GSD at the Chicago Architecture Biennial: “New Materialisms: Histories Make Practice | Practices Make History”

“New Materialisms: Histories Make Practice | Practices Make History” brings together historians, critics, and practitioners to discuss the complex ways in which architecture is imagined, made, and interpreted. Whereas in the current intellectual climate, accounts of architecture’s materiality by historians often pivot on a fealty to the influence of contexts and networks, new materialist histories must account for the very particular inscription of architectural affects and their peculiar ability to resonate across shifting contexts and times. And while some design practices too often reduce material to the mere stuff of building (however sophisticated that stuff may be), new materialist practices have begun to explore deeply human drives and desires that construct architectural experience as performative, indeterminate, and multiple. Key in these discussions will be the potential reciprocities between history and practice, and hence the unraveling of the traces of the one within the other.

The symposium will be divided into halves:

Panel 1. Practices Make History

Mohsen Mostafavi

Sharon Johnston

Antoine Picon

Tatiana Bilbao

Emanuel Christ

Frank Barkow

Francis Kéré

Panel 2 Histories Make Practice

Michael Hays

Mark Lee

Antón García-Abril

Anna Neimark

Sofia von Ellrichshausen

“New Materialisms: Histories Make Practice | Practices Make History” will take place on Thursday, September 14 from 2 p.m. – 5 p.m. in Chicago Cultural Center’s Claudia Cassidy Theater.

The Chicago Architecture Biennial is the largest platform for contemporary architecture in North America. The 2017 Biennial, entitled Make New History, will be free and open to the public between September 16, 2017 and January 6, 2018. The 2017 Biennial is directed by Artistic Directors Sharon Johnston and Mark Lee. Learn more about the full Biennial offerings via the Biennial’s website.

Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.

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