Chronopolitics: the temporal structures of the city (2020W)

Societal temporal structures have had a significant impact on the spatial organization of the city at least since modernity. Based on urban phenomena shaped both spatially and temporally—deboundarying, densification, and decoupling (Henckel, Herkommer: 2004)—the seminar examines parallels between spatial and temporal developments of the European city and discusses causes of continuous transformations as well as abrupt disruptions in urban temporality.

Through a thematically structured analysis of causes, the seminar aims to provide an overview of space-shaping artificial time-givers of late modern urban everyday life and to identify further spatio-temporal phenomena. Subsequently, attention turns to current conflicts within time-political debates in architecture and urban planning.

The seminar is based on a selection of academic and non-academic texts from the fields of architectural and urban theory, science fiction, philosophy, sociology, sleep research, and political science. In addition to collective reflection on these texts, there will be short input lectures referring to specific architectural and urban design projects, as well as discussions with invited guests from the respective research fields.