• Kobi Madlen

• Kobi Madlen

Built Communities. Urban Architecture and the Materiality of Social Life

Social communities and cultural identities do not only emerge out of relations of kinship, friendship or shared ideas, but they are fundamentally lived and structured through the built environment. Form, decoration, use, construction and building materials are closely linked to the social, symbolic, economic and technical context of their emergence. In this block seminar, we will engage with the ways in which residential and other buildings in urban spaces partake in shaping our societies. Aspects such as ethnicity, economic status, gender or age influence our perception and navigation in urban spaces. But also state power and politics manifest in and through the urban environment. 

The seminar blocks are structured as follows:
-    February 20: Introduction on how to think through buildings; methods for research on urban built structures
-    Feb 27: Postsocialism and urban communities (Ukraine, Kazakhzstan, China)
-    March 6: Urbanism and gender equality (with Laura Mayer, architect)
-    March 13: Ruination in ethnically divided societies (Israel/Palestine, Vietnam)
-    March 20: Construction site ethnographies: building and transforming urban environments (Brazil, Italy, UK)
-    April 17: Collection of fieldwork data in Fribourg
-    April 24: Presentation and discussion of student projects

Small fieldworks in Fribourg will be the basis for the student projects to be delivered at the end of the block seminar. The submission which is due end of April can consist of a podcast, written paper or short film. In addition, students are expected to read the compulsory readings and to deliver discussion inputs in the thematic sessions.