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We are an interdisciplinary team and are dedicated to addressing relevant issues related to the livable design of our built environment in architecture, cities and landscapes.

Mehr über pragmatopia

CONFERENCE

Beyond Borderlessness. Architecture and the Anthropological Need for Spatial Boundaries

Lecture (in English) by Marc Kirschbaum at ARTEMIS Pinnacle Summit in Perugia / Italia "OPEN BORDERS"

June 29, 2026 at 12.15pm

LECTURES

Mut zum Wandel – Über Identität und Zukunft des ländlichen Raumes (The Courage to Change – On Identity and the Future of Rural Areas)

Lecture (in German) by Marc Kirschbaum at network meeting on “Sustainable Urban Development in Hesse” (Netzwerktreffen "Nachhaltige Stadtentwicklung in Hessen") in Homberg (Efze) on June 16, 2025.

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LECTURES

Angemessenheit – Ideen von gestern für eine Welt von morgen (Appropriateness – Ideas from Yesterday for a World of Tomorrow)

Lecture (in German) by Marc Kirschbaum at GAG Summer Academy in Ludwigshafen/Rhein on June 02, 2025.
Photo: Ben Pakalski

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PUBLIcATIONs

LEARN[IN] II digital learning spaces

2025

with contributions by Marc Kirschbaum, Belen Zevallos, Cidália F. Silva, João Cabeleira, Francesco Collotti, Eliana Martinelli, Matteo Pecorini, Giada Cerri et al. has been released and is available for download.

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PUBLIcATIONs

Neopragmatism – Inverse Landscape – (Carto)graphic Representation

New release by Olaf Kühne, Karsten Berr, Dennis Edler, Petra Lohmann and Kai Schuster

2025

Landscape appears stable and consistent. At least, this is a common perception of landscape. This view ignores the contingency of landscape, which is evident in the past and future as well as in the present and not just in relation to the physical spaces into which 'landscape' is projected but also in relation to social constructions and individual experience. The contingency of landscape becomes clear in inverse landscapes, which illustrate states and processes that are not impossible, but also not requisite. In this way, inverse landscapes form a tool for operationalizing the neopragmatist idea of expanding contingency. The concept of inverse landscape is subjected to criticism in various ways, from internal criticism to metatheoretical criticism to life-related pragmatic criticism. This critique is performed from an interdisciplinary perspective. The aim of this book is to further develop the concept, both regarding a more differentiated understanding of the contingency of landscape and also concerning the question of how it can help to solve practical problems in the context of 'landscape'.

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PRESS

Obituary for Prof. Alexander Eichenlaub

Alexander Eichenlaub passed away on June 7, 2024. An obituary has been published in Bauwelt.

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CONFERENCE

University:Future Festival 2024

Lecture "The Big Five Places: Future Learning" at the University:Future Festival 2024 by Marc Kirschbaum on June 05, 2024, 3.05pm.

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PUBLIcATIONS

A process to foster pathology-related effects of design primes

Contribution by Jonas Rehn-Groenendijk, Kai Schuster et al., in: Frontiers in Psychology, Volume 14 - 2023, 20. November 2023.

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PRESS

More initiative in school design

Interview with Marc Kirschbaum on school design in  Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung, 16./17.09.2023.

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academic

CIVIC+

In the module Architectural Theory in the DBE master's program, students from Heidelberg and Perugia work and research with a focus on Cittàslow. This joint cooperation is conducted in and with the city of Homberg (Efze).

cONFERENce

Advancing Human-Centered Design for Vertical Urbanism

Marc Kirschbaum gives a public lecture "In the name of architectural anthropology and theory: an approach to vertical urbanism" in Berlin on March 02, 2023.

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academic

The seminar "Architectural Perception and Light" is back at ERCO in Lüdenscheid

With students of the seminar "Architectural Perception and Light", Kai Schuster visits for the first time after the pandemic break from March 06–07, 2023 again a lighting workshop at ERCO in Lüdenscheid.

academic

Architecture – Design for the Built Environment

The international Master's program "Architecture DBE" at SRH University Heidelberg will start again in the summer semester 2023 with students from all over the world!!

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PUBLIcATIONs

Architektur und Lernwelten. Perspektiven für die Gestaltung

Comprehensive fundamental publication by Marc Kirschbaum and Richard Stang (Eds.)

With contributions by Marc Kirschbaum, Richard Stang, Kai Schuster, Charlotte Eller, Thorsten Erl, Belen Zevallos, Nathalie Dziobek-Bepler, Otto Seydel, Inka Wertz, Klaus Ulrich Werner, Michael Zinner, Barbara Pampe, Andreas Hammer and Olaf-Axel Burow.

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PRESS

Alte Mauern, neues Leben

Marc Kirschbaum on university buildings in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of 14.01.2023

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PUBLICATIONS

Grundlagen der menschlichen Wahrnehmung und Stärken und Risiken visueller Kommunikation

Contribution by Kai Schuster, in: Dietrich Bruns, Boris Stemmer, Daniel Münderlein and Simone Theile (Eds.). Methoden Visueller Kommunikation in der räumlichen Planung. p. 27–44

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LECTURES

Psychologie des Wohnens

Lecture by Kai Schuster at Lions Club ElzNeckar in Mosbach, 27.05.2022

PUBLICATIONS

Liberty and Landscape. In Search of Life Chances with Ralf Dahrendorf

New publication by Olaf Kühne, Karsten Berr, Corinna Jenal and Kai Schuster (Eds.) now also published in English

The book deals with questions of operationalizing Ralf Dahrendorf's life chances approach in relation to spatial developments. It examines which spatial developments can contribute to an improvement in life chances and which spatial developments should be pursued with the aim of maximizing life chances. This is illustrated by using current challenges, such as the energy transition and climate change. Finally, an approach to dealing with space from the perspective of a liberalism that maximizes life chances is developed.

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PUBLICATIONS

Freiheit und Landschaft. Auf der Suche nach Lebenschancen mit Ralf Dahrendorf

New publication by Olaf Kühne, Karsten Berr, Corinna Jenal and Kai Schuster (Eds.)

The book deals with questions of operationalizing Ralf Dahrendorf's life chances approach in relation to spatial developments. It examines which spatial developments can contribute to an improvement in life chances and which spatial developments should be pursued with the aim of maximizing life chances. This is illustrated by using current challenges, such as the energy transition and climate change. Finally, an approach to dealing with space from the perspective of a liberalism that maximizes life chances is developed.

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PUBLICATIONS

Der Friedhof: Ein Hauch von Jenseits im Diesseits

Paper by Kai Schuster in Psychologie Heute

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PUBLICATIONS

Digital Learning: Making a Case for Space. Innovative Learning, its Social Forms, and its Spatial Dimension

Paper by Belen Zevallos, Marc Kirschbaum and Cidália Silva, in: Zain Adil (Ed./2021): Online Education. Teaching in a Time of Change. AMPS Proceedings Series 23.1, pp. 179–188

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PUBLICATIONS

The social psychological function of play

Paper by Kai Schuster, in: Dennis Edler, Olaf Kühne and Corinna Jenal (Eds./2022): The Social Construction of Landscapes in Games, pp. 39–57

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PUBLICATIONS

LEARN[IN] a matter of space

First volume of the international cooperation LEARN[IN] by Marc Kirschbaum and Belen Zevallos (Eds.)

With contributions by Marc Kirschbaum, Belen Zevallos, Cidália F. Silva, João Cabeleira, Mónica Faria, Natacha Antão Moutinho, Francesco Collotti, Eliana Martinelli, Giada Cerri und den Beteiligten Studenten Leonardo Gori, Paula Martins, Adriana Oliveira, Inês Oliveira, Aleksandra Panic, Katharina Pritsch, João Bandeira, Lucas Cerqueira, Carolina Madureira, Mesut Nada, Rute Silva, Chiara Simoncini, Nicolas Ctvrtnik, Raissa Fonseca, Ana Margarida Mota, Viviana Maria Privitera, Fabrizio Taricone, André Abreu, Luís Caldas, Morgan Conner, Cláudia Pando, Giulia Peixoto Moschi, Jacqueline Wirth.

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LECTURES

Der Mensch als Risiko

Lecture by Kai Schuster as part of the lecture series „Aus Ungewissheiten lernen – Darmstädter Antworten in der Klima- und Viruskrise“ ("Learning from uncertainties - Darmstadt's answers to the climate and virus crisis") organized by Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University of Darmstadt, 19.11.2020.

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PUBLICATIONS

Studentische (Un-)Redlichkeit beim Erwerb von Studienleistungen

Paper by Bernd Steffens and Kai Schuster, in: die hochschullehre – interdisziplinäre Zeitschrift für Studium und Lehre, 66. Jg., heft 5, pp. 161–168.

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PUBLICATIONS

Über die Räumlichkeit des Menschen

Paper by Marc Kirschbaum and Mara Fock, in: Zeitschrift für Sozialmanagement, Nummer 1/2021, pp. 53–65.

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PUBLICATIONS

Design Primes to Change Health Behaviour – Using Aesthetic Features for Health Behaviour Change

Paper by Jonas Rehn and Kai Schuster, in: European Journal of Public Health, Volume 31, Issue Supplement 3, October 2021.

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