Paris Transformatif

"Paris transformatif" was created in cooperation between the two research departments Urban Planning and Design and Housing and Design and is based on student work from the design studio "Transformative Spaces Paris", which took place in the summer semester 2020.

Generous financial support for the publication was provided by the Institut français d'Autriche with the aim of making the content accessible to a French-speaking audience. Further funding was provided by art:phalanx.

The magazine highlights the current transformative aggregate state of the city of Paris. From a distance (the planned study trip could not take place due to the beginning of the pandemic), the students explored the current processes of inner-city redensification, climate adaptation driven by urban policy and the challenges of Europe's densest metropolis.

In the search for transformative potentials in the city, the Petite Ceinture - an abandoned railway line that runs around Paris - came into focus. In a wide range of design approaches, the students explored the potentials of this enabling space, always with the help of a strong narrative.

"Paris transformatif" thus prototypically shows the challenges and possible results of a design studio in pandemic times: the engagement with a city far away exclusively through the possibilities of digital space. Nevertheless, the different approaches shaped a pool of themes that generated an enormous range of projects. Positions, experiments and ideas emerged.

For Paris.
For Vienna.
For the digital world in between.

Text contribution by Andreas Zeese: "On the Transformation of Paris - Learning from Corbusier?"

Student work:
Valerie Felicitas Assmus, Serra Ates, Selvi Baran, Abdulkadir Basdogan, Hatice Dayakli, Dana Faridani-Rad, Laila Friedrich, Alessandro Folesani, Fabian Fröhlinger, Martina Gentile, Cornelia Gruber, Simon Hanen, Felix Höhne, Laura Huber, Isabel Caroline Köhler, Claus Kornigg, Cosma Kremser, Sebastian Lettner, Magdalena Oppel, Katarina Prvulovic, Susanne Stampf, Alex Francis Straub, Kay Töller, Thomas Volker, Fatma Wahba, Luisa Victoria Zeilinger