Marie Neumüllers

Marie Neumüllers has been researching for quite a long time how cities run and used to run. Her current work focuses on analysis, design and control of spatial processes, urban economies and urban transformation. She is founding partner and managing director of Urbanizers. The Berlin office works at the interface of urban research, urban planning and participation. Marie Neumüllers studied German Literature, History, Political Sciences and Philosophy. She tested advertising and public relations and worked in several architecture firms before becoming a journalist writing about architecture and design. From 1995 to 2006 she was Press Officer, Head of Communications and later Project Manager at the Bauhaus Dessau Foundation. Since then, she has been working as a freelancer to implement a well-known principle by Jane Jacobs: “Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
Photo by Milena Schloesser

Talk: Everything up to Par?

Track: Designing High & Low
Date: Day 1 – 16:00
Location: Neufert-Mansion, Gelmeroda
Language: German

“Hands in the earth and head in the world”: This activist’s statement on the Allmendekontor, a well known urban gardening project in Berlin, casts romantic light on the negotiation processes of high and low, which have become the everyday business of urban development. Valuable trees or rare species are among the most common obstacles for planning projects. Urban green areas with their symbolic power form the battleground for renegotiations between bottom and up in many – especially growing – cities. The tools of the smart city contribute to the formation of the battleground – depending on their users.  Sustainable urban development seems to waver as the contradictions between the three pillars economy, society and environment grow.
Does the protest call "Those up there do what they want anyway" still reflect the reality of urban planning? The talk sets out to search for clues in the everyday planning routine of German cities.