The »Auratic
City« (Die Auratische Stadt) is the lived space of its
participants. An existence space. Space understood as existential
human experience is ever-changing, living world-space. A cultural
space which has to be actively embraced to attain its unique
significance. So as not to experience the surroundings as meaningless.
Thus establishing meaning implies expanding, sounding out the
limits of space and understanding the surrounding reality as
an active shaping process. City is the complex of intricately
interlocking worlds, of shared living. A multidimensional space
interwoven within itself in the most manifold ways.
One explanation
of how an aura comes about is that an enormous energy transfer
produces the aural radiance – in
other words, the radiance is a sign of invisible inner forces.
Thus »Auratic City« does not mean the built city,
but the subjectively experienced city. The idea of this project
is to reveal the liberating space in the fleetingness of social
activities which is unfurled and opened up by the vibrant presence
and energy of this activity. Its form is generated by movement
and energy vectors, the involvement of human beings. A temporary
form, in a permanent state of change, and yet – there is
an interior, a boundary, the protection and the identity of a
shared space which comes into being because a mind embraces it
and because many call it city: the »Auratic City«.
The »Auratic
City« is about the growth of social
competence, of non-material values, of integrative thinking and
authentic action. This promotes identity and connectedness with
the surrounding living space. In accordance with the principles
of the Athenian Charter and Team X, the »Auratic City« shares
the same form-defining zones of Living, Leisure, Work, Transport
and Tradition.
They grow within the city as a spatial network
of individual cells of lived reality. These are the auratic energy
fields of the city, which generates an architecture of living
space that as a mental construct represents the essence of a
built reality. In the Auratic City, reality is not manufactured,
it is experienced.
LIVING: Communal-living
projects are places where the acquisition of non-marketable
skills and productive idleness become a source of true productivity.
The aim: To introduce alternative financing models for communal
living environments and lifestyles. The idea: Workshop »Productive Styles of
Habitation«.
LEISURE: The unemployed and people living
on benefits, being the client group with the most leisure at
their disposal, are better placed than anyone else to open up
new fields of activity. They are the avant-garde of our society.
The aim: Division of functions to be transcended by the systematic
unity of a situation made up of mental construct and material
elements (space for action), revaluation of concepts. The idea:
Project »Living
Space – Mentoring«.
WORK: For people without a job, voluntary tasks carried out on
an honorary basis are an important way of providing meaningful
activity and social integration. The aim: Formation of mental
worlds, growth of social competence and of non-material values,
integrative thinking and authentic action. Transition from an
acquisition-centred to an activity-centred society. The idea:
Info-pool »From Acquisition to Activity – Forms of
Usage«.
TRANSPORT: Auratic values are non-material values. Transporting
this information and these emotions means creating the conditions
for sympathetic understanding. Sympathetic understanding is participation.
The aim: Participation strengthens the sense of city, enables
identification. Self-perception. The idea: Network diagram »Auratic
City Ticket«.
TRADITION: Church is an active constituent of urban life. The
aim: Creation of an Auratic Forum for contemporary forms of worship.
The idea: Stimulus »Church in the Neustadtpassage«.
The »Auratic City« as designed
and realized represents an already future scenario for communal
living focused on quality of life, and demonstrates how new forms
of subjectivity can be lived with dignity. Any resident of Halle
can get involved by way of the topology of the »Auratic
City«, and so explore and open up the city fully for him-
or herself. For we live within what we have discovered for ourselves. |
Project
proposal
2004 Open Public Art and Architecture
Competition »Shrinking
Cities«, region Halle Leipzig
Authors
Office of Integrative Art - Jörg Amonat, Stefan Krüskemper
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