Komplement und Verstaerker Amplifier and Compliment

urban population, open for a wide
spectrum of different users. It illustrates
current social issues, debates
and challenges and is backed by a
great variety of people and (local)
stakeholders. It enables synergies
and creates an overview of the many
different perspectives and scales as
an added value for the neighbourhood,
the whole city and beyond. ‘If
Mülheim is the venue for experimentation,
a focal point of many current
challenges facing a future urban
society, then what does real change
look like and from which local talents
does it draw inspiration?’ The answer
is plain to see: Mülheim Bridge is the
perfect venue to be reprogrammed
as an AGORA and lab for a neighbourhood
in transition.
The AGORA combines
public space and public
life, the familiar and
the extra ordinary, living
room and metropolis,
neighbourhood, high
culture with relevance
for the whole city and
local issues!
The AGORA is
subject to continuous
negotiation!
The AGORA is not perfectly styled:
Its genius loci—the spirit of the
place—is reflected in its design. The
symbol of the fallow land—a place
of ‘emptiness’ and ‘non-definition’—becomes
an opportunity and
a structural guiding principle to be
filled via action and objectives and
to be continually renegotiated.
The AGORA requires
innovative and
integrated project
development and
process design!
The AGORA requires an innovative and
integrated form of project development
and process design to further
develop its concept and objectives—
together with the general public, its
previous and future users and (local)
protagonists, and, of course, with
politicians and the responsible authorities
of the city of Cologne. As a pilot
project and in combination with the
expertise and funding provided by
various institutions from the fields of
culture, education, science, and the
private sector, the process will serve as
a landmark for holistic and sustainable
urban development and as a model
for debate on transformation in the
urban context. The upcoming schemes
and the funds provided as part of the
reconstruction of Mülheim Bridge will
form the AGORA’s structural framework
and provide fertile soil.
The AGORA is more than
the sum of its individual
parts and players!
Artistic, theatrical and participatory
formats, project development, city
makers and urban and landscape
design will work hand in hand and
on equal terms. Only through collaboration
and with a mindset that
considers multiple perspectives can
something new and different be created,
something that is more than
the sum of its individual parts.
1 A German version of the manifesto was published in Eva-
Maria Baumeister / Isabel Maria Finkenberger / Schauspiel
Köln, eds., Eine AGORA für Mülheim (Köln, 2016).
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