Nikolai Roskamm: Spatial relations or: what is density? Event

Public Evening Lecture: Nikolai Roskamm
Wednesday, 20th May 2015, 18:30 – 20:00 Hörsaal EI 3A, Gußhausstraße 25-29, 2nd floor.

The term ?density? is present in many current debates about urban topics such as public space or urban culture. Its use is taken for granted in descriptions, expositions, theses, and objectives whenever the city and urbanity are at issue. Density inevitably finds mention in any consideration of what constitutes a city or a society; in any research on the spatial, social, or economic structures of countries, regions, cities, or districts; in any study on how spatial conditions are perceived by individuals and groups; in any negotiation concerning the design of urban planning projects and their social and ecological consequences; and, last but not least, density is always mentioned when discussion turns to the aims and guiding principles of town planning. But nor is it confined to current debates; the term density also occurs with high frequency and occupies a central position in past debates. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, density served as a key concept for a broad range of discourses within sociology, geography, national economy, and town planning: it was both cause and symptom of social and economic development and national welfare; it epitomized the social, hygienic, and moral ills of the metropolis; it was a key term in spatial planning at the regional and national levels; and it was instrumental in the laws and regulations on town planning.
When seen in isolation, the social-scientific definition of density is devoid of content; taken in its own right, density remains a category without meaningful substance, an inconsequential remark, a container without
content. But this situation changes when density is posited in the context of its use. Since density has no existence on its own terms, it is constituted by the mutual interrelationships between certain entities and
thus becomes a metaphor, laden with meanings and transparent to their implicit value judgements. To use density-as a constituent element of analyses, theories, programs-is to fill an empty container: with attitudes, narratives, explanations, interpretations. By examining how it is used, density can be made legible as a construct that transports content (which is of course precisely what containers are for).