Liz Diller of Diller Scofidio + Renfro presents their challenging project of the expansion of Hirshhorn Museum in Washington D.C. “To truly make a good public space, you need to erase distinctions between architecture, urbanism, and landscape”, she says. With silicon-coated glass, they create a contemporary deployable structure, taking the shape of its container. This is “The bubble”.
The Catalan architect Xavier Vilalta presents two of his projects in the emerging countries of Ethiopia and Tunisia and the challenges he faced during the design process. The first one is a multistory shopping mall in the city of Addis Ababa and the second a masterplan of 2000 apartments and facilities in Tunis. They are great examples of how architecture can change the local communities and economies through affordable solutions that enhance the relationship between the people and the environment.
The recent winner of the Pritzker Prize, Alejandro Aravena believes that the core of a good design is in finding the right questions, not “answering well the wrong ones”. Using a blackboard and chalk he explains how participatory design can be the solution for poverty in the cities, sustainability in working places, and facing the forces of nature. With the power of synthesis, bricks, wood, and cement become the power of life itself.
6. MARWA AL SABOUNI | How Syria’s architecture laid the foundation for brutal war
In this very interesting talk, we watch a young Syrian architect, who has lived the horror of the ongoing war in her hometown Homs and also lost her architecture studio, explaining how architecture was one of the main causes of the conflict in Syria. She focuses on how the modernization of the built environment, urban zoning, and misguided inhumane architecture led to the loss of the character of the community and the sense of belonging. “How do we rebuilt after the war is over in order to avoid the same mistakes?”
Michael Green has noticed that people act differently in the presence of wood in buildings. Along with the overpopulation and climate change he wants to find a solution in the housing using wood, a material already grown by the sun. He answers a lot of peoples’ concerns on this experiment and suggests that with mass timber panels of wood we can reach up to 30 story tall buildings.
The sculptor Jason deCaires Taylor started a project of creating underwater sculpture parks with more than 500 works in different places, in an effort to increase sensitivity towards the sea and the oceans. He uses materials and designs that help and encourage life and creates places for preservation, observation, and education, just like a museum.
9. THEASTER GATES | How to revive a neighborhood: with imagination, beauty, and art
The potter and social activist Theaster Gates in this talk teach us how to make something out of nothing. He presents his abandoned neighborhood, Grand Crossing in Chicago with failing housing markets and how he transformed its buildings into gathering sites for the community. He challenges us to rethink the reshaping of cities with the collaboration of all the scientific fields involved.
In this funny lecture, the designer Tony Fadell gives us tips on how to get over habituation of everyday things and start noticing the problems around us and try to fix them. His advice is to look broader and think younger, wake up every morning, and ask ourselves: “How can I experience the world better?”
