72 Hour Urban Action: An Integrative Planning Workshop

City planning and the design of public space is usually a lengthy process. In this respect, the architecture and urban art festival “72 Hour Urban Action” breaks new ground: Within a given framework, international teams work on drafting plans in and for public spaces – but this is all done in a period of three days and three nights. The festival took place for the first time in Israel in 2010 and gained international attention. The challenge of this real time festival is in its vision and intervention – especially since either one of these things could be temporary or could indeed provide an initial impetus to a city planning. What is, without doubt, established in this process are new ways to think about and envision the use of urban space, alternative scopes, and participation.

This is enough reason for the art association Wagenhallen e.V. to bring the “72 Hour Urban Action” to Stuttgart in summer 2012. The planning workshop is the first step in this direction. Together experts from city planning, the cultural world, and real estate as well as representatives from the general public will develop new ground. The emphasis is on an urban planning design in and around the Stuttgart Depot (Wagenhallen). The central focus is not only the design approach but also the dialogue between the planners, city residents and the municipality. And this continues intensively in the second round: Here, on the basis of the work already established during the workshop, the German-Israeli team will develop sustainable approaches to implement “72 Hour Urban Action 2012”. The end result of this endeavor will form the basis of ten creative building missions at the 2012 “72 Hour Urban Action Festival.” Moreover, this project offers an important contribution in internationally connecting the creative field of planning and its actors in Germany and Israel.

The integrative planning workshop takes place in Stuttgart from June 14 to June 19, 2011 with the explicit goal of bringing the festival “72 Hour Urban Action” 2012 to Stuttgart. The workshop’s organizer is the art association Wagenhallen e.V. In addition to the initiators of “72 Hour Urban Action” from Israel, the project partners also include Stuttgart’s State Theater and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart.