‘Urban Prototypes: Mentalities and Perspectives’ public lecture at the Architectural Association
by ytheory
Together with Clara Oloriz Sanjuan I will be presenting a lecture at the AA on Wednesday 6 February, 18.00 pm, Main Lecture Hall, 36 Bedford Square, London.
Urban Prototypes: Mentalities and Perspectives
Prototypical approaches are now prevalent within architectural and urban design. Suggesting an affinity with the speed, efficiency and flexibility of post-fordist and computational methods of research and production, the prototype appears to offer an ideal means for architecture to engage with contemporary conditions of urbanisation.
Drawing upon their recent work within the Urban Prototypes research cluster of the AA, Clara Oloriz Sanjuan and Douglas Spencer present a critical analysis of this phenomenon. This is framed through the concept of ‘mentalities’ as employed by Tafuri in his treatment of the territorial transformations of Renaissance Venice, and informed by the perspectives gleaned from their interviews with figures such as David Grahme Shane, Pier Vittorio Aureli, Francoise Fromont, Charles Waldheim and Eva Castro.
Dear Douglas,
it is an interesting discourse and I am sorry to have missed it.
I am wondering weather we will have the opportunity to see the podcast on the AA video lectures.. Surprisingly it isn’t there [yet?].
best,
Io Carydi
Architect NTUA MA AA (LU dist)
Dear Io
Thanks for the response. I’m sorry to report that the lecture wasn’t recorded by the AA. We are planning to publish something from our research at some point and will post details here, and at http://urbanprototypes.aaschool.ac.uk
Best
Doug