URBAN TALKS

July 13 2022, 6.00 pm | Floating University, Lilienthalstraße 32 10965 Berlin 

ifa_diaspora, Chair of Unlearning & I.D.A

Diversity and Gender Sensitivity in Architectural Education

The urban talk series at floating university is a joint public lecture and discussion event organized by Habitat Unit/TU Berlin with the Design Studio „Safer City, Safer Housing?“ (Dr. Anna Steigemann/Dr. Christian Haid) and the BA Thesis Seminar „Collective housing at Berlin’s city borders” (Dr. Moritz Ahlert) and UdK studio raumproduktion’s seminar „Talking about collectivities and inclusion in housing“ (Prof. Markus Bader).

The lecture series adresses different aspects of collective and alternative housing for marginalized groups, such as for refugees, the queer community or for the urban poor, asking what solidary and urban commons models, practices, strategies, approaches, and spaces can be understood as possible catalysts for a larger urban and societal transformation towards a just city.

ifa_diaspora
a student initiative, platform, and safer-space of architects, planners and urban researchers at TU Berlin’s Institute of Architecture (IfA), consisting mainly of post-migrant and PoC students. ifa_diaspora‘s overarching goal is to expose structural and institutional racism in the fields of architecture and the broader built environment. Starting at the IfA, they are primarily concerned with highlighting, questioning, and actively dismantling racial and gender* hegemony in architectural teaching. Advocating for a more critical planning environment through sustainable and multi-perspective knowledge production within the industry.

Chair of Unlearning
We are all socialised sexist, racist and hetero-normative! The Chair of Unlearning is the first student run Chair in Munich and demands that through teaching we should not only learn, but also unlearn. The education we receive at university inevitably reproduces discriminatory and Eurocentric standards and expectations - even as it plays a crucial role in breaking down the basic framework of norms that surrounds us. And why should this reproduction not also be the case in the teaching of architecture? They want to become visible on campus and in teaching itself to claim the authentic confrontation of sexist & racist habits and contents at our university.

I.D.A
I.D.A is an autonomous student initiative that determines university policy processes in the context of intersectionality, diversity and anti-discrimination and organises educational offers in the form of seminars and workshops e.g. on anti-racism, LGBTQIA+; BIPoC empowerment. Our goal is to establish a space and infrastructure for mutual support between students of the UdK Berlin. I.D.A is a safe space for students with different backgrounds and various discrimination experiences to come together, share, listen, and discuss. Outside of strictly political or institutional work, I.D.A also works on an intellectual and emotional level, using an inclusive understanding of belonging, better representation, and visibility. So far, the core group consisted of regular students, people from Intercultural Mentoring (IKM), the AStA’s anti-discrimination representative and support from Interflugs. I.D.A is always open for new members.

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