Ground in Danger
Image: Fotolia / Visions-ADWe move on it every day and yet many people pay little attention to the ground under their feet. For Prof. Stefan Rettich is it an absurdity: "We live on the ground and with the ground. It feeds us and cools the atmosphere. We need it for living, use it in our leisure time and for work - without free access to the ground, our economic model is unthinkable".
At least since the world financial market crisis, the question of land has received increased attention. "Our soil has developed into highly valued investment property in international demand. Rising rents are proof of this. This means that our social market economy, our community and our success in dealing with climate change are at stake," says Prof. Rettich.
Therefore, a team of students and staff from the Department of Urban Development has designed the exhibition "The Land Question", which will be on display at the German Center for Architecture DAZ in Berlin from September – October.
The exhibition focuses on climate, economy and the common good. "It was important to us to establish cross-connections between these topics and to show very concrete approaches to solutions", says Prof. Rettich. The demands include, among other things, a change in the land allocation guidelines of local authorities, a limitation of sealing and increased land recycling.
The exhibition will be on show in Berlin until 25 October - after that the presentation modules will be shown elsewhere. Initial inquiries from Wiesbaden and Krefeld have already been received. A publication of the same name is being published by Jovis Verlag, with contributions by Florian Hertweck, Dirk Löhr and Christian Strauß, among others, as well as an interview with Ottmar Edenhofer.
Background
The project was developed in the Department of Urban Development at the University of Kassel in cooperation with the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning (DASL) and funded by the Federal Ministry of the Interior, Building and Urban Affairs as part of the national urban development policy.
Stefan Rettich (*1968) is an architect and professor of urban planning at the Kassel University. From 2011-2016 he was Professor of Theory and Design at the University of Applied Sciences in 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