post fossil horizons - urban fragments in the energy transition

The vision of the North Sea as Europe’s renewable powerhouse by 2050 envisages a maritime landscape and associated energy islands reshaped by new infrastructures and distribution networks, alongside spaces for those who would live, work and study there. If realised, this vision would also reshape everyday spaces in the cities supplied by these networks. Small structures associated with the storage and distribution of fossil fuels could lose their original functions. In contrast, new structures would emerge from the production, supply and sharing of renewable energy. How might these transformed or new urban fragments related to an increased renewable energy production introduce new spatial qualities and social uses into everyday life?

Building on the discussions developed in the previous semester and the questions addressed by Professor Gustav Düsing’s current design studio, this parallel course offers an independent investigation of the energy transition at the small scale. Students will develop their own critical positions by selecting and transforming an existing urban fragment or designing a new one, exploring how small-scale interventions can shape the relationship between energy infrastructure and everyday urban life.

Hosted within the Chair, the course will unfold through three intensive in-presence workshops, complemented by punctual online support, and culminate in a collective presentation of the proposals. Students will work primarily through physical models, drawings, images and text.