WORK IN PROGRESS
Imperfect Assemblies
December 9, 2025 Dr. César Reyes Nájera
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Luxembourg
format: Forschungswerkstatt 2025/26
FORSCHUNGSWERKSTATT AND UNIGR
On December 9, the third session of the ATG format „Forschungswerkstatt“ took place at the department.
Our guest speaker was already familiar to us through the collaboration within the UniGR guest professorship project “Encounters in the Greater Region”: Dr. César Reyes Nájera is an architect, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Luxembourg, and co-founder of the publishing house dpr-barcelona. In his work, he investigates urban social dynamics and degrowth strategies in order to critically reframe the concept of sustainable development.
IMPERFECT ASSEMBLIES
In his lecture “Imperfect Assemblies”, Dr. Reyes Nájera explored the hidden tensions, alliances, and everyday negotiations that shape urban life. He discussed how architecture can act as a mediator in democratic conflicts and stimulate new forms of urban care and civic engagement. This final event before the Christmas break was accompanied by an informal pre-Christmas gathering. A space of encounter was created that could hardly have been more fitting to the topic of the lecture and the spirit of the guest professorship.
SYNERGIES
The Research Workshop offers the opportunity to present and discuss ongoing projects within an interdisciplinary framework. This special edition, combined with the UniGR guest professorship “Encounters in the Greater Region”, aimed to identify and newly combine content-related synergies through the overlay of both formats.
This semester, the „Forschungswerkstatt“ is organized by Sandra Brand, Adria Daraban, Marie Enders, Paula Holtmann, and Marc Nötges. Further information on upcoming dates and the format of the „Forschungswerkstatt“ can be found here:
https://www.fatuk.de/atg-forschungswerkstatt/
Workshop 1
November 24-26, 2025
Excursion to Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
Workshop at Cultures of Assembly (COA) and Campus Belval
From November 24 to 26, 2025, a joint workshop with students from both universities and experts took place at the COA showroom in Esch-sur-Alzette.
GET TOGETHER – Discussion of Findings from Phase 1
On the first day, the students exchanged ideas in groups and discussed the identified forms of encounter online with Rainald Manthe. In addition, team-building games were held, allowing both groups of students to get to know each other better and to exchange their results on the same topic in preparation for the workshop.
WORKSHOP –Focus on Phase 0
The second day was devoted to creating cartographies and developing a game edition (inspired by the game collection klang2 (more info). The students were accompanied in their creative work by illustrator Bernd Pegritz. In the evening, the students discussed the artistic research work „Hinter-Räume der Demokratie“ (translated in english: Back Rooms of Democracy) with art historian Anke Kreamer and photographer Markus Bredt, guests of The Esch Clinics, moderated by Dr. Cesar Reyes and Prof. Dr. Markus Miessen (more info).
MID-CRIT – Transition from Phase 1 to Phase 2
On the third day, the analyses were translated into initial architectural and planning strategies in the sense of tool development. The final colloquium was held with Dr. Marie Enders, Prof. Dr. Adria Daraban, Prof. Dr. Markus Miessen, and guest critics Astrid Fries, architectural sociologist and neighborhood manager in Koblenz, and Carine Oberweis, architect and Honorary Consul of the Republic of Ghana in Luxembourg. Astrid Fries also gave a keynote speech on the practical relevance of developing strategies and methods that are understood as tools that need to be applied and tested in practice.
OUTLOOK – Towards a successful Phase 2
The first joint workshop has thus already opened up new encounters in the Greater Region and shown that an international and diverse region can only be developed through shared knowledge. A second workshop is therefore planned for spring 2026 as a follow-up in Kaiserslautern.
Further articles:
http://www.masterarchitecture.lu/Guest-Professor-Dr-Marie-Enders_283_0.html
Kick-off
October 29, 2025
online
As part of the guest professorship of Dr. Marie Enders , 29 students from Luxembourg and Kaiserslautern are working together in a transnational tandem seminar using artistic and research-based approaches.
INPUTS – sound as a methodological tool
The seminar began on October 29, 2025, with a digital kick-off event led by Marie Enders in which students received two inputs serving as examples for developing their own tools to capture encounters in specific places. Both inputs shared a common focus on sound as a methodological tool:
The first input was given by Udo Noll, media artist, who presented his sound-mapping project, accessible via the platform aporee.org/maps.
The second input complemented this perspective: game developers Sebastian Oberlin and Adrian Rennertz introduced their sound-based game collection klang2, demonstrating how a wide range of topics can be made accessible to a broad audience through sound memory games.
STARTING – with Phase 1
Building on these inputs, in a first Phase, students documented self-selected places of encounter in the Greater Region during an initial project phase, combining cartographic and analytical methods. Their categorization was based on four types of encounters identified by sociologist Rainald Manthe in his 2025 key publication “ Demokratie fehlt Begegnung“ (translated in english: Democracy Lacks Encounter): accidental observation, recurring encounters, verbal exchange, and shared activities.
