Seminar WiSe 2025/26
Leander Nowack

Mapping Governmental Architecture
Border Hinterlands 

Europe has recently experienced an unprecedented process of rebordering and fortification. Not only has the Schengen Area reinforced its outer borders, even within Schengen, national states have started to prioritize control over freedom of movement. These political shifts have had a direct effect on space itself and have produced a number of spatial measures: concrete blocks and metal fences, containers and tents, signs and pylons, flashlights and automatic pistols. Collectively, these elements constitute the typology of a border space, the emergence of which is inextricably linked to the discipline of architecture. NGOs and other institutions and disciplines have long and often voiced concerns in regards to these practices and spaces.

This seminar seeks to contribute to the existing discourse by critically examining the new German borders from the pers- pective of space-making. The seminar is structured into three phases: In the first phase, we will meet at TU Berlin for collective and individual readings, dis-cussions, and an introduction to spatial mapping and notation methods. The second phase will entail two daylong field trips to German border territories. We will engage in critical fieldwork, visiting one rural and one urban border, employing diverse methods such as drawing, collecting, dialogue, and other forms of cultural and corporeal documentation. In the third phase, we will meet again at TU Berlin, to collect all approaches, distill shared and contradictious themes, and discuss experiences and outcomes within the group and with guests. Individual or biographical experiences of border encounters are welcome to be explored.

This is an X-Student research group funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the State of Berlin as part of the Excellence Strategy of the Federal and State Governments by the Berlin University Alliance.

Photo: © Leander Nowack

Download poster here.