Chemnitz Archipelago

The Chemnitz Archipelago – City Making Summit brought together students and teachers from five universities to explore Chemnitz through various approaches to urban spaces and city-making. Each group developed its own methods and formats for engaging with the city.

The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar group explored Chemnitz on foot, making spatial observations and constructing mobile apparatuses. They used walking as a method of spatial investigation, perceiving everyday urban conditions differently by changing their speed, direction, distance, and attention. Routes through the city became sequences of changing atmospheres, surfaces, infrastructures and spatial situations.

Based on these observations, the students developed experimental objects and mobile structures as temporary tools for interacting with public spaces. During the City Making Summit in June 2025, these apparatuses were carried, assembled, tested and reconfigured in various urban settings. Walking, making and direct spatial experience became interconnected parts of the design process.

The project took place in the context of Chemnitz's designation as the European Capital of Culture in 2025 and was presented as part of its programme. By bringing together different universities and approaches, the summit created a shared framework in which distinct methods of observing, interpreting and engaging with the city could coexist.

Project lead and workshop development: Hinnerk Utermann
Participating universities: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, KKAA/The University of Tokyo, Manchester School of Architecture, Angewandte Kunst Schneeberg (AKS), HTW Saar.
Context: Chemnitz, European Capital of Culture 2025
Year: 2025