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Time. This is the topic of Topos 100. In layers, time overlies landscapes and cities. Historical structures meet with pop-up stores. Topos 100 analyses and reflects the meaning of time as a factor for building and planning the environment of yesterday and tomorrow. Very special this time: We spoke with the former Vice President Al Gore, who has been fighting for many years to raise awareness of the dangers of climate change. Take a peek!
The Al Gore Rhythm
Climate change hangs like Damocles’ sword over metropolises around the globe. With torrential rains and floodings occurring almost on a daily basis, the menace has become omnipresent. Al Gore, former Vice President of the USA, has been fighting for many years to raise awareness of the dangers of global warming. As the front man of his own climate initiative he is viewed as one of the most influential non-political figures in the environmental arena. Despite persistent, often scathing criticism, Gore never considered letting go of his mission. What keeps the man who was once ridiculed as the climate clown going? An encounter.
Seismographs of Time
Graffiti and street art oscillate in a fleeting space between illegality and establishment, between social criticism and artistic aesthetics. They make the city a gallery of current events, render façades into political canvases and turn public spaces into the Agora. In 2010, Banksy proclaimed that graffiti is the art that turbo capitalism had earned. This inevitably raises the question: What type of urban art are we entitled to today? And what can it give to our cities and their residents? A plea.
War and Peace
September 11, 2001 is a date that is part of global memory. Most adults clearly remember where they were when the incomprehensible happened, but for New Yorkers, the tragedy of the attack was very personal, interrupting countless lives and changing the city forever. The 9/11 Memorial encourages a discourse about global memory, individual grief, and political agendas in the urban context.
Tradition meets Modernity
China is debating the significance of cultural identity and relevant modes of integration of its centuries-old traditions into modern society. The contry’s urban renewal projects are a reflection of this debate. The rejuvenation of the Yongqing Fang neighborhood in Guangzhou makes a statement for the inclusiveness and richness of urban life by celebrating its multiple layers of time.
Further Articles:
City Close Up – Jeremie Dru
Urban Time Frames – Ali Madanipour
City as Palimpsest – Paul Knox
The new Aesthetes – Theresa Ramisch