By Carly A. Krakow
What is the
relationship between nature and the city? How are the bounds between a
democratic, open-access approach to city development and an urban planning
methodology that emphasizes expertise and extensive training negotiated? Is it
possible to design spaces as realms of free speech and activism, or is the idea
of “designed democracy” antithetical to spontaneous and genuine demonstrations
of citizenship?
These are
just a few of the questions addressed at March 14th’s Cities and Citizenship conference,
co-organized by Global Design NYU and
Parsons the New School for Design as
part of the Goethe-Institut’s Weltstadt project. The conference engaged
with the ways in which the construction of the city is inextricably linked to
the role of the citizen. Drawing on historical understandings of how urban
centers have been both geographically and socially delimited, the conference
sought to inspire an expanded understanding of the citizen’s role in shaping
the 21st century “green city.”
The panels,
moderated by GDNYU co-directors Peder Anker, Louise Harpman, and Mitchell
Joachim, and Ioanna
Theocharopoulou of Parsons, addressed topics including the role of
nature in the built environment; the relationship between designers,
architects, activists, and social scientists during the era of globalization;
the need for increased infrastructural strength in New York City in the age of
global warming; and the function of building codes in the rapidly evolving
urban environment. Panelists included Vyjayanthi Rao, Lynette Widder, Tyler
Volk, Colin Jerolmack, Eric Sanderson, Miodrag Mitrasinovic, Gianpaolo
Baiocchi, Mariana Mogilevich, Eric Klinenberg, Stephen Duncombe, Andreas
Kalyvas, Susanne Schindler, Victoria Marshall, and Susannah Drake.
Stay tuned
for an expanded version of our reflections on the conference, forthcoming in
the Weltstadt newspaper!!!
________________________________________________
VISIT our website (gdnyu.com) and Facebook page (Global Design NYU) for more photographs from Cities and Citizenship!
FOLLOW US to stay updated on international design and architecture news!
FOLLOW US to stay updated on international design and architecture news!
No comments:
Post a Comment