Distill a synthesis of your work. Your work should be as abstract as possible, i.e. to show your results as clear as schnapps. This will be the final of your work process.
Authors: practice sheetsProduce 3 sheets
(01) map of consolidations = positive space = quantity
(02) graphism defining the consolidations = quality
(03) one section showing the negative and the positive space (it is very important to chose a relevant section)
Normally while thinking of movement we think of cars and buses and trucks and pedestrians, but between the two fused cities the movements are the combining elements of the fusion city. Here the most important ones are immaterial like job offers, ideas and culture.
Find out what are the predominant movements in your two cities letting them fuse by
(01) drawing a map locating the origins and endpoints of the movements (take at least three movements). It might help you to know WHO or WHAT moves it.
(02) visualizing the period of active movement (one map on a 24h rhythm and one map with historical layers) – trim out the content only movement!
(03) zooming into the main movement (a bridge or a checkpoint)
‘New Movement in Cities‘ by Brian Richards (at the Archäologische Bibliothek)
Loiterer’s Resistance Movement by border culture
Cross-Border-Communication by broken city lab
Define the two bordering cities. While producing maps never clip the content of the other city.
(00) continue feeding your base map.
(01) draw schematic as-built plans of the two cities. different sectors in a different hatch style
(02) draw a map indicating the main open spaces in each city. see how they are connected. this is the negative space
(03) make a collage of what each city stands for and what flows from one city to the other and vice versa. goods, workers (what kind of?), knowledge, etc. who gets what?
Healy (Graham, Marvin 2001) compared in a visual way the ‘traditional central city – periphery relation’ to ‘contemporary urban region’. Have a look at page 3 of the document.
Authors: practice sheetsThe two fusion cities are divided by a border. In a few diagrams you should define the border.
(00) Make a topographique map with geographical data as a base for your fusion cities area.
(01) How is the border remarkable? What positive space is created to actually build the border? > draw a plan of the masses (extended zoom), are there checkpoints? then make a zoom to each of them. can they be categorised?
(02) What is restricted by the border? What do you need to pass the border? > make a collage.
(03) Who controls the border? (in both directions) > you may work with pictos to cite laws or rules.
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(a) What/who passes the border anyway? > brainstorming
You can get inspired by le Monde Diplomatique’s graphical information in English, in French and in German. They have even more local ones, if you need some more detailed information.
Another graphical award winning magazine is Greenpeace Magazin – even maps.
Some videos, too: minor protest, Borders, Dessert Land.
Two cities divided by a border are growing together. The moving particles of this inter-cultural exchange leave their footprint in the landscape – the urban landscape. A border is a thin line between them, an area like an enclave or an undefined moving line, sometimes not even visible.
In the course we will analyze the original state of the cities and how it got reformed by the exchange through the years.
What is strongly restricted by the border? (people, goods, …)
What does not care about the border? (internet, climate, geography, culture …)
Switching from border and flows (network/negative space) to city (footprint/positive space) and back again we will draw maps and diagrams to compare the several pairs of fusion cities.
During the seminar of the summer term 2009 at PAR, TU Darmstadt, the students analyzed four different types of borders: natural, artificial, political, and social. Three analytical steps were taken by the students: borders, cities, movements to then finally distill a still image ‘consolidation of movement’.
BRAKIN_natural : Brazzaville and Kinshasa by Humerto Sarabio as hus and Marion Bouchard as mab
SAN JUANA_artificial : San Diego and Tijuana by Julio Obregon Zepeda as juo and Anne Touchet as ant
JERUSALEM_political : East and West Jerusalem by Slobodan Subotić as sls and Petko Gogov as peg
FAVEMINIO_social : Favela and Condominio in Rio de Janeiro by Eleni Sougaris as els
The language of this book here is mostly visual, which enables the viewer to an intuitive comparison of each of the fusion cities and the analytical steps.
Enjoy, it was made for that,
Jula-Kim Sieber
