Please see below a CFP for the Society of Architectural Historians conference 2016 in Pasadena. Please pass on to anyone you think might be interested.
Public Spaces and the Role of the ArchitectIn a social context of increasing demand for greater democratic authorship and ownership of the built environment, in particular public spaces and the public realm, the roles of the architect and of design need wider and deeper examination. This session will look at both by asking the question, ‘What is the role of the architect in the production of public spaces?’
Over the last 30 years, sociologists, urban historians, and geographers have contributed extensively to the discourse on public space in many aspects: spatial justice and the ‘right to the city’, the study of new forms of insurgent citizenship in formal and informal contexts etc. The design of public spaces, however, is rarely if ever included.
In relation to the architect, by public spaces we mean those designed as part of an ensemble of building and public space, through which the public passes and in which they gather. These are not the semi-private spaces of residential complexes, and pre-architectural Modernism, architects were as concerned with designing this ‘field’ as they were with the architectural objects defining it.
This session invites architectural historians, architects, and those working in related fields with an interest in architecture and design to consider public space from the vantage point of the architect/urban designer, ideally using historical perspectives to better understand contemporary public space production and its relationship both to the state and to architecture’s own culture.
We are particularly interested in contributions that make geographical or historical comparisons, especially those that examine spaces and histories of design outside the Global North.
Session Chair: Susannah Hagan, Royal College of Art,
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