Roth / Utopian Imagery of Urban Peripheries in the Context of the Anthropocene´s Cultural Concept

Utopian Imagery of Urban Peripheries in the Context of the Anthropocene´s Cultural Concept Cooperative image production as design method

Authors: Martin Roth, TU Berlin; Marcus Kopper, TU Berlin

Research stage: Intermediate doctoral stage

Category: Artefact

Abstract

Using spatial aspects of the Anthropocene’s social concept as methodology - such as the manifold entanglements between city and landscape, human and nonhuman environments - promises to develop architecture and urban design projects beyond common sustainability arguments of re-densification and land-use reduction.

The design driven research is located beyond dense urban agglomerations in Germany, representing the spatial boundaries between man-made landscapes and built environments - the frontline of the modernistic dichotomy between nature and culture. Mulitple competition projects are used as case studies to consider new forms of low-density settlements in combination with small-scale agriculture.

Utopian imagery is chosen as a method to encounter the scale problem and viewpoints that are inherent in the anthropogenic arguments and to process, manage and narrate the inherent entanglements in this research. Moreover, it serves as an interdisciplinary, multi-cultural device and thus may contribute to related fields and future urban-development processes. The imaginary is developed within a collaborative work process and the co-authorship is used as a method to inform and develop a multi-perspective outcome.

Keywords: Anthropocene, Periphery, Imagery