Ecology of Fear - Apokalypse Tirol; Design Studio Master 2, University of Innsbruck
Imagine the valley bottom does not exist anymore. The chasm below you is as final as the ridge above you. The rug has been literally pulled out from under us. We design the city in the danger zone. What possibilites do irreclaimable sites, unstable topographies, alpine catastrophies offer.

„Most natural disasters are rather characteristic than accidental phenomena for the societies and areas in which they happen“ Kenneth Hewitt, geographer.
Insofar, the relevance of designing cities in extreme situations is beyond question. The goal of the design studio is to develop a city as vertical mega structure. The new system is required to adhere to its complex surroundings – for that it has to have a certain complexity of its own. A sum of disturbances and irritations are part of this city, do not cause disasters but give distinction to the city just like rivers, traffic et cetera. What part do geographical formation and vegetation play in this scenario, what do these exponated sites offer? Alignment and embedding of the urban system in the land formation are crucial. The relief of the landscape is overlayed with the relief of the city. In analogy to protective structures such as protective barriers, avalanche control systems, slope stabilizations a flowing system evolves. The overall system constitutes itself from sub-systems, morphogenesis of the system and its variations exist due to influences of topography combined with needs and given factors of a city.
Students on site: Andreas Glatz, Susanne Weissenböck, Thomas Niederberger, Utta Mayr, Sebastian Mitterer, Mirja Weirather, Anna Simetzberger, Natalie Tschigg, Krista Kerschbaumer