SPOT HOT – Wiesbaden's Hottest Mile

WerkRaum Wiesbaden / sam - Wiesbaden City Museum

wOw – Yvonne Kirchdorfer - yvonnekirchdorferwowtextde

Wiesbaden has more thermal springs than any other UNESCO World Heritage city in Europe recognized for this feature. For about 25,000 years, they were the city’s source of energy, its capital, and its lifeblood. It wasn’t until after World War II that most of these 26 “hot spots” were sealed off—since then, they have all but vanished from the cityscape and urban memory.
 
SPOT HOT is a call to rediscover these invisible hot springs and revive lost knowledge. The goal is to revive and revitalize the 26 “hotspots” in Wiesbaden’s Historic Pentagon—for example, as a digital tour with nine stops or a growing gallery in the urban space. In this way, Wiesbaden’s hidden treasure is to be gradually brought to the surface from a depth of 2,000 meters and transformed into hybrid water experiences. 

• Restoring global visibility to Wiesbaden’s unique selling point: its healing springs
• Learn how water can once again be utilized as a (geothermal) resource, a healing elixir of life, and a source of the future for the city 
• Creating democratic, low-threshold, accessible entry points for everyone
• Bringing people in the city to new places  
• Promote knowledge, social interaction, and networking  

Wiesbaden is once again becoming the “City of Springs”—whether as a source of joy, a source of healing, a source of prosperity, a source of the future, a source of community, or a source of ecological and economic wisdom. But where does this potential lie? What role do the thermal springs play in this? To answer these questions, we must first understand how the culture of the springs enabled our city to flourish for over two millennia—and then suddenly disappear. SPOT HOT aims to contribute to this understanding.

Location: WerkRaum Wiesbaden, Langgasse (former Sportscheck)

Indoor Exhibition:  A Look Back and Ahead at SPOT HOT—the Hottest Mile and “Wiesbaden, City of Springs,” in cooperation with, among others, Citymanagement Wiesbaden, White Rabbit Studio, Stadtmuseum Wiesbaden, Pascal Zufelde, Moritz Petrasch, and Angelika Stehle

• August 15:
  2:00 p.m.: Guided tour of the thermal springs (Meeting point: WerkRaum Wiesbaden)
• 
  August 29:
  2:00 p.m.: Guided city tour of the thermal springs (Meeting point: WerkRaum Wiesbaden)
  5:30 p.m.: Presentation “A New Bubbling Heart—Proposal for the Redesign of Kochbrunnenplatz” by Moritz Petrasch, BA in Architecture
  6:30 p.m.: Panel Discussion I “Raised on Water – The Significance of the Thermal Springs for Wiesbaden’s Urban Development and Identity!” 7:30 p.m.: Panel Discussion II “Climate-Neutral Heat for Wiesbaden – Opportunities in Urban Geothermal Energy”

Public Space
, Culture + Media
, Education