesen? Aber – lest selbst! Translating a professional publication from German to English comes with great responsibility. The text is supposed to inform readers, the text is supposed to flow. For a translator, it is certainly helpful to know the architectural "lingo". At the beginn...

In "Bavarity", one footnote deals with phenomena that are evoked in the context of architecture and urban planning time and again. These phenomena are of central importance to chapter five and the "Space for Visionary Things" it focuses on. Aura and atmosphere – both are ephemeral, even elusive. We can feel them, but they remain intangible. Nevertheless, they are important to how we perceive the built space of architecture and the city. Footnote number 23 on page 102 indicates that there are pioneers of this mode of perception. They are commonly known as "flaneurs": "Hassenpflug (2006) points out that the aura and what is considered auratic comprise phenomena that can trigger an emotional response. In this manner, they can also serve as basis for creating the atmospheric character of a space – and how to recognize it. The capacity for recognizing auratic phenomena is, in return, a core characteristic of urban actors known a...

One thing I enjoy about footnotes is that they can serve to deliberate on certain topics beyond the scope of the book they are included in. As an urbanist, this refers to all terminology in use to describe the city, the urban way of life, the architecture as its facilitator, as well as the open and public space of cities. This is also the case in the footnote on page 83 of "Bavarity". The chapter on "Space for Housing" it is featured in deals with the housing crisis in cities and how to solve it. For this purpose, a basic understanding and differentiation of cities in history is foundational: "As Hassenpflug (2006) states, the synecism of the historic European city can be understood as cooperative settlement of long distance traders, merchants and craftspeople (p. 41) with the aim of forming a fraternity based on self-rule and the avoidance of a central authority. This notion is typical to European urban culture and the way it avoids central auth...

Did I already mention that I'm a big fan of footnotes? "Bavarity" features a number of footnotes that I enjoyed writing. They offer room for detail and the opportunity to clarify things, based on available literature. They also allow authors to make a statement. In chapter three on "Space for Building Culture", the footnote on page 43 presented here allowed me to harmonize different understandings and conceptualizations of different forms of culture. All of them are relevant to an understanding of building culture that is fundamental to the book. The fact that I refer to the great structuralist, Claude Lévi-Strauss, shouldn't come as a surprise to readers: "I propose a notion of building culture that is based on the idea of culture as proposed by Lévi-Strauss (1977): "Culture consists of intrinsic forms of exchange (such as language)" as well as "rules that are applicable to all kinds of 'games of exchange', whether...

Certain books feature footnotes – that is no secret. I like them, as a reader and as an author. I use them in order to offer an additional level of detail or to point out something interesting. In the case of the footnote in "Bavarity – Coping with Crisis in the Space of Building Culture" presented in this post, I elaborated on a certain notion that I have been working on for quite some time. When crisis occurs, there is often talk of a desired "return to normal". The question is whether that is actually desirable. Was there a condition in place prior to the crisis that can be defined as "normalcy" or "normality" for all impacted populations? And, is this condition worth recreating? Quite a number of assumptions are tied to the notion of "returning to normal". From the perspective of planning, they require critical inquiry. The footnote on page 28 of the chapter on "Space as Crisis" states accordingly: "The...

Every scientific book features footnotes. This is also the case for "Bavarity – Coping with Crisis in the Space of Building Culture". In fact, I actually enjoy footnotes. They expand the horizon, they offer room for elaboration and they are fun. This also applies to the footnote in chapter one on "Space as Text" selected for this post. I am fascinated by the notion that the city is a phenomenon that can be "read" like a book. Reading the city opens the door to understanding what is read in a qualified manner. Readers find the following footnote on page 6: "The notion that cities permit reading them is an invention of 19th century feuilleton writers. It is rooted in the idea that nature and the world itself can be read, similar to a text. The urbanist perspective advanced in this book views the city as a system that is embedded in the natural environment. Its built subsystems and units are represented by architecture. Partial to the urba...

The theme of chapter five of "Bavarity" is "space for envisioning projects" and once more features some of my own photos. The image presented in this post shows how an existing building was envisioned anew, thereby connecting the past, the present and the future. The timber house is located in the city of Landshut in the region of Lower Bavaria and was built in the 15th century. Munich-based architect Markus Stenger carefully revived it in the 21st century by use of sustainable materials. The structure offers an answer to the architectural question on "what if?" by the way the changes it experienced throughout the centuries become partial to its architectural expression. This includes, but is not limited to, a change in context from rural to periurban to urban. Thus, it reflects the theme of chapter five in an exemplary manner. The featured projects ask "what if?" in relation to architecture, urban design, urban planning and landscape architectur...

Chapter four of "Bavarity" focuses on space for housing, illustrated in color photographs, some of which I specifically created for the book. In particular, this refers to the housing association project "wagnisART" in Munich. It was established by the wagnis housing association for its members only a few years ago and was designed by bogevischs buero, SHAG Schindler Hable Architekten, Ingenieurbüro EST, auböck/káráz and bauchplan. I had previously reported on this project and how it was planned and designed for the architectural press. In the summer of 2023 I revisited the housing complex and received friendly permission to use the new images in the book. Why housing associations, one might ask? I was interested in the way they facilitated participation within the planning and design of the project. As it turns out, this occurred similar to a game, with rules established and implemented by the designers and the users together – in a shared space and with the shared...

The photos featured in "Bavarity" include many I captured myself. This post presents an image for chapter three, showing the New City Hall (Neues Rathaus) in Nuremberg, designed by Kurt Schneckendorf. It represents what the chapter on space for building culture is about: the past, present and future of building in Bavaria. The structure occupies a historic site bordering the Main Market Square (Hauptmarkt) in Nuremberg. It was designed in the era of postwar modernism, which continues to architecturally contour the cityscape of the present. As the photo shows, it is used for media installations, which underscores its capacity for transformation and, hence, its future-proof character. In a corresponding manner, the book chapter features essays on the past, present and future of building culture in Bavaria. For this purpose, I employ the motif of the mirror in order to allow readers easy access to the topics and examples described in the chapter. The essay on the past begins one...

The photographs selected for "Bavarity" are featured in color in both the digital and print editions of the book. Chapter two deals with "space as crisis" and includes an image from the recovery and reconstruction process in Deggendorf after the 2013 floods. I took the photo in 2014. "Space as crisis" in intended to provide architects, urban designers, urban planners and landscape architects with an interdisciplinary understanding of crises and disasters. Such an understanding is aimed at providing a knowledge base for the creation of sustainable and resilient means of adaptation to future crises and disasters. One poignant example is the intersection between building and dwelling, where it is necessary to transcend off-the-shelf ideas and products. Correspondingly, the individual, socially and psychologically informed perception of risk plays an important role in terms of how people respond to crises. This is also relevant to a culture of rem...

For "Bavarity" I had the opportunity to select about fifty photographs. They are featured in color in the digital and physical print editions of the book. The image in chapter one displayed here shows the Wieskirche in Bavaria. I took the photo myself in the fall of 2011. The chapter deals with space as text and particularly how we can "read" the built environment. The question is how to approximate this notion in the case of the Free State of Bavaria. The premise for answering this question was to have a closer look at text that illustrates the milieus of Bavarian rural and urban life. This is the case in the work of playwright and actor Franz Xaver Kroetz. His theater plays depict how people deal with conflicts between traditional and modern ways of life. The plays are very specific in terms of the spatial dimension and character of these conflicts. Kroetz calls out the derelict farmhouses and modern urban districts in which his characters experience their individ...

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 S...

In my research on how planning and building responded to environmental risk in southern Germany, it became clear to me that vulnerability was the phenomenon that connected the case to other ones across the globe. The lacking capacity to individually cope with the impact of disaster was precisely the weak spot when it came to rebuilding damaged or destroyed housing. The lack of housing happens to be a general societal weak spot, an everyday circumstance of urban crisis beyond environmental risk. On various occasions I had the opportunity to speak in detail with actors who engage in finding solutions to the housing crisis, especially in cities. These interviews allowed me to write publications for architectural magazines, such as Der Baumeister and Bauwelt. The reviewed cases included housing associations or initiatives in Munich and the specific way they employed the participation of future residents, in order to plan and design housing and apartments. The examples show how...

My road to "Bavarity" began with crises. What is their impact on the built space of society, under which circumstances can planning and preparedness, reconstruction and recovery be successful, how can we adapt to recurring forms of crisis in a sustainable manner? In this context, it is important to show solutions, to present adequate, beautiful, useful and good built examples. It is no surprise that they exist in Bavaria. A few years ago the Bavarian Chamber of Architects (BYAK) asked me to write essays on the culture of building in the Free State. The occasion was the anniversary of the Architektouren, the annual initiative of the BYAK to communicate successful architecture, urban design, urban planning and landscape architecture projects to the public. The Architektouren serve as an invitation to visit new and exceptional built examples in cities and on the countryside and to speak with the responsible actors. This corresponds to the way I worked on the essays. I proposed a...

In the course of my preparations for "Bavarity" and its structure, it became clear to me that I had been writing about building in Bavaria longer than was aware to me at the time. This is relevant for two reasons. For one, it was important to me to develop an understanding of crises and disasters that had the potential for harmonization with perspectives of architecture, urban design and urban planning. From this point of view, it is sensible to refer to the insights gained by sociological research on disasters. In fact, I had already developed a related approach in 2007 and tested corresponding hypotheses within international and national case studies. This leads to the second reason: A particular case of an environmental crisis and disaster unfolded along the Danube river in Lower Bavaria in 2013. Only few colleagues understood right away just how catastrophic the impact was, in particular during the phase of disaster management that is intended to achieve reco...