CITYMAKERS

Health concerns and the built environment have an intertwined history. In fact, health is the topic which has greatly shaped the profession of urban planning, landscape planning and modern architecture for one-and-a-half centuries. What was the concern yesterday and what is it today? And how about the context of China? CITYMAKERS-Guest Author and researcher in Architecture Theory at RWTH Aachen, Zhen ZHANG, presents some of the answers through reviewing the newest research in the book „Lifestyled – Health and Places“, a 2016 publication of research at Harvard University.

STADTMACHER China – Deutschland Redakteur Silvan Hagenbrock im Gespräch über das Kuratieren von Stadt, Peripherie, und Kunst im öffentlichen Raum mit Dirck Möllmann, Stadtkurator der Stadt Hamburg.

It is official! Out of 43 applications, we have chosen 24 contributions to be part of our CITYMAKERS Virtual Walks Projects 2020. From big cities such as Beijing, Berlin, Luxembourg, Shanghai and Vienna to villages like Hallenberg in the Hochsauerland and the Sichuanese countryside – we got it all covered. Learn about our walkers and their topics – and stay tuned for more!

“Entrepreneurship is a creative act” – says Prof. Günter Faltin, founder of Teekampagne whom we had the privilege of hosting this autumn for a discussion as part of our C*LAB program. Learn more about the others entrepreneurs gatherings at C*SPACE in 2023…

During our first virtual CITYMAKERS walk, Popo Fan 范坡坡 showed us what it is like to see Berlin through the eyes of a queer Chinese filmmaker. Its online premiere was followed by a panel discussion between Popo Fan, Carmen Herold, Mo Sun and Silvan Hagenbrock. If you are interested in this discussion, which touched many transcultural topics such as the comparison between queer life in Berlin and Beijing, you can now watch it here.

Learn more about ways to make cities more sustainable and resilient and start your virtual learning journey! This training course contains inspirational and informative videos as well as background information on the relevant topic of sustainable neighbourhoods and was produced by the CITYMAKERS core team in 2021 in Berlin.

Die Sinologin und Politikwissenschaftlerin Katja Levy gibt einen kurzen Einblick, welche Mittel und Wege der politischen Meinungsbildung und -artikulation in China praktiziert werden.

What is on the horizon in the 4th year of the program? We have set 3 goals: Deepen, Focus, Transform.

Song Qun is an architect, artist and curator from Xian, the founder of “Bendi 本地- Local Life”, a 3,000 sqm large cultural space for the contemporary presentation of “Urban Memory”. His approach is beyond mainstream understanding of heritage in China, advocating for cultural memory as the story of everyday life of people and their objects. What  impressed him most in Berlin was the Jewish Museum. “The openness of Berliners towards the history of their city is admirable, and I learned a lot from the fact that each museum is writing the history of the city in its own way.”

Daniel Zhang is an architect based in Changsha who studied architecture at Carnegie Mellon University in the US and continued a doctorate in India and Germany. He is also the founder of P8 Community in Changsha.

From Dialogue to Action: Since 2016, CITYMAKERS supported the realization of selected project ideas in the context of liveable city making. Read here about the ‘CITYMAKERS-Future of Living’ incubator team.

STADTMACHER China – Deutschland, Silvan Hagenbrock und Bettine Marissen, sprachen mit Benjamin Scheerbarth, Projektleiter des Eckwerk Berlin, über das Holzmarkt „Dorf“ an der Spree, seine Relevanz für China und über Deutschlands zukünftig höchstes Holzhochaus, das Eckwerk, in dem Wohnen und Arbeiten vereint werden sollen.

ZHANG Rubing and WANG Keyao are Architects and have worked for China Architecture and Design Group (CADG). In 2012, they founded their own company Zhijian Workshop which not only focusses on renovation research of old and industrial buildings but also undertakes design and art projects in the same field.

LIANG Jingyu kuratierte den chinesischen Pavillon auf der Architekturbiennale in Venedig 2016. Er gründete das Architekturbüro „approach architecture studio“ und gestaltete einen neuen Ort des Lernens auf dem Campus der EURASIA-Universität in Xian: das „Wohnzimmer“ 学生客厅. STADTMACHER China – Deutschland traf LIANG in Xian und sprach mit ihm über Nachbarschaft und Gemeinschaft.

“Die Zukunft Chinas kann man in Shanghai sehen, die Gegenwart in Peking und seine Geschichte in Xi’an” lautet eine Redensart in China. SONG Qun, Jahrgang 1970, stammt aus Xi’an. Als Künstler und Ideengeber arbeitet er seit vielen Jahren in den Bereichen Architektur, Kunst, Design und Kreativindustrie. Er ist Gründer und Herausgeber der Magazine “local 本地” und “MOMADA” und sammelt und archiviert Fotos, Videos und Texte zur Stadtgeschichte.

Get to know Green Steps,  aiming for a radical but gradual transformation of human behavioral architecture and the acceleration of environmental education. They have prototyped a gamified social network which drives offline community building and nature connection.

Get to know CROSSBOUNDARIES, award-winng architecture studio in Beijing, founded by Binke Lenhardt and Hao Dong, pioneering in the field of architecture for the future of education. For the CITYMAKERS accelerator program the team brought their vision along to not only create physical learning environments: Creating design thinking based learning programs for kids to become better city makers in the future.

Learn more about the CITYMAKERS Accelerator project “New Schrebergarten”, part of the Eco Land Club, establishing the first “Schrebergärten” in China.

“Wohnbuddy”, founded by Marlene Welzl is a matchmaking platform for elderly and young people to live together. Watch the Videos and learn more about “Wohnbuddy”