The workroom displays the outputs of a three year experimental project lab embedded in the BA at Biberach School of Architecture. The students investigate their immediate surroundings: an economically stable region, that still has to become conscious of changes to come. In six successive labs they unravelled some of the hidden features, natural co-operations, bizarre quirks or impressive risks in the area.   

Rich local traditions and strong global linkages are similarly understood in the region between Ulm and Lake Constance. It is covered with a polycentric structure of settlement clusters in various sizes, many of them looking back on a history of urban autonomy since their beginning. In between these, a mixed used carpet of programmatic “pixels” sets a variety of functions in great proximity: infrastructures of all kind, industries and agricultural production, woods, swamps, housing, universities, waterways and a couple of airports. The methods of investigation combine traditional tools of urban research (quantitative and qualitative analysis plus photography) with new approaches through social media, open source data editing or explorative drifts on site. Along a grid of 10×10 square kilometres (based on the EEA reference grid) maps and diagrams illustrate and compare relevant structural characteristics and performances of different territories. In addition they edit urban-landscape-profiles that portray authentic local conditions. Each square starts to tell its own story and at the same time becomes part of the bigger picture: a territory much more ambiguous, under stress or edgy that participants would have imagined. Here is what they found …