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Swimming in the City: Urban-River-Swimming as Spatial Appropriation in the Spree Canal in Central Berlin

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Resumo:What effect can urban-river-swimming, in particular along the Spree Canal in central Berlin, have? Michel de Certeau (1984) distinguishes between ‘voyeurs’, viewing the city at a distance from above, disconnecting the body from the city, and ‘walkers’, walking in the city and immersing their body into the urban ‘text’. Certeau describes “walking as a space of enunciation” (98), a form of expression, and as an art of appropriation. Inspired by this, the paper transfers and expands Certeau’s thoughts on spatial appropriation by analyzing ‘swimming in the city’ and introducing the figure of the ‘city swimmer’. The paper explores what insights architecture and urban design along the (not yet swimmable) Spree Canal in central Berlin give into the urban history and river-city-relationship. Also, the paper discusses how urban-river- swimming (in Berlin: Flussbad Berlin Project) can work as a practice of spatial appropriation, reclaiming urban nature and public liquid space, as well as enabling a post-industrial ‘re-writing’ of the urban experience. Creating, transforming and appropriating space by ‘swimming in the city’ raises awareness of and creates visibility for urban nature, its ecological condition and accessibility to humans and non-human life in the city, which is especially important in the light of the climate situation and corona virus crisis.
Autores principais:Kraemer, Caitlin
Assunto:Spatial appropriation Public space Urban nature Environmental justice Urban-river-swimming Berlin Spree river Flussbad Berlin Project Certeau Barthes
Ano:2021
País:Portugal
Tipo de documento:artigo
Tipo de acesso:unknown
Instituição associada:Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Idioma:inglês
Origem:Diffractions

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