"How does migration change the cities? How does it manifest in architecture, housing, services, and public space ordering? What happens in the urban space when newly arriving inhabitants from all around the world start to make use of it?."

The Exhibition: "Arrival City: Southwest City"

"What happens in the urban space when newly arriving inhabitants from all around the world start to make use of it?"

The exhibition "Arrival City: Southwest City (Jihozápadní město)" poses some of these crucial questions, and explores the recent transformations in the Lužiny, Nové Butovice and Hůrka (Prague 13 district) neighborhoods of Prague.

These neighborhoods have sheltered the arrivals of migrants, predominantly, from Eastern Europe. The exhibition showcases the (in)visible diversity in between the housing estates located in these three neighborhoods, and focuses on the housing estates in the southwestern part of Prague.

Arrival City: Jihozápadní město. Cover Image © Anna Venezia

Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country

The Prague "Arrival City: Jihozápadní město" exhibition is a result of an anthropological research, that was conducted by a group of curators and a student research team focusing on depicting the characteristics of the recent social transformations in the area. The exhibition is a part of the project called "Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country" which was the main theme of the German Pavilion presented at the 15th International Architecture Exhibition 2016 - La Biennale di Venezia. 

Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country Exhibition. German Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale, 2016. Image © Felix Torkar

Making Heimat. Germany, Arrival Country Exhibition. German Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale, 2016. Image © Kirsten  Bucher

The organizers of the festival stated that: "The German project reacted to the fact that almost million people arrived in Germany in 2015 from the Middle East, which caused divisive reaction across the society. The so-called "refugee crisis" became the central focus for experts based in the German Museum of Architecture – and they created the first version of "Arrival City" exhibition, mapping the architectural response to the new arrivals to German towns and cities."

"The Arrival City" Is...:

The creators of the event refer to the concept of "Arrival City“ as: "The Arrival City Is a City within a City." and explains that the city is where "Immigrants Look For Opportunities in Areas of Urban Density."

The exhibition was decided to be used as a means to spread the concept via nine representative offices of Goethe-Institut in nine different countries all around the world to cooperate. And, the exhibition "Arrival City: Southwest City" is organized by the Goethe-Institut Czech Republic in cooperation with Anthropictures (The German part of the exhibition was designed by the Deutsches ArchitekturMuseum (DAM)). 

"Making Heimat" has been traveling the places like San Francisco, Mumbai, Caracas, and explores the different forms and interpretations of arrival cities within different contexts. 

The exhibition's concept of „Arrival City“ was developed in collaboration with Doug Saunders, a Canadian journalist and the author of Arrival City: How the Largest Migration in History Is Reshaping Our World. Doug Saunders made observations in slums and favelas all around the world in order to figure out what conditions Arrival Cities should meet from an architectural and urban planning point of view. 

The exhibition "Arrival City: Southwest City“ is the local, Prague-based response to these questions. It presents the Prague version of an Arrival City, located in the suburban housing estates. The exhibition takes place from 15th of September till 13th of October at  Kasárna Karlín in Prague 8, and it is free of admission. 

Details of the Prague Exhibition:

• Curators: Marie Heřmanová, Michal Lehečka
• Design: Matyáš Trnka
• Photography: Anna Venezia, Barbora Bírová, Michal Lehečka
• Research coordinators: Markéta Zandlová, Michal Lehečka, Marie Heřmanová
• Student research team: Zdena Hofmannová, Gabriela Vičanová, Tereza Pecháčková, Jitka Bůžková, Kristýna Tvrdá, Vojtěch Zemánek, Jan Kravka, David Pfann, Michal Divíšek
  
• Interpretation & translation: Maria Reznichenko
• In cooperation with: Kasárna Karlín, Faculty of Humanities – Charles University Prague, Integration Centre Prague, Shared Cities: Creative Momentum - Co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union
• Supported by: Deutsches Architektur Museum, BMI – Bundesministerium des Innern, für Bau und Heimat

Accompanying Events:

19/09/2018 - Vernissage “Arrival City: Jihozápadní město“

20/09/2018 - Film screening – Almanya: Welcome to Germany

09/10/2018 - Discussion – Arrival City: What is the arrival city?

11/10/2018 - Film screening – Berlin Babylon

Cover image © Anastasia Dulgier

> via Shared Cities Creative Momentum & Making Heimat