Matthias Rauch over een levendig Mannheim dankzij aangepaste regels.
Als urbanist en cultureel ontwikkelaar heeft Matthias Rauch veel ervaring met innovatieve en creatieve placemaking-projecten in Mannheim, die laten zien hoe cultuur en een creatieve economie aanjager kunnen zijn voor stedelijke ontwikkeling en stedelijke transformatie in een stad. In zijn keynote belicht Matthias strategische kaders die hij inzet om een creatieve stad te vormen en te transformeren.
Thank you very much I’m very glad to be here uh in is my uh second time actually first time around I was traveling through U and didn’t have a lot of time unfortunately this time I have a little bit more time I’m going to stay until tomorrow so I’m very much looking
Forward to um checking out this space amazing space here uh and uh also a bit of the city of rre of course um I’ve already checked out the the biking garage which was uh very impressive everyone in Germany is always like okay you have to check out the the biking
Garage in it like at the station so that was a very great start already I want to uh thank Don and her entire team for having me at this fabulous conference and uh perhaps to start uh next Manheim is a company that is owned by the city
Of Manheim chairman of the board is the mayor there’s currently I think 52 people working for the company um I we also run um eight startup hubs with about 35,000 square meters of office space and about 380 companies in these hubs half of them have a focus on the
Cultural and creative Industries and I’m going to briefly talk about these um later on I’m the I’m fortunate to head the only Department that doesn’t do any hardware I always call this the hardware aspect so I don’t do any rental contracts I only do projects with my
Team of currently nine people and I’m also give you a few examples of what we do and what our objectives are at uh next Manheim um the the city of Manheim started a creative City strategy um when our mayor Dr Peter quitz was a mayor for culture um and he developed
This strategy with a very strong focus on music um and we opened in 2004 the first startup Center exclusively for the music industry in Germany with about 6,000 square meters about 60 companies are currently there in 2007 we purchased another building right across the street because we needed more space uh and the
Entire music industry basically is are represented in the hub uh we have labels we have publishing companies um recording studios radio Studios up to security companies that primarily work in the music industry um and in the summer we have regular electronic music events uh a company called cosmop pop
Does regular events there they also do a festival called Time Warp that you might have heard of it’s the biggest electronic music festival that we have in Manheim every year um some of this takes place here um a second Hub we open in 2012 called Altus folks which is in a neighborhood
Called nekad West it’s a very Multicultural neighborhood as is the city of Manheim by the way with about 177 nationalities currently living there it’s always been a very Multicultural City the first language spoken in manim was actually not German but was um flamish and the French because the K
First asked his colleagues to come to manim to build the city so uh I think that’s quite remarkable I always like to mention that it’s sort of part of the Manheim DNA is the multiculturalism and uh we’re very proud of that and we think it’s a it’s a potential It’s actually an opportunity
Rather than a risk that you have to deal with the Alta folkart is a culture and creative uh Industries Hub as well uh with a strong focus on Urban District development development or neighborhood development if you will uh we’re trying to really open the Hub as much as
Possible so we do a lot of events there um there’s regular concerts um in the basement which is um protected it’s old um there actually bathtubs in there it’s a very interesting place because when people didn’t have their own bath and it was in use until the late 80s I believe
People went there to have a shower or sit in the bathtub um and from I’ve never been there myself personally in the bathtub but from what I’ve heard it was a very um um it was a social place where people actually chatted about you know how’s the family doing um how how
What’s how’s your job Etc what what what are the uh grand kids doing Etc so it’s always a place of exchange of of um social activity and we’re trying to keep that Focus uh also with the companies that are in here and uh do regular events and try to really have everyone
In the community come to the hub not only to work but to exchange to do homework to just sit there and use it for whatever you want and whatever you like um in 2014 it was already mentioned in the introduction Manheim was um joined the creative cities network of the
UNESCO as a city of Music um sort of granting I guess our efforts or a cherishing or appreciating our efforts in terms of supporting music and the music industry um with in the preprofessional stage where we have a person taking care of all newcomers in
The city so if your ban is starting up um there’s a regular program that you can apply for that is takes about a year and um you’re coached by professional coaches and there’s a professional video production at the end and a big concert with a well-known band Etc um then we
Used to have a cluster management music industry with three people taking care of all the Professionals in the industry uh trying to strengthen networks do co-creative events Etc and represent the city of Music at national uh trade fairs abroad internationally as well as nationally and Regional of course and um
As I already talked about the the Music Park still being there as the first and only startup Center exclusively for the music industry in Germany then you can see here in 2015 we opened um seub which is another culture and creative Industries sub with a focus not focus for the entire culture and
Creative Industries what’s special here is we have a showrooms in the on the first floor where the companies can sell their products or Services directly or you can check them out out um we have a nice we have a communal Gallery right across uh where they have six exhibitions every year also featuring
Local and Regional artists always and uh we have a restaurant which is a trivial detail but we find that community building and sort of communication exchange is always much easier when there’s food and drink uh so in the hubs that have a restaurant it’s always much
Easier um when you don’t have that it’s it takes a lot more effort to really get the community engaged and and and going that is the seahub um it’s in an old Harbor area called the Yung Bush um which is sort of the creative and nightlife um neighborhood these days but
That’s developed within the last 10 or 10 to 15 years um the last Hub that I’m going to talk about is the Tex a very small one with about eight companies with a focus on fashion and textile Industries what’s special here is we have a little retail
Store on the first floor um where the companies sell collectively sell their products um and uh we’re trying to bring in people into the Hub here as well and to Showcase of course the companies that we have in the hub and we have a little Machinery Park actually here as well
Where um the companies can do small additions very small additions or prototypes um for free um so suing machines Etc that are free of charge um I know the Dutch are way ahead when it comes to nightmares but we were the first city to introduce a nightmare in
2018 um taking care of all the night culture nighttime economy stakeholders in the city this is actually the second one this is my colleague robat G um the main objectives are mediation or moderation before actual conflicts arise so we’re trying to bring the different parties together and try to find a
Common solution for instance noise complaints or if there’s too much litter on the street or if um Mobility could be optim imized Etc at night all of these aspects uh we’re trying to strengthen the networks in night culture and night time economy um that’s not been happening before we started this
Position so I think it’s very important that this position has been created and uh we had I can say a little bit proudly that there was no club that had to close during uh the covid uh pandemic um I think it had a little bit to do with this position and keeping the
Communication flow between all the support programs that were there and trying to also U provide funds from the city to help the the clubs and the live music venes to this very difficult time and of course last but not least I I think that’s the most important aspect
Is the co-creation of innovative formats for the night um one of the project was for instance also during the pandemic to create free outside open air spaces for clubs and live music venues because they can perform inside so we came up with uh three or four different locations that
Could be used out in the open um without any of the usual Corona restrictions so that was a very important uh part of supporting the clubs and the live music venues um what are the objectives of the cultural Innovation and creative economy Department that I’m uh heading we do
So-called cross Innovation projects at the intersection of art culture business technology and science where we where we’re trying to um get into a productive dialogue artists and creatives with people from other businesses and sectors because we find that artists and creatives think differently than Engineers or business people for
Instance and they tend to do very well in so-called open processes where um where you know Innovation processes or change processes are always open processes because you never know where you’re going to end up uh you know they you’re not you don’t know how long it
Will take and there’s always a risk of failure as well um with open processes so we found that artists are always engaged in open processes because once you start with the first word of the first note of the first paintbrush Etc you don’t know exactly where you’re
Going to end up so it’s not really about the art itself but about the artistic approach or the artistic thinking that we’re trying to implement in say entrepreneurial context or scientific context or um Tech context um we do different projects here but I’m not going to go into this uh
Today uh I’m going to go a little bit deeper into what we call Creative placemaking projects so we go into public space um with art and culture and try to Showcase potentials of places how could the place also be used um what is there that is also perhaps there but
It’s not used to the extent that it could be and we’re trying to use art and culture to sort of highlight these aspects I’m going to talk about a little bit about uh some of the projects that we’ve been doing in the past night governance already talked about uh I’m
Not going to go into that as well and then of course the entire support for the culture and creative Industries with a focus on the music industry design industry film and the fashion industry fashion industry is actually at least to the German definition not an official part of the culture and creative
Industries but we consider this part of the design industry and try to create synergies especially between the music field and the design um design and fashion field that’s why we support this rather small Market in Germany um in Germany in manim with the fashion industry what are some of the um
Projects that we have done in the past that I want to briefly touch up on um one is uh a project called ST which is a platform for Popup users um we introduced this in I believe 2017 2018 uh where we Tred to bring or connect people who had space available and
People who were looking for space for artists for creatives and for startups um if you now go to the site um I warn you it’s not in its current function but we’re going to return it to that function because we’ve been trying to generate Living Spaces from uh people
From Ukraine uh because the mayor asked us to use this tool to do that um so that’s what we currently did did for the for the last time here on this platform we don’t get involved in any contract so basically all we do is provide the platform we bring the two parties
Together a person who has space available and a person who’s looking to do a popup or temporary use um that’s the only thing that we do we guide in the process we try to build trust on both sides um but we don’t get involved in any contractual um stuff because the
U real estate people would freak out if you do that so we’ we’ve gotten a few uh um very upset calls anyway because we have this platform they were like what are you doing you’re not supposed to do this as a city but we said you know
We’re only don’t we’re only doing this for temporary use up until two years at the most so they were like okay um we can accept that so we’re not uh sort of messing with the real estate business um one of the popup uses that we do regularly is called Hometown Glory
Where we feature um fashion designers um in manaheim and that’s been so successful that we’re asked to do it all over the place we’ve done it at big department stores a big um stores in the city Etc um it’s I I don’t know I think it’s been going on for six seven eight
Years now uh we actually wanted to stop the project because we thought okay it’s it’s run its course um we we’ve done it so many times but the we actually get requested by the the Stars to could you do another Edition it works so well and
Could you do this so we’ve been running this Hometown Glory um for for several years now as one of our popup um Concepts in the city um last year we did what we call Vision side Festival which is sort of a popup Festival because uh we wanted to
Generate trust with uh people who owned property who owned real estate because we still found that a lot of people are sort of skeptical when it comes to popup uses they’re usually like oh not sure what they’re going to do there uh they’re not going to leave again uh I
Don’t want to charge way less than I usually do which is what you have to do with a popup because otherwise it doesn’t make sense especially at the very Central um um positions at the downtown area where the rents are astronomical um so these are some of the
Things that we try to step by step get rid of or work towards that people who own property and own real estate understood the potential of popup uses I don’t know what the case is here in ut if you’re if that’s not an issue it’s definitely still an issue in Manheim and
We’re currently engaged in a big downtown transformation um project where we’re actually um receive funds from the federal government to do popup uses in the uh downtown core areas of the city to experiment a little bit about what might work uh to have culture culture and creative Industries uh but also arts
And crafts or Urban production um more in the center of the cities and to be able to visibly see people and experience what’s going on um there directly again um so that’s a little Festival that that we did primarily to invite a lot of people who owned real
Estate to see you know this was what it could feel like in your space Etc come join us next time um this is um a pro a creative placemaking project on the move so to speak it’s a very simple idea uh it was generated in a project called migrants
For City where migrants actually thought about how can we make Mana better more interesting more inclusive and they came up with the idea of having um music in a place where that is usually not associated with music at all so we put it in a tram at a regular you know
Running hour so only the only thing that you need is a ticket uh it’s not marked as a special train you just enter the train and then there’s live music we did this at a neighborhood festival called knle over um two days and it’s been so successful that actually the tram
Company has requested that we do this project and we’ve done it I think like six or seven or eight times now um and I’m going to just play you a little clip just to give you an impression uh I’m not going to play the whole thing but I
Think what is remarkable is here how people interact differently uh when there is music when the space gets a different quality suddenly when there’s music and um I think that’s that’s kind of interesting to see I’m going to shut up for just really quickly night call out your name it’s
Been such a shame that us to run while I what you expect when you ICT all the broken pieces in I live Spies so from my again but my what if I’m all the things you out with the for [Applause] My yeah this are some of the Impressions it’s actually a project that the first nightmare um did and uh uh I still like to play this clip and I like to just showcase the atmosphere of uh what a regular tram R might also feel like and
Look like if you have a little bit of music in there um this what’s called in German and I apologize that the the clip is going to be also in German um is a an idea to how can we sort of get people to think about what
To do more creative stuff with the parking lots that we have in the city um as you know you know cars are parked for 95% of the time and it’s dead space and it’s um you know private property that is placed in the public realm for uh a
Relatively low fee and uh what we did is here we built a wooden car um that is almost life-size um that you can pull anywhere and there was a legal like a a legal loophole where you can actually Park this legally on a car parking spot um so
It’s public property more or less people can just take it um it’s very hard to do on your own but if you have two or three friends with you you can basically carry it uh to wherever you want or push it to wherever you want and use it for
Whatever you want um I’m just going to play you this little clip we used it as a DJ um Council um for an event called LM at the nead West um but it was used for many different purposes like the kids um painted it differently people played cards or board games they had
Lunch on it Etc so a lot of different things I’m just going to play you this little Clip we did this uh with kids from the the neighborhood they actually build it together with a maker space uh valala and the the companies called B they provided the materials for us to to build this thing We’re going to keep using this as a mobile architecture now for this downtown transformation project where we need um assets like this uh the the tires are um we need to renew the tires right now so you can’t move it but we’ll fix that and it’s going to be up and
Running again hopefully soon um music as you probably noticed is a big part of the monheim identity and always has been from classical music to Jazz to electronic music Indie music Etc there’s a very Lively Festival scene in Manheim but um if you arrive at the train station in Manheim at the main
Station you would not notice that this city has anything to do with music uh because there’s hardly any busing there’s no Street Music um out in the streets for some reason so what we try to do here is give a little impulse or a little inspiration perhaps how the city
Could feel if there was more music out on the streets that you could just experience walking down the street uh and we did the first uh bosing Festival um last year and we’re going to continue to do that hopefully um and the main goal here was to sort of um have people
Experience the city in a different way that’s why I think it’s also really a placemaking project at the intersection of music and creative placemaking and um we also at the same time worked at the um on the regulation for busing and that were fairly strict in manim together
With the municipality which was a uh quite a difficult and a long process but we I think we finally arrived at and I hope next month actually council is going to vote on it um that we’re going to have uh it way less bureaucratic than it used to be uh for instance you
Couldn’t play any electronically enhanced or Amplified music um which I think is insane if you keep within the regulatory limits so you couldn’t play even a keyboard or something like that um then you had to switch positions every half hour um then you had to pay a
Fee of about I think roughly €18 EUR per day to play um and all of this you know kept people from actually engaging and and playing music out on the street so we tried to make this a lot more easier and inviting so we’re not going to have
A fee um we’re the times are going to be different electronic amplification is not going to be an issue anymore and then hopefully within one or two years we’re going to have a little effect but I’m going to play you a couple of Clips a couple of um Impressions from the
First busing Festival that we did last year La All right um just to give you an an appr idea of what it what it felt like um we started to really focus on the issue of uh placemaking creative placemaking about four years ago where we said you know we need to move out of the institutions and really go into the
Public realm with art creativity and culture more um and I don’t think it’s our objective or our goal to do all of that ourselves at next manai but we really want to sort of inspire Empower and bring various different stakeholders um to do placemaking projects themselves
Um but in order to Kickstart things a little bit we we brought in experts from uh from all over Europe in order to discuss current trends um best practices Etc in the realm of placemaking for our first uh placemaking Forum which we’ve done twice already the second time
Around we had to do it virtually because of Corona unfortunately but I hope this year we’re going to be able to have uh an analog um addition once again which I much prefer I think it’s still very so much different when you have someone face to face and the discussions and the
The discour and the exchange are just so different than uh doing it virtually only um I’m going to play just a couple Impressions here um and uh but we’re going to move on pretty quickly this took place in a place called multia uh which we’re also currently involved in
Which is a big placemaking project um is the biggest wooden panel Construction in the world was which was built by fry Oto it’s a Pisa Prize winner architect uh that already passed unfortunately um but uh it’s a very remarkable building uh in Manheim and everyone I take there is
Usually very fascinated by the place because it has a very very special atmosphere we developed a new use concept uh with it and we’re going to continue to do that we’re going to go into an interim uh curation in 25 hopefully the restoration of the roof is
Currently underway um and we’re going to be probably the the operators in 27 so still a way to go um but that’s one of the other and the big plac making event um um projects that we’re currently involved in regard to time I’m just going to skip
On I wanted to give you one example of a a place placemaking project and one of the first ones what we did is which translates into station progress uh we went into uh an actual place of fear or sort of a neglected place but that had a
Lot of qualities and a lot of urban qualities too it has a nice green area there’s a little Park there’s a sporting facility there basketball courts Etc but it wasn’t used to that extent at all um so we tried to sort of showcase or push
The place a little bit and to uh inspire hopefully a few people to use this place differently um so what we did is we built um together with yala yala and brna which is an architecture office and a communication design company um a temporary architecture out of wood and
Um placed that under the bridge here um and did uh culture programming we had music we had um readings we had film screenings we did a one-day conference on Urban Development all three under the bridge uh we did an urban hacking workshop together with a communication design students uh that developed
Projects during the festival and then presented them during the festival as well and uh yeah just transformed this place temporarily to something else than it used to be and here some pictures from that I’m always I’m just going to continue talking I’m I’m going to be done really quickly um I’m always asked
In how far are creative placemaking projects sustainable and I think that’s an very important question and and a valid one and um if you went to this place where we did this uh it looks very much like it did before unfortunately but what it led to is that we received
Funds from the city council now to um support citizen Le placemaking projects which is exactly what we we what we wanted to do and what we intended from the very beginning because we can’t and don’t want to do placemaking projects in all of the spots that uh probably would
Require it in the city but we want to sort of Empower people to do their own projects guide them along a little bit help them with permits um if you’ve ever done a project in the in the public space you know it can be a real pain in
The ass to get permits from many different council members and many different positions in the city so we helped along with that um and uh it led to the fact that we for the last two years now had funds to support these projects both financially as well with
The with a little process guidance and these are some pictures from the first which which we did a second time in a different spot and which also led to a a bigger placemaking project called ala which is very much very similar um than ra actually I think it feels very similar
Has similar aspects to it that’s why I didn’t want to showcase it today because I feel like you know this place but there is one in Manheim that feels similar and the last one and uh I’m going to leave it here is what I call a digital
Placemaking project um I don’t know is anyone familiar with the mix the city project anyone ever encountered this so you can go to mix the city.com it’s a project that was developed by the British Council Tel Aviv um and we were together with hamwi the first German
City to do the project the initial idea is very simple and it’s very basic you pick 12 musicians and film them with two short samples in remarkable spots in the city and then with these 24 samples you can create your own soundtrack of what you think the city sounds like or should
Sound like which sounds like a like almost childish tool is actually very complex and I haven’t heard two mixes that sound completely alike so you can really make music with this tool um and what I like about it here is it involves the digital realm it’s it’s um people
Can actually create their own soundtrack but you have a direct relation between music place and sort of the identity of the city if you will that is continuously being um described or reinvented by the people themselves I’m just going to play you the clip that the artistic director sigi haad dur did um
And then I’m going to leave you and I’m very much looking forward to our discussions in the rest of the day There were two requirements and in the in the project that was the key that was supposed to be in and that there were no explicit lyrics mentioned because ultimately it was planned that you could do an international mix with all the cities that were involved in this project which unfortunately never
Materialized but if you’re wondering why she is only singing da da da that that’s the reason Why All right time is running out um if you have I’m sorry if you if you have any questions remarks uh please get in touch I’ll be here for the rest of the day as well and I think I’m supposed to finish with this slide thank you very much for having me