What if …?

The coun­try­side not only is a roman­ti­cized place of long­ing, it also is an envi­ron­ment in which peo­ple live and work and serves for recre­ation as well as for pro­duc­ing food. From a crit­i­cal per­spec­tive, rur­al areas find them­selves some­where between over­ex­ploit­ed and desert­ed and are either glo­ri­fied or for­got­ten by politics.

How­ev­er, rur­al regions pro­vide the space and reserves for future devel­op­ment. Rem Kool­haas dis­cov­ered the top­ic as his new field of research. The amount of space avail­able in urban areas is dwin­dling and only a small per­cent­age of val­ue chains remains in the major cities. Even though we need rur­al areas, we often exploit them care­less­ly and irresponsibly.

Most peo­ple in rur­al areas are not aware of the role or the val­ue of their regions, which are crushed by new hous­ing estates, indus­tri­al parks and indus­tri­al agri­cul­ture. Most small cities do not fare any bet­ter as they tend to suf­fer espe­cial­ly from the dis­ad­van­tages of both urban and rur­al areas. What per­spec­tives are available?

What if cre­ation and design took place with a polit­i­cal dimen­sion in mind? What if pol­i­tics returned to cre­at­ing? What if rur­al areas gained urban qual­i­ties and vice ver­sa? What if we were bet­ter at shap­ing the world?

At Stadt.Land.Schluss., diverse dis­ci­plines, insti­tu­tions and peo­ple are rep­re­sent­ed at the podi­um and in the audi­to­ri­um to avoid hav­ing design­ers speak to design­ers and bee­keep­ers to bee­keep­ers and to ensure they all speak with each oth­er. The mat­ter at issue is cre­ation, name­ly design, archi­tec­ture, soci­ol­o­gy, phi­los­o­phy, agri­cul­ture, region­al devel­op­ment, tourism and many more topics.

The event is spon­sored by bay­ern design and the Bavar­i­an State Min­istry for Eco­nom­ic Affairs, Region­al Devel­op­ment and Energy.