On May 12th as part of the “City Outside the City” Architecture Talks we zoom in on “Camping Paradiso – campsite dwelling in Flanders” and “D-Köln, Heckpfad 35 – an informal settlement around Cologne”.
Camping Paradiso – three fictional short stories and a series of images – creates a wealth of narrative details about campsite dwelling in the surroundings of Brussels. Once popular as a leisure destination, the campsites are today a refuge for residents who have fled the city for financial or other reasons. Two researchers, Els Vervloesem and Barbara Van Dyck, spent several months at five campsites in Boortmeerbeek and struck up conversations with residents, managers, policy makers and other people related to the campsites. Weaving together fragments from the fictional short stories, with impressions and a series of pictures by Marie – Françoise Plissart, they give us a glimpse behind the facade of campsite dwelling today.
Heckpfad is a seventy-year-old informal settlement in Cologne. This post-war ‘wild’ settlement strangely survived the German drive for planning and landscape architecture. A pocket of around hundred houses – built without permits, without property rights, without architects and planners – form an improvised living environment near the city centre of Cologne. For several years now, Boris Sieverts organises “urban expeditions” by foot or by bike to Heckpfad and other forgotten places. During these expeditions that last for one, two or sometimes three days, Boris shares his fascination with things and places we tend to ignore. An account of urban expeditions to Heckpfad uncovers the everyday events and relationships that have shaped this settlement.
Using text, sound and images, the authors of both projects enter in conversation about housing, shared living, architecture and urbanism in places where, for decades, formal planning only played a secondary role.
Veranstalter: Vlaams Architectuurinstitut (VAI), Antwerpen, Belgien
https://www.vai.be/en/news/12-5-camping-paradiso