Living the City. Of Cities, People and Stories

Cities are complex, diverse, and contradictory. A great many different interests converge: private with public, human with non-human. The requirements of the few often collide with the needs and desires of the many. This multifarious situation poses significant challenges for urban planning. How should or must a city for all look? By and with whom should it be conceived, developed, and created? What processes and spaces for action are needed? What rules are necessary to think together about connections between built space and people, society and politics, economy and nature? And how can solidarity-based (living) environments evolve and expand? Against this backdrop, the exhibition brings together narratives of city-making—with all of its interactions, dependencies, and consequences. Projects, actions, and installations from architecture, art, and urban planning address the possibilities and challenges for an active and cooperative shaping of the city. The stories and narratives, told in the book, are intended to offer ideas on how cities can be rethought and renegotiated.