Philipp Oswalt Livres

From Great Britain, Belgium, Finland and Italy to Russia, Kazakhstan and China, cities are shrinking--while urban-planning debates focus on the growth of the megalopolis, many of the world's existing population centers are watching their citizens walk away. Between globalization, deindustrialization, suburbanization, the transition to post-Socialism, high unemployment and, in some cases, wider national population losses, the phenomenon is growing. Shrinking Cities Volume 1: International Research, a publication of the Germany-based Shrinking Cities initiative, examines this phenomenon's causes and dynamics on an international level for the first time, exploring examples including Manchester and Liverpool, Detroit, Russia's Ivanovo, and Germany's Halle and Leipzig. Each site represents a specific in Detroit, the consequences of suburbanization; in Manchester and Liverpool, deindustrialization; in Ivanovo, post-socialism; while in the Halle and Leipzig region several of these factors come together. Shrinking Volume I compares living conditions and cultural change in shrinking urban regions, and offers, along with information, a range of artistic intercessions commissioned to help sensitize the public to this global phenomenon which poses a completely new social challenge and creates the opportunity for cultural renewal.

In many cities, urban wastelands and vacant structures suddenly metamorphose in exuberant places. After city planners and the real estate market have failed in their initial attempts to develop them, these sites become the setting for clubs and bars, start-up firms and art galleries, migrant economies and informal markets, recreational activities and nightlife. Indeed, it is often precisely here that innovative cultural production and a vibrant public sphere are to be found. The Urban Catalyst research team explored these unplanned temporary uses in five European countries over the course of several years, and did far more than merely analyze their hidden logic. Building on the team’s own participation in a number of different projects, Urban Catalyst examines various ways in which city planning can incorporate informal processes and describes important lessons architects and city planners can learn from temporary users. Included are seminal contributions by Azra Akšamija, Kees Christiaanse, Margaret Crawford, Jesko Fezer, Florian Rötzer, Saskia Sassen, and others, as well as key projects from European cities such as Amsterdam, Basel, Berlin, London, Rome and Zagreb.

Between 1990 and 2000, every fourth city in the world was shrinking, and this tendency is on the rise. Which urban areas are people leaving? How is it happening? And why now? The Atlas of Shrinking Cities answers these questions and many more in some 30 world maps, 50 diagrams, 30 city portraits and 15 encyclopedic essays, documenting a global phenomenon in innovative cartography and graphics that make complex information and conclusions easily visually comprehensible. Four chapters of maps, illustrations and statistics explain reasons for shrinkage ranging from demographic developments and migration flows to increasingly limited resources, the destruction of nature and the evolution of the character of human settlements. Case studies on all continents shed light on the real effects of the global transformation process, and the index lists population development over the past 50 years in all cities of more than 100,000 inhabitants.

The Bauhaus, one of the icons of modernism, was controversial from the start-not only because of internal strife, but also due to critique or enmities from the outside. And the controversy did not end with the closure of the Bauhaus itself. Yet nothing else revealed Bauhaus ideas and ideology as well as these confrontations did. Through them, the basic issues of the modernist program became clear. It became obvious that there was no such thing as one kind of modernism, just as there was no ONE Bauhaus; instead, there were different, contradictory, and even oppositional movements and positions: the Bauhauses. Few cultural movements have been as politically instrumentalized as the Bauhaus has. These controversies reflect the relationship between politics and culture in the twentieth century, and hence, the history of the construction of German identity. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2454-8)Exhibition schedule: Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin, July 22-October 4, 2009 · Museum of Modern Art, New York November 8, 2009-January 18, 2010

"The people's needs over the need for Luxury" Hannes Meyer's radical quest for objectivity and usability in teaching at the Bauhaus elicited bewilderment and opposition. Investigating Meyer demystifies the Bauhaus and casts it in a new light. --back cover

Berlin was shaped by the events of the twentieth century in a process of "automatic urbanism." More than any other metropolis, the city absorbed the forces of that epoch -- modernity, fascism, two world wars, Stalinism, socialism, the Cold War, revolt, capitalism -- and gave them form. This book shows how even today, opposed ideological, political, economic, and military forces continue to produce unplanned structures and activities and urban phenomena beyond the categories of urban design and architecture that conceal rich potential. Berlin reveals particularly clearly phenomena that have shaped urban development in the twentieth century in other places as well: conglomeration, collision of borders, -destruction, void, mass, metabolism, and simulation. The present book, which caused a sensation when first published in German twenty years ago, is now being published in English for the first time. Its surprising and informative analysis of -Berlin as a prototype of the modern city destroys the ideologies of heroic modernity as well as the new nationalisms and shows how the modern city "as found" can become the point of departure for new forms of context-specific architecture and urban planning.

The Bauhaus was distinguished neither by function nor by use but rather by symbolism. Whether the work was a square, triangle, or circle, or Wilhelm Wagenfeld's lamp, Oskar Schlemmer's Kopf, or white cubes with flat roofs, the Bauhaus created iconic visual symbols and a style that is neither functional nor social but visually striking. Walter Gropius, founder of the Bauhaus, from the outset sought to develop the school into a brand--and he succeeded. More than eight decades after its forced closure, the Bauhaus is more present than ever in consumer lie, politics, and culture alike. It has become a participative brand that escapes centralized control entirely, forged collectively by countless designers, manufacturers, and consumers. Yet its founders' initial pledge for functionality and social commitment remains unfulfilled. In this stunning and pugnacious book, Philipp Oswalt, former director of Foundation Bauhaus Dessau, explores the development of the Bauhaus brand and its use around the world, illustrated with some 950 images that highlight the vast range of Bauhaus appearances across the past century.

Some 70 years after the death of Oskar Schlemmer, 'bauhaus' magazine casts a light on the achievements of the Bauhaus theater and dance legend. The new issue is published in conjuction with 'Human-Space-Machine, ' and exhibition at Bauhaus Dessau of products, designs and concepts examining the Bauhaus stage and its major protagonists -- Schlemmer, Walter Gropius and László Moholy-Nagy -- whose inventiveness led to the symbols and images of a new, modern subjectivity