Topos 104

to po s. no 104

2018

Borders

URBAN POLYMATH – Sociologist Richard Sennett on boundaries as acts of self-wounding 38

CAPTURE THE DIVISION – Artist Thomas Struth releases the shutter in Israel and the Westbank 42

ENTERING EUROPE – The ‘borderization’ of Lampedusa and the Mediterranean island’s role in the refugee crisis

ISBN 978-3-7667-2406-9

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to po s. no 104

2018

T H E I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E V I E W O F L A N D S CA P E A R C H I T E CT U R E A N D URB A N DE S I G N

Borders

Contents

THE BIG PICTURE

CURATED PRODUCTS

Page 8

Page 102

OPINION

REFERENCE

Page 10

Page 106

TALE NT VS. MASTERMIND

E DITOR’S PICK

Page 12

Page 108

METROPOLIS EXPLAINED

Page 14 ENTERING EUROPE

Page 58

BACKFLIP ENTERING EUROPE

Photographer Wei Chang from Taipei captures borders between time, space and object Page 18

How Lampedusa's identity became entangled with migration Page 58

AMBIVALENT BORDERS

URBANISM CROSSING LINES

What if borders were opportunities?

Page 26

The last divided capital in Europe: Nikosia Page 64

SMART BARRIERS

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CANVAS

How closed neighborhoods in Chinese cities create identity for their residents Page 32

Visual arts and the Frontera between Mexico and the U.S. Page 70

URBAN POLYMATH

METAMORPHOSIS OF A ZONE

The sociologist Richard Sennett on borders, boundaries, the Brexit and the fear of the unknown Page 38

Interpreting borders as a web of interactions to redefine their purpose Page 74

CAPTURE THE DIVISION

BREAK OUT

A photographic journey to Israel and the West Bank by Thomas Struth Page 42

Incarceration as a violent form of architecture provokes political activism Page 80

VIEWPOINT

DESERT CITIES OF TOMORROW

An opinion on the conflictual relationship between Palestine and Israel Page 48

How planners merge Middle Eastern and European ideas in Saudi-Arabia and Egypt Page 86

Page 110 ESCAPE PLAN

Page 112 FROM THE EDGES

Page 114 IMPRINT

Page 113

LIVING WHERE THE WALL ONCE STOOD

TERRITORIES OF ENTANGLEMENT

Revisiting the Cold War division of Germany in Venice Page 50

On the challenges of the Danish coast Page 92

BORDERS: FACTS AND FIGURES

CONTRIBUTORS

THE WORLD’S BIGGEST CANVAS

Page 56

Page 100

Page 70

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topos ISSUE 104

Photos: Chiara Dorbolò, Stefan Falke

INTERPHASE

THE BIG PICTURE

Salty business As if two worlds meet one another – a vastness of brown, soft tones, a surface that is only occasionally traversed by light streaks, meets its counterpart, clear forms, rectangles: a pastel-colored mosaic on a metallic background. What almost looks like abstract art through the lens of the renowned photographer Edward Burtynsky – like the surface of an alien planet – is in fact the image of harsh reality. The scenery depicted is a salt pan in Gujarat, India. Every year, 100,000 Agariya workers toil there, mercilessly watched by a non-blinking sun. Salt for money: that is their business. But because the groundwater level, which is indispensable for the process of salt extraction, sinks year by year, these people are facing an uncertain future. Burtynsky distances us from these problems. From the cockpit of a helicopter, flying 300 feet above ground, all that is left is the image of a divided landscape, of abstract shapes and lines, grounded in an inhospitable and yet mysterious environment.

TEXT: David Mellein

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Photo: Edward Burtynsky – SALT PANS #20, Little Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India 2016

The Big Picture

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Borders

Smart Cities in China are structured by borders in particularly intriguing ways. This circumstance is especially visible within the typical, closed neighborhoods, which have become the smart building blocks of today's Chinese cities. Let us take a look at them from an intercultural perspective.

Barriers 032

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Illustrations: Liis Roden

DIETER HASSENPFLUG

The vertical, high density neighborhood is the most important "building block" of the Chinese city. Here, the creation of borders refers to the historic role of walls for the organization of an urban society into clans and clan-like structures.

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Borders

Capture Israel and the West Bank. Hardly any other land is so complex in terms of its social and political structures. It seems impossible to convey this complexity with the help of images: the network of built and perceived boundaries or the atmosphere, each of which are almost impossible to describe verbally or to process emotionally. And yet the German photographer Thomas Struth shows us how this is possible. Four landscape portraits.

THERESA RAMISCH

the Division 042

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Shuafat Refugee Camp, East Jerusalem 2009

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Borders

Living where How is public space influenced by Germany's past division into two separate states? This question is examined by the German contribution to this year's Venice Biennale of Architecture, where Marianne Birthler, former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records, and Graft Architekten are the curators of the “Unbuilding Walls� project.

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Photo: German Pavilion, Biennale Venice, Jan Bitter

UTE STRIMMER

The "Unbuilding Walls" Biennale project in Venice investigates the empty spaces left behind by the fall of the Berlin Wall.

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The photographer Tochiro Gallegos on the rooftop of his studio in the Mexican city of Reynosa. His artwork is very personal – he often reflects the situation in border communities such as Reynosa that are afflicted by a high level of violence.

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Borders

The World’s When thinking about borders, none of them seem to be as rich in both cultural symbolism and political implications as the frontier between Mexico and the U.S., the Frontera.

And no border is as indicative as this one regarding the use of borders as a cultural platform, as an object of mediated strategies and engagements.

Photo: Stefan Falke Photography

ALEXANDER GUTZMER

biggest Canvas topos

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Borders

Territories The coast is known as a territory of both continuous change and permanence, a place where the borders of landscapes fluctuate. For the architectural research and photography studio COAST it is also an example of a territory of the Anthropocene that is neither purely natural nor entirely constructed. With its photo project “Borders” the studio reveals how framing the Danish coast makes it possible to identify the challenges that coastal societies and planners are facing in the present.

RASMUS HJORTSHØJ

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North Harbour, Copenhagen – Land reclamation.

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