Metropolis > Program > 2006 > Master class 2006
Jürgen Mayer H. /
Natalie Fizer master class 2006
SLeeping Around
The Master Class is directed at addressing critical issues in architecture and urban design. As a workshop, it examines through a project or proposal current urban questions in Barcelona from the interpretative stance of a designer, artist, or critic. The Master Class provides an opportunity to debate the present direction of changes in cities, Barcelona being regarded as its permanent subject of research and design. The Master Class is a one-week design workshop directed by Jürgen Mayer H. It will take place during the fourth week of May, 2006.
Designing the urban pillow – napping in public space
Now, that cities turn more and more into 24 hour activity zones, what happens to the conventional understanding of sleep and participation? The traditional working hours and global business activities, independent from time zones, transform the city into perpetual wakefullness.
Sleep
However, moments of sleep are a bodily necessity to function in this restless environment. Public sleeping positions the person into a mode of vulnerablilty, yet these „time-outs“ still need to be accomodated for.
Shut down
Sleeping is something that is usually private and relegated to the domestic, yet when one allows for it to become part of a public daily routine, we need to overcome its negative connotations. Contemporary bits of sleep can be seen as powernapping rather than yawning into disappearance from a productive mode.
Restart
Examples like truck stops, sleeping cars and motels are all networked to systems of transportation. So, what are the prototypes for moments of sleep in public space, in a dense city fabric, at any given time of the day, allowing to restart the body?