June 8-21, 2009
Project Background of „Pforzheim 2030″:
Pforzheim has a long history of manufacturing and prosperity. It became known as the “City of Gold” nearly 250 years ago. The city currently promotes itself as the European centre for jewellery looking back to its illustrious past but in order to compete effectively in 21st century it has decided to look forward and imagine new futures based on its innate strengths and assets.
Therefore, in 2008, the positioning strategy “Themeworld Pforzheim” was developed to assist in the repositioning of the city. A Themeworld strategy is a narrative strategy to uniquely position a city or a region based on authentic characteristics and strengths. The Pforzheim organisation for economic development and city marketing initiated a collaboration with the MA in Creative Direction of Pforzheim University, School of Design, and the MA Creative Practice for Narrative Environments, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, London, to develop some scenarios based on the “Themeworld Pforzheim”.
The assignment for 24 students from London and Pforzheim was: Develop, illustrate and explain Pforzheim 2030- How could Pforzheim look like in 20 years from today? Based on the authentic strengths of Pforzheim and within the frames of 6 distinct scenarios, students examine extreme futures for Pforzheim. After about 2 weeks of intense research and professional inputs, the findings were shown in the city hall.
The project aims were
• To produce a range of visual-think-pieces that visualise and communicate a wide range of possible futures for Pforzheim on the basis of the “Themeworld Pforzheim”
• To stimulate debate in the City of Pforzheim about its futureand to foster a new productive and creative relationship between two world renowned design schools
PFORZHEIM IS GOING TO THE DOGS
Upon brainstorming ideas for our task to transform Pforzheim into a beauty oasis, we discovered an underlying need to first focus on the deeper beauty within. Over 80% of Pforzheim was destroyed in WWII. In the following decades it was rebuilt in the style of the time, yet still today the majority of Pforzheim’s citizens are wistful for the Pforzheim that was. This tragedy of the past, combined with Pforzheim’s present high unemployment rate and aging population, has formed a distance between Pforzheim and its citizens. Our idea is not to create drastic, high-tech solutions, but rather to focus on Pforzheim’s moral. Through design solutions in key public areas, interactions with the city and its people are encouraged, resulting in positive outcomes. A starting point is to focus on the bond between humans and dogs, as they are an ideal catalyst. The interventions in key areas will allow people to start looking at and using public space in different ways. The aim is to connect the city and the people who live there, through emotion and empathy.
photo by Winfried Reinhardt
We did a short video envisioning Pforzheim as a "Dog Town"
excerpt from "Page" magazine
