With: Institute for Sustainable Urbanism ISU, TU Braunschweig

Openness is a central subject in recent societal debates regarding belonging, safety and resource distribution. Findings derived form multifaceted disciplines inform the meaning of openness for the development of the cities of tomorrow. Openness then becomes a characteristic of cities which acts against tendencies towards closure and totalitarianism.

In the workshop we will dive into the three dimensions of openness—space, time and society—and explore, though various excursions in Berlin, concepts and approaches which can meet the multiple uncertainties in urban development processes and could counterbalance the tendency for closure, without restricting opportunities for newness, growth and development.

The project “OPEN CITY: Theories, Perspectives, Instruments” – funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation – explores the fundamental question of how “openness” can offer new approaches to urban transformation by systematically integrating it into urban development processes. An interdisciplinary team of scientists from the TU Braunschweig, the TU Dortmund and the German Institute of Urban Affairs – in cooperation with the Senate of the City of Berlin and supported by a renowned advisory board – is investigating which new approaches, strategies and tools of urban development result from bringing together concepts and approaches to the openness of the city and society.