perspektiv;wechsel – A Student Collective of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam

In autumn 2021, the vernissage of the TUM exhibition "Women in Architecture" from the WIA Berlin Festival took place in the main building of the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam (FHP). Thanks to the efforts of two female students, the STADT | BAU | KULTUR department (Department 2) and the ZEFT, it was possible to bring the exhibition to the FHP after the end of the festival. At the vernissage there was a lot of encouragement, interest and discussion. As a reaction to this event and with the desire to explore these topics further, "perspektiv;wechsel" was founded.

Perspektiv;wechsel is a student collective from the department of CITY I BUILDING I CULTURE. The founders want to learn to design architecture and cities for everyone. They try to change perspectives again and again and to shed light on topics that cannot be adequately taught in the regular curriculum. The main focus is on topics of intersectional feminism, although other social, societal, political and historical topics are also among the things that the collective members want to have dealt with as future planners.

In the summer semester 2022 and winter semester 2022/23, the collective organised the lecture series "bunte aussichten:". Talks were held on gender-equitable urban planning, Design for All, postcolonialism in Potsdam, homelessness in architecture and crafts in relation to architecture. The topic of role models was discussed with the AG Gleichstellung on the occasion of the exhibition "FrauenOrte Brandenburg". Members of the collective were guests at the re:action festival and at the semikolon podcast and thus try to network with other students and also educate themselves within the group.

In addition, perspektiv;wechsel created media lists on feminist perspectives on architecture as well as gender-just planning and provides resources on de- and postcolonialism and architecture for students. These can be found below in the download section.

All members have set themselves the goal of working towards more openness, acceptance, development, curiosity, sensitisation in the subject and working for a university environment that is as free as possible from discrimination. The collective wants to bring new perspectives and new role models to the university and thus initiate discussions. The topics should always be expanded.

Lastly, the perspektiv;wechsel collective wants to make it clear that they are a group of white, primarily able-bodied people from a similar social class and thus their own experiences and knowledge are limited. Therefore, they challenge themselves to keep learning.

The collective welcomes new perspectives and therefore invites anyone to join them at one of the meetings. Interested people can best get in touch via email or Instagram messages.