Helga Fassbinder

Central issue of the discussion about the “risk society” and “reflexive planning” is the necessity of a new thinking about cities, insufficiently covered by the term “sustainability”.

The preposition of the essay is: Sustainable planning and building will only then be able to assert themselves when they are associated with a new language of form, which makes the complex content tangible for all engaged in urban affairs: the planners, architects, residents and politicians. A language that, with a new beauty, makes visible which world we move in; what is good and what is bad for the preservation of environmental conditions.

The conception of BIOTOPE CITY offers such an inspiring new vision of the city, asking for a fundamental turnaround in thinking: the city is regarded not only as a largely self-regenerating overall system with minimal external effects, but also as a specific form of nature. This concept incorporates also, logically, a new idea of beauty. As this the conception of BIOTOPE CITY integrates form and content anew.