Autokorrektur-suggestions for solving the problem of urban mobility

摘要

The title indicates a delight in playing with language, while at the same time conveying the seriousness of the situation along with its cause; a correction to the way we live is urgently needed, a way of life determined to a great extent by the motorcar. "How does mobility influence the space in which we live?" The exhibition, clearly ordered in several sections, gives a clear answer to the question that follows the title. Stands made of light-coloured plywood and silhouettes recalling the diversity of road-users are covered with texts and images that approach the theme from many different angles. The exhibition not only showcases the reciprocal effects of housing forms, lifestyles and mobility but also explains the historical backgrounds to a development whose disadvantageous - if not to say catastrophic - impact on our lives hardly anyone can now shut their eyes to. But whereas the relationship between the still growing automo-bilization and the increasingly serious climate crisis is already being discussed intensively, motorised society's exploitation of the quality of public space is paid considerably less attention. In this regard, too, the exhibition closes a number of gaps, not least of all because it allows warning voices to be heard that date from a time when the strict separation of functions in the settled area and the implementation of a "car-friendly city" were still standard urban planning practice. "The highly integrated old town has been functionally split up. The inhospitable quality that spreads across these new urban regions is depressing", Alexander Mitscherlich noted back in 1965. "Autokorrektur" coherently proves that the enormous amount of space required by motor cars and the resulting disadvantaging of road users who are not motorised or the lack of enthusiasm for improving public transportation are not things that must simply be accepted. Questions such as "How can we build a city with short routes?", "How can a car-friendly space become a friendly one?" Or "Is a different kind of mobility possible?" are answered with approaches that have already been implemented. Visitors are also given the opportunity to compile concise depictions of best-practice examples on the path to an ecologically, socially, and economically acceptable form of mobility to make their own catalogue. This process also has to do with the theme: there will never be an "autocorrect" for mobility, we will all have to make our own contribution.