The Park – Investigation in a Post-Productive Cluster

Kharita 01: Symposium on Urban Trajectories in Cairo
Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Presentation by Marion von Osten, Katja Reichard, Peter Spillmann (in English)

Throughout the history of human common areas, the park has played the role of both model and stage. It has functioned as an artificial paradise, a showcase for innovative technologies, and a masterpiece of the latest engineering arts; a proof of man's mastery over nature, a mirror of its times, a celebration of the transformation of ideology into materiality, a political arena, and a governmental terrain; finally the park has often offered itself as a place of retreat, idyll, freedom, a place outside of society's utility zones. In the park, the world shows itself in its subtlest variation, and the world comes to the parks to be entertained there, or to contemplate, perceive and encounter. Today, park-like ensembles are conceived as consumption zones, amusement parks, or as places to live and/or work. The future trend in architectonic projects calls for an island, separated from the surrounding urban or rural landscape, a gated community in which all daily needs are covered within a park-like setting. The rules of concentration foresee having everything in one place in the future. The citizen becomes a parkizen.

Kharita / pericentreprojects.org
English / 01:02:32.252 / 555 MB / Ogg Theora/Vorbis - 640x368/Stereo

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