CCGES and the Goethe-Institut Toronto co-present a podium discussion between Tom Sieverts (Bonn) and Gerda Wekerle (York U). Moderated by Roger Keil (CCGES York).

Professor Tom Sieverts, one of Germany’s foremost planning and architectural visionaries,has termed the emerging landscapes of the current period Zwischenstadt or the In-between-City. In his highly influential book by that title (1999 in German by Vieweg; 2003 by Routledge in English), Sieverts explores the new spaces “between place and world, space and time, city and countryside”. The resulting “cities without cities” have now started to capture the imaginations of planners, policy makers and the general public. They have become the focus of attention as urban hallmarks such as gridlock and diversity happen “out there”, too. In fact, as York University Professor Gerda Wekerle has observed in a long-term study of social and environmental change on the Oak Ridges Moraine here in Toronto, these “cities without cities” have become the object of contestation and grass roots politics, in which the social, cultural and ecological futures of the regional fringe have been redefined as urban problematics.

This panel will engage Professors Sieverts and Wekerle in a conversation about the future of the regional city in light of their work in Germany and Canada. We will ask about differences and convergences of European and North American tendencies. And we will explore the ways in which action by planners and citizens can best be organized to shape Zwischenstadt into a livable city.

Time: 7 pm
Location: Goethe-Institut Kinowelt Hall, 163 King Street West