ArticlePDF Available

Collaborations on the Edge

August 2017
Humanities 6(3):59

August 2017
6(3):59

DOI:10.3390/h6030059

License
CC BY 4.0

Authors:

Katharina Rohde

KU Leuven

Since 2005 I have been working with mobile communities in the cities of Berlin, Germany and Johannesburg, South Africa.[...]

Available via license: CC BY 4.0

Content may be subject to copyright.

humanities

Creative

Collaborations on the Edge

Katharina Rohde

Department of Architecture, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven 3001, Belgium; me@katharina-rohde.com

Received: 7 July 2017; Accepted: 27 July 2017; Published: 7 August 2017

Introduction

Since 2005 I have been working with mobile communities in the cities of Berlin, Germany and

Johannesburg, South Africa. The two cities differ in many aspects and share similarities concurrently.

What is most signiﬁcant, however, is that both cities share a divided history and are utterly diverse

today. For both cities this contains challenges and provides the opportunity to evolve, both as cities and

non/citizens, as truly pluralist spaces and communities. In order to evoke points of contact between

various non/citizens and to imagine future spaces that host a multiplicity of voices and interests, the

presented projects emerged in both cities.

Urban Appetite (Johannesburg, 2005)

Humanities 2017, 6, 59; doi:10.3390/h6030059 www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities

Creative

Collaborations on the Edge

Katharina Rohde

Department of Architecture, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven 3001, Belgium;

me@katharina-rohde.com

Received: 7 July 2017; Accepted: 27 July 2017; Published: 7 August 2017

Introduction

Since 2005 I have been working with mobile communities in the cities of Berlin, Germany and

Johannesburg, South Africa. The two cities differ in many aspects and share similarities concurrently.

What is most significant, however, is that both cities share a divided history and are utterly diverse

today. For both cities this contains challenges and provides the opportunity to evolve, both as cities

and non/citizens, as truly pluralist spaces and communities. In order to evoke points of contact

between various non/citizens and to imagine future spaces that host a multiplicity of voices and

interests, the presented projects emerged in both cities.

Urban Appetite (Johannesburg, 2005)

Humanities 2017,6, 59; doi:10.3390/h6030059 www.mdpi.com/journal/humanities

Humanities 2017,6, 59 2 of 7

Humanities 2017, 6, 59 2 of 7

Photo: Katharina Rohde. Site-drawing: Sian Fisher.

Humanities 2017,6, 59 3 of 7

The Urban Design studio—Urban Fabrics—looked at the agency of street traders: in ﬁnding space

within a dense and highly competitive inner city context; in inventing businesses as a mode of survival;

in creating social networks of support. Working together with the studio, the aim was to propose

possible solutions that could be incorporated into the future development of the area.

Urban Appetite brought together immigrant street cooks and organized a street restaurant that

would respond to the different conditions and needs in the course of a day. During peak business

hours, the restaurant’s set up allowed for the ﬂuid accessibility of the pavement, and

Food on the

Move’ was invented for business—wo/men on their way. While during off-peak, the restaurant

extended its space for customers to enjoy a relaxing meal.

This pop-up street restaurant was a collaboration with street traders from different African

countries seeking refuge in Johannesburg. Students and invited customers were largely new to this

downtown area as it was—and partly still is—perceived as a no-go zone. The restaurant, therefore,

triggered discussions around under-explored parts of the cityand its makers—who are, to a great extent,

displaced people from countries such as Malawi, Zimbabwe, The Democratic Republic of Congo.

A series of actions evolved during the course of an urban design studio held at The School of

Architecture and Urban Planning of the University of the Witwatersrand in 2005. Urban Fabrics was

set up in the context of ongoing urban regeneration of the fashion district, in downtown Johannesburg,

and the threat of street traders being displaced.

(Note: this is the subtext for above project)

Collaborators: Hannah Le Roux, The JDA (Johannesburg Development Agency)

Humanities 2017,6, 59 4 of 7

The Expandable Fight (Johannesburg, 2010)

Humanities 2017, 6, 59 4 of 7

The Expandable Fight (Johannesburg, 2010)

Photos: Katharina Rohde.

The performance, the ’Expandable Fight’ evolved during the build up to the FIFA World-cup in

South Africa in 2010, when street traders in the inner city of Johannesburg faced evictions on a daily basis:

Two street traders in a boxing contest in downtown Johannesburg. The space is

delimited by an elastic ribbon, which becomes narrower and narrower with each round. The

project tackles issues of survivalist strategies amongst displaced people on the street level;

the daily struggle for space and goods, facing competition, spatial regulations and harsh law

enforcement.

Photos: Katharina Rohde.

The performance, the ’Expandable Fight’ evolved during the build up to the FIFA World-cup

in South Africa in 2010, when street traders in the inner city of Johannesburg faced evictions on

a daily basis:

Two street traders in a boxing contest in downtown Johannesburg. The space is delimited

by an elastic ribbon, which becomes narrower and narrower with each round. The project

tackles issues of survivalist strategies amongst displaced people on the street level; the

daily struggle for space and goods, facing competition, spatial regulations and harsh

law enforcement.

Humanities 2017,6, 59 5 of 7

This performance was developed during an Art and Activism studio that took place at the School

of Arts of the University of the Witwatersrand. The studio was part of the Pavement Economies—The

Happy Hawker project that developed in 2009 with the support of the Goethe Institute, South Africa.

Collaborators: Lindy Scott, Jo Voysey.

How We Live Together (Berlin, 2015/16)

Humanities 2017, 6, 59 5 of 7

This performance was developed during an Art and Activism studio that took place at the School

of Arts of the University of the Witwatersrand. The studio was part of the Pavement Economies—The

Happy Hawker project that developed in 2009 with the support of the Goethe Institute, South Africa.

Collaborators: Lindy Scott, Jo Voysey.

How We Live Together (Berlin, 2015/16)

Photos: Ingrid Sabatier.

The (relatively) high influx of people to Berlin in 2015 resulted in an administrative crisis in the

city and led to a mushrooming of projects and volunteer initiatives in order to welcome and support

the newcomers.

’How We Live Together’ used urban walks as a method to initiate encounters between people

newly arrived in Berlin and urban actors familiar with the city. The collective walks triggered

discussions around space-making and possible futures for a pluralist city to emerge, while

simultaneously providing an introduction to the manifold neighborhoods. It further served as a

networking tool to build friendships, support systems and work opportunities.

Photos: Ingrid Sabatier.

The (relatively) high inﬂux of people to Berlin in 2015 resulted in an administrative crisis in the

city and led to a mushrooming of projects and volunteer initiatives in order to welcome and support

the newcomers.

’How We Live Together’ used urban walks as a method to initiate encounters between

people newly arrived in Berlin and urban actors familiar with the city. The collective walks

triggered discussions around space-making and possible futures for a pluralist city to emerge, while

simultaneously providing an introduction to the manifold neighborhoods. It further served as a

networking tool to build friendships, support systems and work opportunities.

Humanities 2017,6, 59 6 of 7

The Urban Walks were a collaboration of Katharina Rohde, Ingrid Sabatier & Stephan Schwarz

(ISSS architecture and research) and The German Architecture Centre (daz).

Immediate Housing—Sustainable Neighborhood

Humanities 2017, 6, 59 6 of 7

The Urban Walks were a collaboration of Katharina Rohde, Ingrid Sabatier & Stephan Schwarz

(ISSS architecture and research) and The German Architecture Centre (daz).

Immediate Housing—Sustainable Neighborhood

Photos: Kaja Kuehl.

During a 10 day summer school students of architecture and urban design from Berlin, New

York and Brussels were asked to develop convincing concepts for housing that can be built fast, and

become an integral part of the neighborhood in the long run. Engaging with newcomers, hosted in

an emergency shelter within the former state-security (Stasi) headquarters, provided input for

Photos: Kaja Kuehl.

Humanities 2017,6, 59 7 of 7

During a 10 day summer school students of architecture and urban design from Berlin, New York

and Brussels were asked to develop convincing concepts for housing that can be built fast, and

become an integral part of the neighborhood in the long run. Engaging with newcomers, hosted in an

emergency shelter within the former state-security (Stasi) headquarters, provided input for negotiating

a balance between shared and private spaces, between off-site and on-site construction and for thinking

about integration as interaction. The projects also sought to integrate retail and service providers that

offered opportunities for newcomers while also creating vibrant urban spaces in the neighborhood.

All the student projects which responded to this idea suggested that housing should not be limited to

newcomers, even in the initial phase, but should welcome a variety of residents.

The Summerschool was a collaboration of Kaja Kuehl (GSAPP, Columbia University New York),

Katharina Rohde (KU Leuven) and Oliver von Spreckelsen (UdK Berlin) and supported by the housing

company HOWOGE.

Conﬂicts of Interest: The author declares no conﬂict of interest.

2017 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access

article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution

(CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

Citizenship as Barrier and Opportunity for Ancient Greek and Modern Refugees

Article

Full-text available

Jul 2018

Benjamin Gray

Some dominant traditions in Refugee Studies have stressed the barrier which state citizenship presents to the displaced. Some have condemned citizenship altogether as a mechanism and ideology for excluding the weak (G. Agamben). Others have seen citizenship as an acute problem for displaced people in conditions, like those of the modern world, where the habitable world is comprehensively settled by states capable of defending their territory and organised in accordance with interstate norms, which leaves very limited space for the foundation of new communities with their own meaningful citizenship (H. Arendt). This paper engages with these prominent approaches, but also with more recent arguments that, when handled and adapted in the right way, the practices and ideology of citizenship also present opportunities for the displaced to form their own meaningful communities, exercise collective agency, and secure rights. It is argued that the evidence from ancient Greece shows that ancient Greek citizenship, an early forerunner of modern models of citizenship, could be imaginatively harnessed and adapted by displaced people and groups, in order to form effective and sometimes innovative political communities in exile, even after opportunities to found new city-states from scratch became quite rare (after c. 500 BC). Some relevant displaced groups experimented with more open and cosmopolitan styles of civic interaction and ideology in their improvised quasi-civic communities. The different kinds of ancient Greek informal ‘polis-in-exile’ can bring a new perspective on the wider debates and initiatives concerning refugee political agency and organisation in the ‘provocations’ in this special issue.

Sharing Histories: Teaching and Learning from Displaced Youth in Greece

Article

Full-text available

May 2018

Lisa Trentin

This paper reflects upon my experiences teaching and learning from displaced youth in Greece over a period of eight months in 2017. Following a brief examination of the current challenges in accessing formal education, I examine non-formal education initiatives, summarizing my work with two NGOs in Athens and Chios where I taught lessons in English on ancient Greek art, archaeology, history, and literature. In offering these lessons, my hope was to do more than simply improve students’ language skills or deposit information: I wanted to examine the past to reflect upon the present, exploring themes of migration, forced displacement, and human belonging. Moreover, I wanted to engage students in meaningful connection, to the past and to the present, to one and to others, as a means of building community in and beyond the classroom, at a time when many were feeling alienated and isolated. This paper, therefore, outlines the transformational, liberating learning that took place, citing ancient evidence of displacement and unpacking modern responses by those currently displaced.

ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any references for this publication.