URBAN FOAM – Survey on forms of informal aspects of the city.

URBAN FOAM – Survey on forms of informal aspects of the city. Case Study Istanbul, Berlin and Mumbai.

…if 75% of the global population were to live in cities by the year 2050…? Urban situations are already steadily increasing as a result of the unbridled growth of metropolis and the shrinking of rural regions, and are overstraining society. ISSSresearch describes these unregulated situations of informal space and its use as urban foam.
… if urban foam was to be a source of knowledge that could complement traditional technologies in order to promote and guarantee sustainable development for humanity.

Among the consequences of the unbridled growth of nowadays metropolis is the increase of informal aspects in the cities and its spatial production. Abandoned, lost and degraded space is becoming a widespread phenomenon in post-industrial cityscapes. At the same time the number of marginalised human beings is rising and privileged people act increasingly illegally without consequences. These informal aspects, so called urban foam, are and have always been an integral constituent of cities. Albeit having a history as old as the cities themselves, it is today considered as a threat to society and its urban surroundings.

ISSSresearch believes that such perception is predominantly due to a lack of knowledge about urban foam, which has prompted and inspired them to their survey. ISSSresearch is firmly convinced that knowledge and awareness of urban foam need to be raised and developed in order to meet the challenges that are stemming from it. The journey will takes them to Istanbul, Berlin and Mumbai and shall be the empiric basis of the research, allowing to gain a deeper insight into this somewhat threatening, but fascinating urban phenomenon. ISSSresearch believes that the principles underlying informal aspects of space have enormous potential as to the generation of a sustainable future and may well offer intelligent and innovative solutions for the increasing complexity of nowadays cityscapes.

About ISSSresearch

ISSSresearch is an independent laboratory for Architecture, UrbanResearch and UrbanExploration and was founded in 2008 by Ingrid Sabatier and Stephan Schwarz in Paris. ISSSresearch develops its own projects. The number of projects realized by ISSSresearch is not fixed.
Ingrid Sabatier and Stephan Schwarz are two young architects, passionated by the informal aspects of the city, practicing UrbanExplorations and UrbanResearch, they question the role of the informal in the megapolis of the 21st century.