ra:ve - Room for change

In the spotlight: Karlsruhe’s Südstadt district

The project builds on research into housing and the design of public space in Karlsruhe’s Südstadt district, which has been ongoing since 2023. It is now also establishing a physical presence in the neighbourhood: with its own network hub, ra:ve is creating a permanent space for exchange, learning and collaborative design within the neighbourhood. The network hub serves as a central point of contact and a meeting place. It is a space for learning and experimentation where students and (co-)researchers, together with local residents, community groups, local authorities and the academic community, address specific issues relating to equitable and sustainable urban development.

Research and learning in the neighbourhood

ra:ve is exploring, in Karlsruhe’s Südstadt district, how students, academics and the wider community can work together to develop new building blocks for socially inclusive and environmentally sustainable urban design. Through a variety of formats, hidden knowledge about the neighbourhood is gathered on an equal footing, and different forms of knowledge are re-evaluated. The network centre serves as a central point of contact and meeting place within the neighbourhood.

The focus is on topics such as the design of public spaces and the negotiation processes involved in their shared use, affordable housing, neighbourhood networks, mobility and transport. The real-world laboratory aims to bring together different perspectives on these topics and to foster ongoing dialogue about shared visions for life in the neighbourhood.

Rooted in teaching

ra:ve is closely integrated into the cross-module teaching concept of transformative urban research at the Institute of Regional Studies. As part of the ‘Sensing Space’ and ‘Project Seminar on Transformative Urban Research in the Neighbourhood’ modules, students engage with the Südstadt neighbourhood as part of an ongoing process.

Sensing Space is a space for exploring the Südstadt district using a variety of multi-sensory approaches and visual methods. In the project seminar, research topics are developed and small-scale changes in the urban environment are tested and investigated through real-world experiments.

The seminar ‘Tools for Urban Research’ focuses on the community hub as a piece of infrastructure, its design and further development, and how spaces can generate knowledge or hinder or facilitate access to knowledge.

The ra:ve team – Anna-Barbara Grebhahn, Agnes Matoga and Michael Janoschka – can be contacted at info∂ifr.kit.edu for ideas and suggestions.

The 'ra:ve – Raum für Veränderung' project builds on the research activities surrounding ‘Gemeinsam Stadt_Machen: An interactive CitizenLab with Karlsruhe’s Südstadt in 2023’ and the project seminar on transdisciplinary urban research in the summer term of 2024.

We would like to thank the Foundation for Innovation in Higher Education for funding the project.