This is an email sent via the SHCG List. If you reply to this message, your message will be sent to all the people on the list, not just the author of this message.
---------------
Dear colleagues, details of a conference form the American University in Dubai for November 2020. It coincides with EXPO 2020. Conference strands pick up on the themes and critiques of the EXPO including the protection and celebration of heritage and support for sustainable communities and societies in a climate of fast paced urbanization.
Apologies for some cross posts.
--
DUBAI 2020: RAPID CITIES – RESPONSIVE ARCHITECTURES
Place: American University in Dubai, UAE
Dates: 22-24 November, 2020
Abstracts: 30th June 2020 (Round One)
https://architecturemps.com/dubai-2020/
-
DISCIPLINES History | Culture |.Sociology | Housing | Public Health | Architecture | Urban Design | Construction | Sustainability
PUBLISHERS: Routledge | UCL Press | Cambridge Scholars Publishing | Vernon Press | Libri Publishing | Intellect Books
FORMATS: In-person, pre-recorded presentations, skype, written papers.
THEMES: Heritage, Tourism, Urbanization, Global Cities, Spectacle architecture, Prefabrication, Affordable Housing, Right to the City, Resilience, Climate-responsive architecture, Real Estate and Development, Transportation, the Smart city and more.
Organizers: The American University in Dubai Kent | AMPS | PARADE | UCL Press | Routledge
-
Submit to the Dubai 2020 CONFERENCE:
https://architecturemps.com/dubai-2020/
-
While at the conference, delegates can visit EXPO 2020 Dubai.
-
Full Conference Call:
In 1975 the World EXPO opened in Okinawa, Japan. Its centerpiece was ‘Aquapolis’, a floating city designed by the leading ‘metabolist’ architect Kiyonori Kikutake. By the time it closed one year later, Reyner Banham had published Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. Paul Virilio had also coined the term dromology to explain the impact of speed and technology on contemporary culture. For all, speed and technology were not only central to architectural and urban design, but also the mediated culture of spectacle around them. The debates they instigated were not one dimensional however. Virilio’s interest in technology was matched by concerns for social justice. Banham’s focus on megastructures was nuanced by ideas on responsive environments. Kikutake’s interest in ‘spectacle’ was tied to an interest in ecology as manifest in the 1975 EXPO itself.
The event that this conference aligns with, EXPO 2020, addresses the dichotomies found in the work of these theorists. For many, the phenomenon of the EXPO is the epitome of contemporary fast-paced design and development. Commercially driven, built at break neck speed, led by star architects and premised on instant urban planning. EXPO 2020 has all these traits. However, it also presents itself as responsive to social and environmental concerns. It is powered by solar arrays, recycles wastewater and monitors its carbon footprint. It touts its long term plan for housing and mixed-use development post EXPO. It is themed around opportunity, mobility and sustainability. As with the city of Dubai itself – the poster-child of rapid development in the Gulf – EXPO 2020 is the perfect backdrop to this conference.
Rapid Cities – Responsive Architectures seeks to examine the dialectic, tensions, problems and possibilities of architecture and urbanism as technologically imbued, fast-paced commercial exercises. Can the design and construction of the built environment be fully profit-driven, remain responsive to climate and cultural heritage? Is spectacle architecture consistent with vernacular design, accessible transport and best practice construction? How do rapidly planned cities ensure social integration, urban health and produce affordable housing? Is it the role of the design and construction industries to respond to these issues at all? Should we embrace speed and technology as motors of design, construction and development as ends in themselves? If we do, what are the advantages and likely results? What does the history of these issues tell us about future trends?
https://architecturemps.com/dubai-2020/
The SHCG list is provided for members of Social History Curators Group to discuss subjects relevant to social history in museums. To join SHCG visit www.shcg.org.uk . Opinions expressed in this email are the responsibility of the author and are not necessarily shared by SHCG. To leave the list do not reply to this message but send an email to [log in to unmask] with a blank subject line and these words as the body of the email: SIGNOFF SHCG-LIST
