Topic: The DFG-funded research project "Star architecture and its role for re-positioning small and medium sized cities" is concerned with buildings designed by star architects and their role for re-positioning small and medium sized cities on regional and global economic circuits.
By bringing together analyses from the fields of urban economics, sociology and architecture and applying them in the field of urban studies, this research seeks to dig deeper beyond the dazzle effect of star architecture to investigate links to urban impacts. Together these investigations will constitute a body of material that prompts the rethinking of many accepted tenets related to star architecture and offer a broader urban and impact-oriented perspective that includes actor networks and changed logic of cities.
By reference to three case studies of flagship architectural projects inaugurated in the past 15 years, this research investigates ex-post the actual socio-economic impacts triggered by the arrival of these buildings to their respective small to medium sized cities and unpack inter-dependencies between actor networks, the realization of flagship architectural projects and urban transformation.
One of the objectives of this research is to develop an empirical evidence base of the processes driving the realization of flagship projects by star architects. Based on such an empirical database it will be possible to assess the associated impacts of flagship architectural projects on their surrounding settings and to identify the opportunities and threats of processes involving urban transformations through flagship architectural projects.
Alongside the Chair of Urban Development of TUM, two other chairs with two different core competencies work on this research, namely the Chair of Urban Design and Local Planning of HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU) and the Chair of Sociology of Planning and Architecture at the Institute of Sociology of the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB). TUM focuses on identifying the economic impacts associated with putting these particular projects in use and the role of media exposure. The research project commences in the summer of 2015 and will run for a duration of two years. Research findings will be disseminated through a symposium towards the end of the research period.
Researchers at the Chair of Urban Development: Alain Thierstein, Nadia Alaily-Mattar, Johannes Dreher
Principal: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
Media Coverage / conferences:
- Die Zeit, March 8, 2018: "Bilbao-Effekt: Stadt mit Einhorn"
- Luzerner Zeitung, March 19, 2018: "Weshalb der «Bilbao-Effekt» ausbleibt"
- Deutschlandfunk, February 14, 2018: "Hoffen auf den Bilbao-Effekt"
- Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 25, 2018: "Große Namen, große Bauten"
- Metropoli-30, Bilbao, March 22, 2018: CIX BM30 Workshop - International Seminar: Metropolis of the Future. Presentation Dr. Nadia Alaily-Mattar: "Repositioning Cities through Star Architectue"
The findings of the research project were presented by Prof. Alain Thierstein and Dr. Nadia Alaily-Mattar at the Technical University of Munich on February 12, 2018. Each of the case studies was presented by a guest speaker, who was involved first hand in the project at the early stages of its development.
Below, you can find the presentations as an audio podcast and PDF file. The presentation slides of Prof. Thierstein and Dr. Alaily-Mattar are in English.
Prof. Dr. Alain Thierstein
STAR-Architektur und Wirkung | Einführung
Dr. Nadia Alaily-Mattar
Jenseits des Bilbao-Effekts | Forschungsergebnisse der TUM
Dipl.-Ing. Arch. Helmut Strobl
Das Kunsthaus Graz und die Stadtentwicklung
Prof. Walter Nägeli
Phänomen phaeno | Der Nordkopf Wolfsburg im Spannungsfeld von Börsennotierung und Stadtentwicklung
Dr. Thomas Held
Der Fall KKL | STAR-Architektur in der direkten Demokratie - Bemerkungen eines Veteranen