After successful completion of the course, students are able to work on complex design tasks from the field of urban planning independently, systematically and with an original, contemporary design approach based on a precise design language. They have the competence to recognise fields of action in the urban context and to develop corresponding urban planning solutions. The students are able to conduct independent research and collect topic-related basics. They are able to create design concepts and to comprehensively present them in the form of strategy, design and detail plans.
Transport axes function as an infrastructural backbone and spatial connection between cities and their surrounding hinterland. Dysfunctional infrastructures therefore weaken both urban and rural agglomeration. In the countries of the former Yugoslavia, the expansion of railways was declared unprofitable compared to road infrastructure in the 1960s. This initiated a major turning point in transport policy. The years of the Yugoslav wars led to the collapse of the rail network, which has only been rebuilt to a small extent since then, especially for passenger transport.
The year 1965 marks the largest expansion of the railway infrastructure in the former Yugoslavia: a network that originally consisted of various track systems. Since then, however, the narrow-gauge railways along the most densely populated and economically important belts were gradually converted to standard gauge and the railways in the rural areas were dismantled on a large scale until they were finally closed down completely by 1978.
After almost half a century, however, the railways are now to be resurrected - according to the ambitious plan supported by all 27 EU member states as well as Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo and Montenegro. The EU is providing the funds to renovate or build new lines. With 400-500 million euros, the EU wants to promote the mobilisation of the Balkan railways. Expansion, modernisation and renewal are also intended to move freight traffic from road to rail.
Trainstation Skopje
The elevated railway station is located on the eastern edge of the centre, below which is the bus station, from which numerous connections run daily. The tracks are 10.5 metres above street level on a bridge about two kilometres long, which first spans the Varda River coming from the north and then flows into the station. The platforms are covered by a tubular concrete structure. Below the platforms are the ticket offices and waiting rooms, and the bus station, located below the tracks, was opened in 2004.
The old station was also severely damaged in an earthquake on 26 July 1963, which destroyed large parts of the city. The United Nations Development Programme UNDP and the Republic of Yugoslavia initiated an international invited competition for the reconstruction of the centre in 1965, from which two winners emerged: Kenzo Tange Team, on the basis of advanced access, and Zagreb architects Miscevic and Wenzler, on the basis of feasibility. Due to the forced cooperation, Kenzo Tange's initially utopian concept for a multimodal hub with airport and bus station increasingly lost its radicality. Construction work on the simplified and modified project began in 1971, and on 27 July 1981 it was put into operation. To this day, the unimplemented elements of the master plan in particular represent major breaks in the urban structure. The planned structural connection to the city centre is still missing today.
In the context of the design studio, we deal with the urban space along the railway infrastructure in Sarajevo and Skopje. Based on contextual questions, we deal with the manifold interdependencies of centre and hinterland, the structure-forming properties of infrastructures and their spatial potentials on several scale levels. After in-depth analysis and in cooperation with experts and local stakeholders, both railway station areas and their urban surroundings will be worked on and the link with various forms of mobility will be developed and designed. The aim is to embed these areas adequately in changing settlement structures in the sense of a socio-ecological transformation.
Particular emphasis is placed on demonstrating and visualising the processual connections between transport policy and economic, ecological and social aspects, thus making them readable on both a scientific and political level. Building on a collectively developed matrix, as a cartographic atlas of situations and patterns, concrete scenarios and urban planning designs are to be developed on several scale levels.
Open access to questions to be searched for oneself on the basis of the findings during the one-week excursion and various input lectures. Even before the excursion, analyses are prepared and concepts are developed and discussed and subsequently elaborated into projects. (Group work) Design studio with intensive workshop! Please note the dates!
The excursion Balkan Express, Lva Nr 260.849 to Sarajevo and Skopje is scheduled in week 45 and participation is compulsory for the design studio. Separate registration is not required.
Participation in the intensive workshop in calendar weeks 47 / 48 / 49 from Mon-Fri 10:00 - 16:00 o'clock at the Arsenal is also compulsory, and the final presentation is scheduled for week 51! (Rework, if necessary, possible)