This age of increasing privatization of urban development and commercialization of public space has brought about strategies of resistance, resulting in new ways of producing public space. Ranging from occupations of residual urban sites to spontaneous takeovers of vacant buildings for community use, such acts of insurgency have brought together architects, designers and citizen groups from an increasingly diverse public to jointly initiate processes that uncover latent potentials and leverage collective action towards public space formation.
Drawing Table, Berlin is an experiment in leveraging architectural expertise to frame and moderate dialogue with citizens by drawing together. The resulting co-drawing builds on a developed base drawing describing Berlin’s urban space as an instrument of/for capturing and curating citizen input, as well as the defining a method of participation. The event was produced as professors from California College of the Arts, in collaboration with our students, Raumlaborberlin, and the citizens of Berlin. This continues the historical trajectories of leveraging the potential of urban drawing representations as stimulants for dialogues about the city’s formation.