What if the Ocean Were a City?

»What would happen, were we to put aside the assumptions that society occurs on land, and that protecting society means defending it from sea – and seek instead to incorporate the sea into the very foundations of the city, thus joining the city and the sea together: What if the city were an ocean, and its buildings ships?«

(Ingold 2021, »What if the city were an ocean, and its buildings ships?« in: Imagining for Real: 68 quoting Steinberg 2001: 2114)

Parallel to the Berlin Gallery Weekend in May 2025 and as part of the ＿matter Festival and BUA event series »ON WATER | PARCOURS«, design researcher and diver Rasa Weber takes on the challenge of creating an artificial reef in the river Spree, a project she calls »Syntopolis«. Created in collaboration with local artisans, the reef will slowly become a new ecological habitat for various life forms. Streamed into the re:future lab, which is nestled in the historic former AEG factory site »Electropolis« in Berlin-Oberschöneweide, the reef will transform the institute’s exhibition space into an immersive aquatic habitat, where encounters, experiences and reflections on shared ecological futures become tangible.

What lies beneath the visible world? For a long time, the underwater realm served as an imaginary space of natural purity; a pristine environment that nurtured fantasies of an undiscovered or wild world, beyond human comprehension and, therefore, seemingly uncontrollable. Centuries of human activity have transformed these untouched underwater worlds into fragmented, ruined, and blasted seascapes. The ocean has become a space of urban imagination and extractive advances that ultimately shape the waterscapes we are still confronted with today. Yet, some life forms have managed to establish themselves amid the ruins. The river Spree, which has been altered by urban and geopolitical activities since the 13th century, is critically contaminated with pharmaceutical residues, zinc, copper and even mercury. Nevertheless, it is home to an impressive diversity of thirty-one fish species, millions of mussels and algae as well as invasive species. In the face of ecological upheaval, unexpected life forms are emerging in the midst of disturbance regimes. These life-promoting patches could be seen as islands of hope in a largely devastated waterscape.

Given this, how could a future for such an unlikely underwater existence be designed? And to what extent could these aquatic insights be applied to rebuild urban environments? How could they inspire socio-cultural transformation?

To explore these questions, »What if the Ocean Were an City« offers a multidirectional program spanning an exhibition, a river cruise, interactive tours, co-creation workshops, talks, and panel discussions. The program is part of the »ON WATER | PARCOURS« event series and aims to provide compass and foster transdisciplinary knowledge exchange. Positions of design, artistic research and architecture will intersect with ecology, biology, conservation politics and economics to discuss the potential ecological futures of Berlin’s waters.

Join us for a multidirectional workshop and talk program: