Discourses and Themes

Intersecting issues affecting all cities

The conceptual objective of the IBA Urban Redevelopment 2010 was to encourage the towns and cities taking part in the IBA to find their own specific routes to development. Leading up to the final financial year of the IBA, numerous projects had begun to take shape. In view of the different resources and problems triggered by demographic change in the cities, it was clear from the start that stereotyped formulas and redevelopment strategies would not lead to success.

Whether the routes to development shaped specifically within the framework of the IBA Urban Redevelopment 2010 will result in long-term success will be seen in the years to come. Half way through the IBA work process, the parallel and related nature of the themes and strategies selected by some of the cities became apparent. Despite the individuality of the city profiles, an overall view of the 19 IBA cities reveals five intersecting themes. These were discussed in different contexts over the course of the process and will be presented in the so-called “laboratories” of the general survey exhibition “Less is Future”.

Scenarios

Saxony-Anhalt 2050: City, landscape and climate

The transformation processes do not stop with the conclusion of the IBA. The population decline continues. Long-term prognoses predict that the population of Saxony-Anhalt will be just 1.5 million in 2060; in 1999, the population was almost 3 million. Saxony-Anhalt’s development is also influenced by other factors: the incursion of new usages, the decline in subsidies and the effects of global trade transform the landscape. Climate change, climate protection and the associated cessation of the use of fossil fuels will lead to massive changes in settlement forms and lifestyles. Carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 90 per cent. Saxony-Anhalt has already begun to develop solar and wind energy industries, in what may prove to be a pioneering move. Vision, creativity and the courage to experiment will be required in Saxony-Anhalt even after the end of the IBA.

Three teams have been invited to outline possible future scenarios based on the themes of city, landscape and climate, in order to open up the debate on the future development of the federal state after the completion of the IBA.

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In the general survey exhibition in the Bauhaus Dessau labs focus on the themes city type, landscape, heritage of the built environment, education and identity.