September 19 – 23, Esch-sur-Alzette: Let’s talk about Belval

‘Let’s talk about Belval’ is a week of public talks and roundtables taking place every day at the Belval Campus, between September 19 and 23, 2022.

The festival-like week will be interrogating the spatial and social realities of Esch-Belval, combining lectures, reading groups, and discussions. With Patrick Bousch, Robert Garcia, Denis Scuto, Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, Michel Wolter, Etienne Reuter, Jean Goedert, Rolf Tarrach, Christian Bauer, Tatiana Fabeck, Francois Valentiny, Daniela Flor, Jim Clemes, Christian Weier, Léon Diederich, Marie-Josée Vidal, Jens Kreisel, Georg Mein, Daniela Di Santo, Ulli Helweg, Véronique Astranskas, Lucio Wercollier, Yves Biwer, Thomas Barra, Natalie Kirwan, Laurent Frideres, Sara Volterrani, Monique Ludovicy, Sandra Fonseca, Thierry Debourse, Alba Cortizas Martinez, Patrick-Claus Leske, Ramin Forghani, Marina De Arujo Marins, Marie-Lorraine Mauriére, Pierre Karst, Laura Asuaje Casamayor, and Mathieu Hoffart.

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The “Schönefeld-Nord” urban and open space planning competition has been decided. In a two-phase process, 24 teams consisting of urban planners, architects and landscape architects dealt with the future development of the approximately 150-hectare competition area in Schönefeld North. On Monday, August 22, 2022, under the chairmanship of the Berlin urban planner Uli Hellweg, the jury met again to select the best works from the 10 finalists of the second phase of the competition and to choose the winner or winners. In the end, the team around Christa Reicher from the architectural office RHA Reicher Haase Assoziierte from Aachen, who developed their design together with Carla Lo Landschaftsarchitektur from Vienna and Lindschulte Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH from Nordhorn, prevailed.

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Hardt-Waltherr Hämer was not only an architect and university lecturer and instrumental in saving the student village Schlachtensee. He was much more: he was an inventor of cautious urban renewal, a theatre builder, erected the theatre in Ingolstadt and the Paderhalle in Paderborn, built his first work, the Schifferkirche in Ahrenshoop, until his 90th birthday, and was above all one of the initiators of a change in strategy in dealing with the built city and its historic quarters. “A future for our past” was the motto of the first European Year of Monument Protection in 1975 – and the densely built-up neighbourhoods in Berlin-Kreuzberg, Wedding and Charlottenburg should also have a future. Together with tenants, district activists and planners, Hämer set about a different approach to the city and a cautious further development of historically grown quarters. As co-director of the International Building Exhibition (IBA-Alt), following his understanding of inner-city development, he suggested new solutions for very liveable neighbourhoods and made it possible to stabilise neighbourhood communities. As vice-president of the Academy of Arts, he and Walter Jens were largely responsible for the unification process of the two academies in East and West. Hämer died in Ahrenshoop on 27 September 2012.

The 100th anniversary of his birth on 13 April 2022 is the occasion for a festive event in the student village Schlachtensee, which was one of Hämer’s last places of work, along with the renovation of the Ingolstadt Theatre and the Schifferkirche in Ahrenshoop.

The competition is over and the winning design has been announced! bof architekten & hutterreimann landschaftsarchitektur have convinced with their design. In a final exhibition from 11 to 23 January, all 30 designs will be presented once again.

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In a well-attended citizens’ meeting, the winning design for the redesign of the promenade ring of the Lower Austrian capital St. Pölten was presented. A jury headed by Uli Hellweg selected the design by the team Rosinak & Partner (Vienna) and DnD Landschaftsplanung (Vienna).

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A reading book with texts from100 years of urban development.

Selected and commented by members of the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL). With a contribution by Uli Hellweg on the influence of Michel Foucault’s essay “The Heterotopias – Other Spaces” on planning culture.

Edited by Heidede Becker and Johann Jessen – DOM Publishers and DASL 2021

Uli Hellweg’s contribution in the “Preparatory Report” to the annual conference of the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL) in Hamburg deals with the little-noticed, but today all the more important chapters on diversity and mix of uses. Jane Jacobs has already pointed out many of the mistakes in urban planning that we are still making today in our new neighbourhood projects.

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Urban-Rural Dynamics – Uli Hellweg interviewed by Mark Kammerbauer :In topos 114 that is on fringes we explore that which lies at the edges, that which is located in the transition between two systems; that which sets a mark, but which also merges fluidly or even in fragile ways from one element into the other while still being able to accomodate one or more centres within it. We define fringes as in-between spaces, transitional spaces, and sometimes non-places; contradictory, sometimes undefined, fragmented. Above all, we define fringes as spaces of possibility and experimentation.

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By Mark Kammerbauer

We meet urban planner Uli Hellweg after a workshop on the planning of a courtyard and high-rise quarter in Berlin-Hohenschönhausen. Housing for more than 2,000 residents is to be built here, with up to 50 per cent social housing, a mix of uses and facilities based on the Berlin model. We took the opportunity to talk to Uli Hellweg about the current challenges and opportunities of urban planning in general and in Berlin in particular.

Read the Interview (in German)

Since the beginning of the year 2020, the global crisis has been called COVID-19. Its effects on urban society cannot yet be rudimentarily assessed and affect entire sectors such as trade, gastronomy or the cultural and creative industries in addition to the private and professional environment of residents. As a member of the RaumwerkD advisory board, Uli Hellweg will speak at the NRW Chamber of Architects on the topic: “Validity of informal planning against the background of current challenges”.