Soil in danger

We move on it every day and yet many pay little attention to the ground beneath their feet. For Prof. Stefan Rettich, this is an absurdity: "We live on and with the ground. It feeds us and cools the atmosphere. We need it to live in, use it for leisure and for work - our economic model is inconceivable without free access to the soil."

At the latest since the world financial market crisis, the soil issue has received increased attention. "Our soils have become sought-after investment properties in international demand. Rising rents are proof of this. This puts our social market economy, our community and our success in dealing with climate change at stake," says Prof. Rettich.

Together with a team of students and staff from the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Kassel, he has therefore designed the exhibition "The Land Question," which will be on display at the German Architecture Center DAZ in Berlin from September 17.

The exhibition focuses on climate, economy and the common good. "It was important to us to establish cross-connections between the topics and to show very concrete approaches to solutions," says Prof. Rettich. Among the demands are a change in the land allocation guidelines of municipalities, a limitation of sealing and increased land recycling.

The exhibition in Berlin will be on display until October 25 - after which the presentation modules, designed as a traveling exhibition, will be shown elsewhere. First inquiries from Wiesbaden and Krefeld are already present. in the Jovis publishing house appears a publication of the same name, among other things with contributions of Florian Hertweck, Dirk Löhr and Christian Strauß as well as an interview with Ottmar Edenhofer.

http://www.daz.de/de/die-bodenfrage/ 

Background

The project was developed in the Department of Urban Planning at the University of Kassel in cooperation with the German Academy for Urban and Regional Planning (DASL) and funded by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs within the framework of the National Urban Development Policy.

Stefan Rettich (*1968) is an architect and professor of urban planning at the University of Kassel. From 2011-2016 he was professor for theory and design at the University of Applied Sciences Bremen, before that he taught for four years at the Bauhaus Kolleg in Dessau.

Contact

Prof. Stefan Rettich
rettich[at]asl.uni-kassel[dot]de