The design of Relation. Coexistence of differences in Berlin's Tiergarten

Human relations are part of our everyday. They manifest in a plurality of forms, movements, institutions and spaces. Thus if they have a reality, they can be studied as such. This thesis explores the so-called “design of relation”, arguing that in certain contexts - such as that of metropolitan cities in countries with evolved economies - the most intense forms of social interaction are exchanged within opaque contexts, where different social categories can find their own niches or insides to gather. In this framework, specific relational phenomenons can be related to as spatial local thoughts, perceived as objects that could be extracted from their own contexts, broken down and re-assembled basing on different conditions and according to other spatial local thoughts. This work describes an analysis on Tiergarten in Berlin, identified as a specific spatial thought of the German capital. Here is reported a survey on its spatial conditions, characters, communities, spontaneous uses and multiple practices. The survey is conducted along with the activation of three key-concepts to talk about the matter of relation: “agonistic public space” by Chantal Mouffe, “opacity” by Édouard Glissant and “membrane” by Richard Sennett. The result is a study of Tiergarten’s functioning as a device - term borrowed from Foucault - that generates a great degree of coexistence within a multitude of social diversities, tackling matters of socio-spatial inclusion, tolerance and equality. In addition, a design experiment around such device, its functional mechanisms and its logics, taken apart and set up in different environments. In conclusion, the analysis on Tiergarten leads to a reflection on the matter of relation and how it involves different contemporary issues, in particular that of spatial, cultural and environmental proximity, further identifying new innovative strategies for the design of relation.