:
Richard Schwarz, 2011 (c)

Mein sommer 1805 [my summer 1805] - thinking of a city air-conditioning system

The city seems optimized, while on the countryside a bit of dysfunction is allowed; also because this is slowing down the speed of life. But because of more and more people are gathering in cities, these agglomerations should be thought as spaces for well being and not for acceleration.

One evidence that cities are not made for living could be found in a field guide for birds entry "blackbird“. Although a lot of those birds are living in cities, the city is not listed as a "typical habitat“. In the thought experiment „mein sommer 1805“ not only green city spaces enable well being, also the 'grey' areas are taken as valuable living spaces. On search for recreation people should stroll through street canyons. In context of "mein sommer 1805" ideas were developed how interventions in the city climate could influence the atmosphere of the city habitat - and in addition the emotion of the inhabitants and visitors.

To turn this thought experiment into an applied one a concrete place in the city will be chosen. Findings out of a cultural anthropological research should supply observations how this space and its changes are experienced. Based on this, climatological measurements should make this habitat comparable to other (rural) habitats and provide a base for a 'city climate intervention' - an installation in public space that reacts on the given climate to make it more 'likable'.

The city turns out to be the 'typical habitat' for the human species, so it seems worth to think of how we find our place in there and how it feels like. And hopefully such an installation will be only needed for pointing at this topic and not for longer terms to make cities worth living.

 

 

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Mein sommer 1805 [my summer 1805] - thinking of a city air-conditioning system
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Date
June 21, 2011