A new global network has been founded and Bernd is member of it. Quilting is a collective of high-profile experts of Europe, North America and Bernd from Oceania, based in Paris, to consult on urgent questions regarding our urban future.
The network's manifesto states: "The public realm is at the heart of urban life and how we treat it reveals the state of a community’s culture. Considering the challenges that climate change will bring, and how societies respond to their impacts, the urban fabric may change significantly compared to the present. In a future, where many megacities accommodate dozens of millions, a large percentage of them uprooted migrants, the pressure on inherited lifestyles grows, and it is likely that the open spaces will be the first to adapt to new demands. Improvised livelihoods may trigger the conversion of parks to urban subsistence farming. Parasitic structures may spawn from existing buildings. Our cities, traditionally designed to support stable communities, will develop to ever-evolving, dynamic places; the formal will morph into the informal; the barricaded into the permeable. Today the public realm already expands beyond the physical, encompassing the cyberspace as well. Applying the dynamism of social networks to the built environment will evoke opportunities to create poetic magic beyond the technocratic logic of infrastructures.
"Optimistically embracing the post-secular age, we dare seeing the urban realm with new eyes. Surpassing the spreadsheets of the real estate and financial industries, enriching the rationale of construction and governance, we help quilting an urban civilisation that answers challenges with an abundance of amazing interventions, adventurous visions and wondrous twists for satisfying city life even though it might happen on a statistically lower standard than today, as we help ending exploitation and encouraging sharing stories, space and spirit."