Lucius Burckhardt at the GH Kassel 1973–1993

(opens enlarged image)Image: Annemarie Burckhardt
Monument After. Action under the direction of Lucius Burckhardt at Friedrichsplatz in Kassel in 1975 with a pneumatic construction by Gernot Minke.
Image: Klaus Hoppe, Martin Schmitz Verlag
Lucius Burckhardt is considered the inventor of the science of walks. Here is the walk Journey to Tahiti from 1978

The Swiss sociologist and economist Lucius Burckhardt taught at the Gesamthochschule Kassel from 1973 to 1993. He had a formative influence on the work of the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning and Landscape Planning, while at the same time receiving central inspiration for his own work and the development of his position from other lecturers, students and external experts. Lucius Burckhardt's work, planning criticism and theory formation contributed significantly to the positioning of the department, communicated this to the outside world and inspired colleagues, as he also took up essential suggestions from them for his own work. While Lucius Burckhardt's work at the ETH Zurich before 1973 has been researched, this has yet to be done for his 20 years of work in Kassel. The aims of the research project are

  1. A reconstruction and analysis of his model of ecological thinking based on his scattered essays using central concepts such as environmental design, the smallest possible intervention/critique of plan and feasibility, the unplanned and self-organization, high versus pop culture, landscape.
  2. An analysis of his extra-disciplinary practice in the three interwoven fields: activist performances in public space, collaboration with artists and in the context of art as a field of aesthetic and heterodox practice, publication and appearance in public media. The aim is to work out which other forms of knowledge Burckhardt used for the new content, beyond classical scientific and design-based forms, and how content and form conditioned and influenced each other.
  3. An analysis of his work in the institutional setting of the university: How does the interaction with colleagues and students shape and affect each other? What role does the experimental setting of the reform-oriented comprehensive university play in the development of theory and practice? In what way did Burckhardt help to shape this - for example in his role as Dean or as a member of the Appointments Committee?

Initial results of the research were presented in a contribution to the Princeton University project "Radical Pedagogies" (Philipp Oswalt: The Science of "Strollology", In: Radical Pedagogies, ed. by Beatriz Colomina et al., MIT Press Cambridge 2022, pp. 186 - 189) and one with students (Fulya Kamisli, Angelina Kretzer, Aylin Martin, Marie Schreiber, Naemi Sünderhauf) as part of the anniversary celebrations of the Faculty of ASL in 2023, exhibition "10 x forschender Aktivismus. Lucius Burckhardt's teaching research projects 1973-1993 published.

Researcher: Philipp Oswalt