Learning from... Shanghai
In 2001, Shanghai announced the development plan of “One City Nine Towns,” a series of towns each built around a theme inspired by a different Western tradition. Chinese urban theorist Xiangning Li examines the themed spaces in the city’s post-colonial context, relating them to Shanghai’s contemporary urban culture and situating them within the changing dynamics between(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
7 May 2009
Learning from... Shanghai
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In 2001, Shanghai announced the development plan of “One City Nine Towns,” a series of towns each built around a theme inspired by a different Western tradition. Chinese urban theorist Xiangning Li examines the themed spaces in the city’s post-colonial context, relating them to Shanghai’s contemporary urban culture and situating them within the changing dynamics between(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Luanda
With a metropolitan population of over 5 million, Luanda is the third most populated Portuguese-speaking city in the world after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Architect and researcher Paulo Moreira proposes alternative approaches to urbanism based on ongoing research in Chicala, an informal settlement with direct connection with the commercial areas of the city, as well(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
1 November 2012 , 7pm
Learning from... Luanda
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With a metropolitan population of over 5 million, Luanda is the third most populated Portuguese-speaking city in the world after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Architect and researcher Paulo Moreira proposes alternative approaches to urbanism based on ongoing research in Chicala, an informal settlement with direct connection with the commercial areas of the city, as well(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from… Lagos
Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and a team of students from The Harvard Project on the City are followed over a 2-year period as they research Lagos, Nigeria in Lagos Wide and Close (Netherlands, 2005), a documentary by Bregtje van der Haak. Lagos is home to an estimated 15 million people whose survival depends on improvisation, networking, and risk-taking. Despite extreme(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
29 March 2007 , 6pm
Learning from… Lagos
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Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and a team of students from The Harvard Project on the City are followed over a 2-year period as they research Lagos, Nigeria in Lagos Wide and Close (Netherlands, 2005), a documentary by Bregtje van der Haak. Lagos is home to an estimated 15 million people whose survival depends on improvisation, networking, and risk-taking. Despite extreme(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
events
Learning from... Astana
Jeffrey Inaba, principal of the Los Angeles-based firm INABA, examines the urban centre and capital city of Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world with a proportionally small population of 16 million people. With its rich oil and natural gas reserves and strategic geographical location, Kazakhstan is poised to experience an economic boom and has already(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
19 April 2007 , 7pm
Learning from... Astana
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Jeffrey Inaba, principal of the Los Angeles-based firm INABA, examines the urban centre and capital city of Kazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world with a proportionally small population of 16 million people. With its rich oil and natural gas reserves and strategic geographical location, Kazakhstan is poised to experience an economic boom and has already(...)
events
19 April 2007
7pm
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Copenhagen
Deane Simpson presents the Atlas of the Copenhagens, a book project addressing an urban territory that has been posited in the media and celebrated by the municipality of Copenhagen as the world’s most sustainable and liveable city. Such claims suggest that Copenhagen is a fitting site to study and engage in a debate on sustainability and liveability. The Atlas operates(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
21 May 2015 , 6pm
Learning from... Copenhagen
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Deane Simpson presents the Atlas of the Copenhagens, a book project addressing an urban territory that has been posited in the media and celebrated by the municipality of Copenhagen as the world’s most sustainable and liveable city. Such claims suggest that Copenhagen is a fitting site to study and engage in a debate on sustainability and liveability. The Atlas operates(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from… São Paulo
Angelo Bucci, architect and professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, addresses the violence and changing environment of São Paulo in search of new urban forms. São Paulo’s urban violence can be understood as ruining the experience of the city and, as a result, the purpose of the architect’s work. The lecture examines São Paulo not as a static object, but as an(...)
22 April 2010
Learning from… São Paulo
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Angelo Bucci, architect and professor at the University of São Paulo, Brazil, addresses the violence and changing environment of São Paulo in search of new urban forms. São Paulo’s urban violence can be understood as ruining the experience of the city and, as a result, the purpose of the architect’s work. The lecture examines São Paulo not as a static object, but as an(...)
Learning from... Mumbai
Rahul Mehrotra presents a reading of Mumbai’s form as a symbol of India’s emerging urban culture. The lecture examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
9 April 2009
Learning from... Mumbai
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Rahul Mehrotra presents a reading of Mumbai’s form as a symbol of India’s emerging urban culture. The lecture examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Cairo
Nasser Rabbat challenges the traditional framing strategies of East vs. West or traditional vs. modern, focusing instead on the dialectical relationship of modernity and history in the making of contemporary Cairo. Shaped by distinct waves of modernity from the colonial Napoleonic invasion of 1789 to the revolution and independence in 1952, the city responded with layers(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
15 September 2011 , 7pm
Learning from... Cairo
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Nasser Rabbat challenges the traditional framing strategies of East vs. West or traditional vs. modern, focusing instead on the dialectical relationship of modernity and history in the making of contemporary Cairo. Shaped by distinct waves of modernity from the colonial Napoleonic invasion of 1789 to the revolution and independence in 1952, the city responded with layers(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Beirut
Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Aga Khan Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), proposes an alternative reading of urban issues in Beirut that considers elements beyond the city’s post-war reconstruction and identity politics. Through a series of specific architectural and urban analyses, the lecture proposes(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
11 March 2010 , 7pm
Learning from... Beirut
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Hashim Sarkis, Aga Khan Professor at Harvard University and Director of the Aga Khan Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), proposes an alternative reading of urban issues in Beirut that considers elements beyond the city’s post-war reconstruction and identity politics. Through a series of specific architectural and urban analyses, the lecture proposes(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Saadiyat
Saadiyat Island is a “dreamscape” created by Tourism Development Investment Company just half a kilometer from downtown Abu Dhabi. It is an amalgam of luxury residential areas, 5-star resorts and golf courses crowned by a Cultural District containing a hallucinatory collection of museums designed by five Pritzker Prize winners. Is this the future of private(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
21 August 2014 , 6pm
Learning from... Saadiyat
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Saadiyat Island is a “dreamscape” created by Tourism Development Investment Company just half a kilometer from downtown Abu Dhabi. It is an amalgam of luxury residential areas, 5-star resorts and golf courses crowned by a Cultural District containing a hallucinatory collection of museums designed by five Pritzker Prize winners. Is this the future of private(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre