Elective Course FS 2012 | Plattengrün

March 28, 2012 Luisa Overath

ABSTRACT

The elective course examined the space between the apartment blocks as element of the suburban landscape.

GUEST LECTURERS

Fred van der Kooij, Patrick Schoeck-Ritschartd

TEACHING TEAM

Prof. Christophe Girot, Susanne Hofer, Johannes Rebsamen

STUDENTS

Jan Appels, Romain Frezza, Hannes Gutberlet, Safia Hachemi, Korbinian Kainz, Maximilian Kamlah, Kate Lasikowski, Keren Mamane, Stephanie Mitchell, Hosna Pourhashemi, Matthias Vollmer, Mélissa Vrolixs

CONTACT

Johannes Rebsamen

Investigating the Space between prefabricated Housing Developments

In the spring semester of 2012 the elective Landscape Video with the title ‘Plattengrün’ will be dedicated to taking a closer look at the so-called Göhner housing developments. These prefabricated housing developments carry the name of the well-known building contractor from Zurich, Ernst Göhner, recognized as a pioneer in the serial production of windows and flooring but also prefabricated housing. The Ernst Göhner Co. emerged in the 1960s as a general contractor: from the buying of land to the marketing of real estate, the ‘building process’ was entirely in their hands. However we are less interested in the impressive history of the firm or the current debate around ‘large housing complex rehabilitation’ – with respect to current higher energy efficiency standards.

Instead, we concern ourselves with the exterior landscape: the space between the apartment blocks. In the postwar modern era, this was often titled ‘Abstandsgrün’ (or green spacing). One example is in Adlikon, a carefully thought through version in the sense of landscape architecture, which one could place somewhere between design overdetermination and natural wilderness. In this elective course, landscape design becomes a catalyst in order to touch on a number of questions that not only involve aspects of landscape architecture, architecture, as well as design, but also those of social, economic, and political relevance.