Binational Urbanism
On the Road to Paradise
- Conceptualizes one of the most interesting ways of urban living in the 21st century: in constant transit between two countries
- How do binational urbanists experience belonging, home, and different cultures?
Author: Bernd Upmeyer
Design: BOARD
2015, trancityxvaliz | paperback | 224 pp | 18 x 16 cm (h x w) | English | ISBN 978-94-92095-06-0
Table of contents (pdf)
Introduction (pdf)
Never before was the mobility of individuals higher than it is today. People work and live not only in different places, but often even in different countries. Binational Urbanism examines the way of life of people who start a second life in a second city in a second nation-state, without saying goodbye to their first city. They live in constant transit between two homes, between two countries.
Binational urbanists come from all strata of society: from the highly educated and cosmopolitan creative classes to the working class. Based on interviews with people of Turkish origin living in Germany, Bernd Upmeyer shows that they live an innovative urban life, are not rooted in either one of the two countries, but extremely mobile and utilizing the best of both cultures.
Binational Urbanism has the potential to become one of the most interesting forms of life in the twenty-first century. This books creates a theory of this fascinating phenomenon—a theory which is developed from the interviews, but reaches far beyond their immediate context and can be applied to different urban settings.
Bernd Upmeyer is a Rotterdam-based architect. He is the founder of BOARD, and editor and publisher of Monu Magazine on Urbanism.