Book launch and panel discussion to celebrate the publication of Yasminah Beebeejaun’s edited collection The Participatory City. The book includes nineteen original essays, and draws on research and professional experience from many different cities from both the global North and global South.

Speakers include:

Yasminah Beebeejaun (UCL),
Michael Edwards (UCL),
Muki Hakley (UCL),
and Sue Parnell (University of Cape Town)

Reading and discussion with the editors of City Linkage: Michael Ziehl, Carsten Rabe and Till Haupt on the future of our cities and the role that artist-run spaces and self-organized cultural projects play:

How do we want to live together? How can citizens directly participate in city politics? How can we shape cities so that they are livable? These questions are more relevant than ever given current processes of transformation; our cities are rapidly changing as a result of both climate change and globalization. Which role do artist-run spaces and self-organized cultural projects play in the search for solutions to the city of the future? In City Linkage artists, researchers, activists, and theorists introduce successful international examples of urban development, showing the degree to which contributions from the arts and cultural sectors can support the manifestation of a sustainable city.

The slogan “the needs of the people instead of the need for luxury” epitomized the thinking of Hannes Meyer who, as the second director of the Bauhaus, advocated design that responded primarily to the requirements of society. The Swiss architect’s life and work form the focus of an exhibition conceived by the Bauhaus Dessau and held at the Architekturmuseum TUM. Under Meyer’s stewardship, all aspects of the Bauhaus Dessau – design and development, manufacture in the workshop, architecture – were guided by what was known as the co-op principle: a collaborative creative process that sought solutions for the common good. 
The concept quickly attracted an international following and was subsequently adopted by a wide variety of proponents – indeed, its influence continues to be felt today in housing associations, building cooperatives, and sharing communities. In the face of social upheaval and a housing market that is often more focused upon financial imperatives than providing homes, various community building projects have sprung up throughout Europe that cater to individual requirements and are run according to the wishes of its members. The second part of the exhibition takes a broader look at the theme of collective design, with a presentation of twelve contemporary cooperative building projects.