Construction Sites as Cultural Phenomena: A Perspective Collection for Further Discussion
Project information
submitted by
Eicke Entzian
Mentors
Jasper Cepl, Piero Sassi
Degree programme:
Urbanistik (Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.))
Project description
The action of building can be counted as one most essential practices of our species. At least since settledness, it has been the basis for the cultural diversity of the human. The spatial subject embodying this practice has always been the construction site. It is the framework of building as a process, constitutes our contemporary building culture and is therefore – even before the finished building – a visible part of every city.
Today, our conventional building practice is increasingly being criticized due to its environmental impact. Surprisingly, the construction site itself is hardly part of the ongoing debates. Also from an academic point of view, the construction site has to this date only scarcely been empirically examined as an independent spatial category. A general theory of the construction site that could be used as a basis for processing further questions does not yet exist.
This bachelor thesis deals with the question of how we can discuss the construction site as an independent spatial phenomenon. Based on field investigations at multiple construction sites in Jena, Weimar and Stuttgart, the work explores various (social) spatial dimensions and characteristics of the suject and proposes five possible perspectives under which we can read and further examine construction site. The thesis is to be understood as a sorted collection in which topics and aspects of a general theory are presented and related to the little existing literature.