#identityinplace
Across the earth, places have evolved to be remarkably distinct from each other, even when their geography and climate are similar. Culture is the manmade factor that expresses this difference, most tangibly in the built environment. Culture requires supporting spaces expressing shared identity and heritage – be these daily activities or significant events – to foster societal cohesion.
Despite the importance of culture in determining how all places look and are experienced, it tends not to be a critical tool in urban design and planning. This is lost potential, especially in the present-day era of rapid urbanisation and movement, when there is often little time to grow an identity through shared heritage, as entire cities can emerge in just a few years, urban dwellers increasingly live and work between multiple cities and large portions of societies migrate to distant and culturally different places, escaping environmental, political or economic disasters that also destroy cherished urban fabrics.
How can architecture and urban planning express the diverse identity of present-day cities? Can urban practice broaden and revise the spectrum of housing, workspace, public and open space typologies in line with how societies need and use space today? Are other concepts required to illuminate the connections between people and where and how they live? How should the reconstruction of lost built fabric and the identification of heritage be approached?
PROJECTS SO FAR
In Transit with ZEIT-Stiftung, Hamburg; Austrian Cultural Forum, Berlin; Norwegian Embassy, Berlin; Danish Embassy, Berlin
Dialogue Series: November 2020 – March 2021. Video Recording
Ursula Schulz-Dornburg / Martin Zimmermann: Die Teilung der Welt. Zeugnisse der Kolonialgeschichte. Erkundungen im Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla with Verlag Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin
Book Presentation and Exhibition: 12 September 2020. Video recording
Transit Spaces: (Dis)Connections and the Fluid Places In-Between with ZEIT-Stiftung, Hamburg
Lab Talk: 7 November 2019. Video recording
Reimagining the Region with Tatiana Bilbao, Mexico City and CEMEX Deutschland AG
Symposium: 16 March 2019. Video recording
Kashef Chowdhury, Bangladesh
Exhibition Talk: 25 January 2019
Borders and Territories II: Spatial Representations of Connections and Disconnections with ZEIT-Stiftung, Hamburg
Lab Talk: 27 September 2018. Video recording
Science. Fiction. Politics. Visible and Invisible Borders with Bucerius Summer School/ZEIT-Stiftung, Hamburg
Workshop: 18 August 2018
Barcelona Pavilion and Beyond with Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona
Film Screening: 20 June 2018. Video recording
Mobilising the Periphery with the Schindler Transit Management Group, Ebikon
Collaborative Project: 2015–2018
Borders and Territories: Identity in Place
Lab Talk: 22 March 2018. Video recording
Rural-Urban Transition: Strategies in Diversity with the 2017-UABB-Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture, Shenzhen
Lab Talk: 12 June 2017. Video recording
Cinema of the Future with Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg
Collaborative Project: 2010–2017. Video recording
überFLUSS - Flussbaden und Flussbäder #6 - DER SPREEKANAL: ABWASSERKANAL ODER LEBENSADER? with Flussbad e. V., Berlin
Lab Talk Series: 8 February 2017. Video recording
SAVE AND RESCUE - FREI OTTO'S MULTIHALLE IN MANNHEIM with BuroHappold Engineering, Berlin
Lab Talk: 25 January 2017
How Do We Make Better Cities? The Architectural Review presents Reinier de Graaf
Lecture: 18 November 2016
Türme, Schlösser, Hutten. Helge Pitz: Rezepturen für die Bewahrung des historischen Erbes
Lab Talk: 22 September 2016. Video recording
überFLUSS - Flussbaden und Flussbäder. #5 - Recht auf Fluss with Flussbad e. V., Berlin
Lab Talk Series: 21 September 2016. Video recording
überFLUSS - Flussbaden und Flussbäder #4 - Copenhagen with Flussbad e. V., Berlin
Lab Talk Series: 4 May 2016. Video recording
Designing Educational Facilities. 20th Century versus 21st Century Approaches with the American Institute of Architects
Lectures: 17 April 2016
baumschlager eberle 2226 - ein gebautes Manifest Ilka Ruby im Gespräch mit Dietmar Eberle
Book Presentation: 12 April 2016
Marte.Marte Architects. Appearing Sculptural. Museumbauten in Berlin und Krems
Exhibition Talk: 11 December 2015
überFLUSS - Flussbaden und Flussbäder #3 - Isarlust e.V. München with Flussbad e. V., Berlin
Lab Talk Series: 11 November 2015. Video recording
Identity in a Floating World with Rocco Design Architects, Hong Kong
Exhibition Talk: 9 October 2015
Daniel Libeskind and Tim Renner talk about Berlin
Dialogue: 29 June 2015. Video recording
Nur Kulisse oder Denkmal-Schutz? Strategien für den Umgang mit alter Bausubstanz with gmp Architekten, Hamburg/Berlin
Exhibition Talk: 1 April 2015
Die Altstadt von Aleppo: Strategien für den Wiederaufbau with Deutsch-Arabische Gesellschaft, Berlin
Symposium: 6 February 2015
Urban Interplay - Community, Identity and Space with Francine Houben, Mecanoo architecten, Delft and Benedetta Tagliabue, Barcelona
Exhibition Talk: 18 October 2014
Seoul: Towards a Meta-City - Recent Urban Projects with the City of Seoul
Exhibition Talk: 29 August 2014. Video recording
Enquiry Week: Water as Ritual with AXOR hansgrohe, Schiltach
Metro Lab: 22–28 August 2014. Video Recording
Baugeschichte(n) und Denkmalpflege. Zum Umgang mit Bauten der Nachkriegsmoderne with Wüstenrot Stiftung, Ludwigsburg
Lab Talk: 2 July 2014
Jerusalem – Berlin: Urban Spaces, Art and Architecture: Strategies for Raising Public Consciousness with TU Berlin and Technion Haifa
Symposium: 28 May 2014. Video recording
Visions of the Alhambra | Álvaro Siza. New Access and Visitor Information Centre for the Alhambra World Heritage Site in Granada
Exhibition Talk: 21 March 2014. Video recording
From a Knowledge of Space. be baumschlager eberle
Exhibition Talk: 31 January 2014
On Contemporary Polish Architecture with the Polish Institute Berlin and Centrum Architektury, Warsaw
Lab Talk: 28 November 2013
Madrid-Berlin. Heritage and the Transformation of the City with Senatskanzlei Berlin and Ayuntamiento de Madrid
Symposium and Exhibition: 4 November 2013. Video recording
The Human Scale by Andreas M. Dalsgaard
Film Screening: 23 October 2013
White Mountain. Chilean Contemporary Architecture
Exhibition Talk: 26 October 2012
Urban PlayScapes: Initiating Encounter in the Fragmented City with Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo and BMW Guggenheim Lab, Berlin
Exhibition Talk: 22 May 2012. Video recording
Cities and Culture and Challenge
Symposium: 18 April 2012
Profiling the European City: Notes from Copenhagen and Cologne with Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects, Aarhus and the City of Cologne
Exhibition Talk: 3 February 2012
Living and Working in the City of Knowledge
Book Presentation: 17 June 2011
My Knowledge Space: A New Public Library for the 21st Century. The New Berlin Library as Prototype with the Central and Regional Library Berlin
Symposium: 14 May 2011
Re-inventing Construction. Edited by Ilka & Andreas Ruby
Book Presentation: 3 December 2010
Re-act Lab: São Paulo Architecture Experiment with Secretaria Municipal de Habitação of the city of São Paulo (Sehab) and S.L.U.M. Lab Columbia University, New York
Workshop and Conference: 12– 22 August 2010
Crossover – How Architecture Shapes the Perception of its Context with Fuensanta Nieto/Enrique Sobejano, Madrid and Jürgen Mayer H., Berlin
Dialogue: 16 July 2010
Improvisations on Urbanity. Trendy Pragmatism in a Climate of Change by Ton Matton and Christopher Dell; Of People and Houses: Architecture of Styria by Ilka & Andreas Ruby, photography by Livia Corona
Book Presentations: 5 July 2010
Mind your Behaviour – How Architecture Shapes Behaviour with 3XN Architects, Copenhagen and Gehl Architects, Copenhagen
Exhibition Talk: 18 June 2010
Fragments of a City – Cidade da Cultura de Galicia with Peter Eisenman, New York
Lecture: 6 May 2010
Abstract City: urbanes Hausen with the University of the Arts Berlin
Symposium: 5 May 2010
Marzahn, a World Heritage Site? With Winy Maas, The Why Factory, TU Delft
Lecture: 25 April 2010
Architectural Behaviourology with Yoshiharu Tsukamoto, Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo
Lecture: 21 March 2010. Audio recording
Los Angeles vs. Berlin. How Should Cities Deal with their Architectural Past? with the Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Lab Talk: 15 July 2009
