Werk.Stadt.Wandel – Technology, Participation, Transformation. Industrial heritage and the future in the Wiegand Quarter, Merseburg

Ambition III – self-directed
As early as 2024, two public dialogue workshops were held on the site with the city administration, local organisations and interested members of the public; during the ‘Pioneer Summer’ of 2024, urban workshops, usage experiments, makerspace initiatives and cultural events explored ways of making the hall their own.
The participatory process, which has already begun, will continue throughout the construction phase. Information on planning and construction progress will be made transparently available, and feedback from users, association members and participating partners will be incorporated where relevant to the development, use and organisation of the venue. Joint construction and development phases create concrete opportunities to play a direct role in the hall’s development.
The association sees itself as a living embodiment of democracy: all members have an equal vote, and the barriers to membership are kept low in the spirit of solidarity. Self-governance is thus structurally embedded: responsibility for the project and decision-making lie with an open, democratically constituted association, which all interested parties can join. The project recognises that not all barriers to access have been removed and that it is often the same people who participate. Professional public relations work is intended to engage groups that have so far been less well reached. The aim is to establish an independent and self-sustaining supporting association in which those involved are empowered to put their own ideas into practice and take on long-term responsibility.