A Multi-Site Enquiry into Urban Narratives of Conflict and Change

Against the backdrop of the continuous transformation of cities, it is necessary to constantly review and further develop concepts of urban change. This research project examines the diverse narrative bodies of knowledge on conflict and change within architecture and urban theory and confronts them with an empirically grounded situational analysis of the large housing estate Parkstadt Bogenhausen in Munich. The result of this combined research approach is the sensitising concept of The Redundant City. It describes a specific form of collectively negotiated urban transformation.

A New Concept of Change

The Redundant City introduces a new concept through which asymmetrical situations of change in cities can be better understood and interpreted. Particular attention is given to spaces organised under the German Condominium Act (Wohnungseigentumsgesetz, WEG). The term The Redundant City refers both to the concept itself and to the “Parkstadt” housing estate to which the concept relates.

On the one hand, The Redundant City creates particular conditions for initiating and shaping processes of change through the relative autonomy of collectively exercised and privatised decision-making power. On the other hand, collective self-regulation, structural and institutional frameworks, investment-oriented accumulation, and mechanisms of resistance to change generate conditions that permit only limited transformations on the micro level, while preventing change and interaction on the urban scale.

The problematic nature of this situation is reflected in the ambivalent concept of redundancy chosen for the study. In The Redundant City, opportunities for individual appropriation and transformation coexist with conditions of stagnation. Processes of change are directed inward, while interactions with the city remain reactive and are reduced to a minimum.

The Redundant City follows its own distinctive pattern of transformation and is therefore fundamentally different from other processes of change within the city.

In its concluding outlook, the study addresses current issues in Munich’s urban development policy. For example, it points to the selectivity of the densification programme within the framework of “Perspektive München. Long-Term Settlement Development” and discusses the concept of The Redundant City as a basis for a more differentiated understanding of urban spaces, particularly those organised under the German Condominium Act.

The study establishes connections between theory-building and concrete urban challenges and points towards practical applications in a discursive field that will increasingly shape the future development of cities due to the growing prevalence of condominium ownership structures.

Methodology

The research presented here combines architectural and urban theory with perspectives from Critical Urban Theory and methods adapted from the social sciences. The research design is based on the combination of different, complementary methods, sources, and materials. This approach, which can be characterised as multi-site/multiple-methods, combines elements of discursive-interpretive analysis with the collection and evaluation of empirical data. The discursive-interpretive analysis follows the open research logic of Grounded Theory Methodology (GTM), while the actor- and space-centred case study of Parkstadt Bogenhausen is informed by Situational Analysis (SA) and Social Worlds/Arenas Theory. In both areas, the methodological framework is complemented by newly developed, project-specific analytical and mapping tools.

Author: Norbert Kling
Publisher: transcript Verlag, ISBN: 978-3-8376-5114-0
Language: English
Link: Open Access 

Awards

The research was awarded the Dr Marschall-Preis 2020 by the Faculty of Architecture.

About the Author

Norbert Kling teaches and conducts research at the Technical University of Munich and is a partner at zectorarchitects London/Munich. The research, teaching, and project work of zectorarchitects was recognised with the Advancement Award of the City of Munich 2020 in the category of Architecture.