Vertical public space

Initial situation

Due to the explosive growth of the world's population, many regions - primarily in the less developed countries of Africa and Asia - are suffering from enormous population density. The consequences are hunger, poverty, shortages, ecological problems, epidemics and economic stagnation.

In recent times, rapidly developing urban districts in Asia have reached shocking proportions and brutal urban conditions. The greatest challenge currently facing urban planners and architects is the development of very dense and at the same time people-friendly urban structures. The design of public spaces plays a central role in this.

In today's large cities, public spaces are arranged horizontally and between blocks of buildings. Urban planning concepts, zoning and land registers think and define cities in two dimensions. In medieval cities, on the other hand, public spaces were more differentiated and could therefore be used in more diverse ways. Randomly created open spaces were perceived three-dimensionally, public spaces were developed both at ground level and vertically. Current concepts do not follow on from such traditional uses of space. However, the programmatic implementation of dense urban cores with three-dimensional open spaces holds enormous potential.

Issue: Vertical public space

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Book

The planned book documents our three-year research activity on vertical public space. It presents a selection of thought models for the reinterpretation of public space in dense cities. The investigations are based on real urban situations and integrate, experimentally and prototypically, publicly usable areas in intermediate spaces or in building envelopes. The strategic aim is to create urban structures from fluid spaces that can be reconfigured at any time and from energy-generating, light-modulating shells. The vertical open spaces open up to the differentiated requirements of dynamic usage scenarios and provide an impetus for the reinterpretation of urban density and for forward-looking urban renewal. Public spaces must not be left as gaps between buildings, but must be actively integrated into the city as buildings or layers of buildings.

In several text contributions, experts from various disciplines contextualize the significance of vertical public spaces and explore the issues we are pursuing in our research project in greater depth:

• How can public space become a structural component of a dense, inner-city development?

• What is the potential of multifunctional roof and façade landscapes that, when tilted vertically, form a kind of intermediate space between inside and outside, between building and open space, between city and nature?

• When cities serve as a three-dimensional building site, “landscape” and “city” swap roles. The architecture of public space mutates into a second-order form of settlement. How can landscape qualities be translated into architecture and urban planning?

• What does an open living environment mean? What strategies promote a socially and culturally sustainable use of space as a resource?

• Can vertical public spaces and complementary infrastructures lead to a reduction in individual traffic and stabilization of dense residential areas?

Vertical public space

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The bilingual book (German / English) is aimed at schools and universities as well as public planning departments, commercial or private project developers, planners from various disciplines and the wider public.

Editor: MAK Vienna

Publisher: Verlag für moderne Kunst Nürnberg

Language: german/ english

Published: October 18, 2011

with contributions by:

Klaus Bollinger/ Arne Hofmann

Brigitte Felderer

Bart Lootsma

Christoph Thun-Hohenstein

Bärbel Vischer