Star architecture and its role for re-positioning small and medium sized cities

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Michael Koch; Professorin Dr. Martina Löw; Professor Dr. Alain Thierstein
• Subject Area: Architecture, Building and Construction History, Construction Research, Sustainable Building Technology ; Urbanism, Spatial Planning, Transportation and Infrastructure Planning, Landscape Planning
• Term: from 2015 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 269790291

This research proposal is concerned with buildings designed by star architects and their role for re-positioning small and medium sized cities on regional and global economic circuits. By bringing together analyses from the fields of urban economics, sociology and architecture and applying them in the field of urban studies, this research seeks to dig deeper beyond the dazzle effect of star architecture to investigate links to urban impacts. Together these investigations will constitute a body of material that prompts the rethinking of many accepted tenets related to star architecture and offer a broader urban and impact-oriented perspective that includes actor networks and changed logic of cities.On hand of three case studies of flagship architectural projects inaugurated in the past 15 years, we propose to (1) investigate ex-post the actual socio-economic impacts triggered by the arrival of these buildings to their respective small to medium sized cities and (2) unpack inter-dependencies between actor networks, the realization of flagship architectural projects and urban transformation. The objectives of this research are the following:1. To develop an empirical evidence base of the processes driving the realization of flagship projects by star architects;2. To assess the associated impacts of flagship architectural projects on their surrounding settings; this includes the interplay of impacts on spatial, economic and social settings;3. To identify, based on this empirical database, the opportunities and threats of processes involving urban transformations through flagship architectural projects.Three chairs with three different core competencies work on this research, namely the Chair of Urban Design and Local Planning of HafenCity University Hamburg (HCU), the Chair of Sociology of Planning and Architecture at the Institute of Sociology of the Technische Universität Berlin (TUB) and the Chair of Urban Development at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technische Universität München (TUM). HCU investigates the forces behind these projects, particularly those actor networks that drive the evolution of these particular projects. TUB focuses on the intrinsic logic of cities during the inception phase of these projects and the possible changes in the intrinsic logics after these projects have been appropriated. TUM focuses on identifying the economic impacts associated with putting these particular projects in use and the role of media exposure.Four intermittent workshops serve as platforms for the exchange of findings and synthesis between these three research tiers. TUM is the principal investigator and responsible for managing the research project and assuring that the three tiers complement each other. The final product - alongside referenced journal articles- is a book manuscript.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants