The DFG has awarded a grant to KoMet researcher Prof. Dr. Cornelia Jöchner for a research project titled “Urban Demarcation Practices: Spaces of Possibility in European Cities during the Era of Defortification, ca. 1750–1920.”
The central question concerns the potential for change that emerged in the fortified city when it abandoned the military fortifications it had maintained for centuries. To grasp the historical dimension and complexity of this process of dismantling boundaries—which has had a significant impact but has received insufficient scholarly attention to date—the study adopts a European comparative approach. The spatial recodings that brought about such a fundamental transformation of urban boundaries are analyzed through three paradigmatic, interlinked subprojects: entrance squares; green spaces; and hygiene zones. These gave rise to a vibrant body of scholarship across various disciplines, which is being systematically evaluated for the first time. For urban societies, this created spaces of possibility for new actions that connected the city more closely with its surrounding areas while simultaneously restructuring its traditional fabric from within. This collective monograph, planned in close cooperation, brings these spheres of action together on a common plane of inquiry through three subprojects, thereby uniting the disciplines of architectural, urban planning, and garden art history. The goal is a focused, problem-oriented presentation of the so-called “defortification” as a Europe-wide process of urban dematerialization.
