Building Democracy

The focus of the 7^th h_da Dialogue Forum, which took place at h_da’s Faculty of Design on Mathildenhöhe on the evening of 29 January, was the built environment and its impact on the people living there. Seventy guests attended the second of three events in the series entitled “Shaping Democracy”. The theme this time was “Building Democracy: How Design and Infrastructure Can Connect People”.

By Daniel Timme, 2.2.2026

“Cities in democracies are not uniform and homogeneous, but diverse, fragile and not entirely beautiful,” said Michael Kolmer, City Councillor and Darmstadt’s Chief Planning Officer, opening his keynote speech with a more abstract thought. Over the course of the evening, Kolmer was completely at home in his role as a political realist. He presented a wide range of concrete examples of how urban spaces in Darmstadt, including its suburbs, are planned, created and given meaning.

To open the forum, each of the four panellists spoke for around ten minutes. Professor Mario Rund, who lectures and conducts research on community social work at h_da, adopted a more theoretical approach to the topic and voiced frequent criticism in the direction of institutions. One of the hypotheses in his opening statement was: “When people experience that infrastructure is inaccessible to parts of the population or not accessible at all, they see this as an unequal distribution of opportunities for social participation.”

“We can design urban spaces in two ways: one fosters democracy and the other is anti-democratic,” observed Gesa Foken, an expert on the responsibility of design and Professor of Artistic-Creative Didactics and Research at the Faculty of Design, which hosted the event. By way of example, she presented a participatory design project from the current semester in which upper school students are involved. She called for a “design ethic”.

“For children, connecting with their surroundings is not optional but essential,” stressed Dr Eszter Tóth, whose research at h_da centres on child-friendly and co-creative urban development. Her example from practice: the “Child-Friendly Vác Living Lab” in Hungary. Among other things, a green space was transformed into a public area in the city, in this way offering the local population a place to connect. “Child-friendly cities are at the same time sustainable cities,” she said, flying the flag for the youngest members of society.

It was therefore a broad juxtaposition of different perspectives that Simon Vogt, known from the talk show format “arte saloon”, among other things, had to juggle as moderator. His calm and relaxed manner contributed to a pleasant atmosphere during the discussion: people listened, waited for each other to finish speaking and showed consideration. In any case, the discussion was democratic in the best sense of the word. Despite the wide range of professional and academic backgrounds, the participants quickly found some common ground.

“Where do people experience democracy most tangibly in their everyday lives?” asked Vogt, opening the panel discussion. “In their own neighbourhood,” said Michael Kolmer, “where they can meet, chat and live together instead of in isolation.” Mario Rund used the scientific term “social space”, which also encompasses relationship networks, to express this. To participate in social spaces, people need room to act, he added. This prompted Eszter Tóth to immediately highlight the importance of “places to play” for children. “Only through encounters can people also see themselves as a society,” pointed out Gesa Foken. Her statement met with broad agreement. She cautioned against focusing only on cities: “How can we successfully transfer this to rural areas?”

How long a construction project takes to complete influences how people experience democracy, said Michael Kolmer: “Good neighbourhood development takes ten years. By then, it might be the case that the people who helped shape it no longer live there – and others now do who do did not.” Kolmer presented two examples of participatory urban planning on conversion sites. On the Lincoln estate, more trees will be planted in the main square – Quartiersplatz – to better reflect the way residents use it; at the request of the users, a north-south connection for car traffic, which was not originally planned, will be built in Ludwigshöhe. Kolmer described the participatory development of Kranichstein as “citizen participation in its purest form”. His intriguing insight: “The most important measure, however, was the construction of the tram line – it completely changed the community’s self-image.”

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