The Escape Lab is a workshop by Francesco Casalbordino, co-hosted by Barbara Buchenau on November 5, 2024, 12-2 in T03 R04 D10. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining architecture and the humanities, with the goal of recognizing, mapping, and describing the significant places in the contemporary landscape of the Ruhr.

A key element of the lab is the active involvement of students, who are invited to reflect on the places they frequent in their daily lives – such as the routes they take to university, public spaces, recreational areas, transport hubs, and areas along infrastructure. Students will be encouraged to identify one or two significant places in their everyday lives that hold particular meaning in the region's transition from an extractive and industrial hub to a commercial and logistics center. Please register with Barbara Buchenau.

On the eve of the U.S. Presidential election, on November 4, 2024, in the Proust bookstore, Akazienallee, Am Handelshof 1, 45127 Essen, you are cordially invited to join us for a reading by the novelist Jarred Johnson. Jarred will read from his new novel-in-progress, launching a conversation about memory, postindustrial spaces, political polarization and disenfranchisement in the American heartlands. Please register for the event by sending an E-Mail to Zohra Hassan-Pieper.