| Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation >> Dean: Mark Wigley Faculty: Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. and Ioanna Theocharopoulou, Ph.D. Benjamin Prosky, Director of Special Events Melissa Cowley Wolf, Associate Director, Alumni Relations GSAPP EVENT - OCT. 19th-25th, 2008 Ecogram: The Sustainability Question + BLOG Even though “green” is everywhere, the concepts of sustainability and ecological design are still marginal in schools of architecture as well as in architectural discourse at large. That buildings and cities are significant polluters and catalysts of climate change is beyond question. Buildings and the building industry currently contribute at least 40-50% of greenhouse gases. As more than half of the world's population will live in cities by the end of 2008, most of them in developing countries where environmental controls are often weak or nonexistent, thinking about “sustainable development” seems all the more urgent. This event will bring together a confluence of approaches that will not only inform but also inspire. We intend to introduce both the larger framework of sustainability --social, political, economic and environmental-- as well as the specific issues related to ecological design. The speakers we have selected range from scientists, environmental historians, engineers, architects, activists, journalists and educators. One of the central questions this event would seek to address is whether sustainability, identified with protecting nature, with goals of resource preservation and minimal intervention, stands in opposition to architecture as an instrument of development and of artistic expression. If not, what are some imaginative, technologically sophisticated approaches to ecological design? Do designers have the potential to make a positive contribution to new articulations of sustainability? Other issues we aim to bring to the table include equity and ethics-- for instance, is sustainability a way of preserving privilege for the developed world while "outsourcing" polluting industries and "e-waste" to poorer countries? To what extent is change demanded of both architecture as a practice and of architectural education so as to adequately address (and critique) sustainability? What new models, such as "open source" architecture, can help create communities of concern, able to address both global issues and their local and incremental implementation? How can the values of environmentalism and sustainability be integrated into the ways in which architects and critics think? Invited Participants & Speakers: Michelle Addington Janine Benyus Stewart Brand Fritjof Capra Majora Carter Margaret Crawford Mike Davis Dickson D. Despommier Jared Diamond Kenneth Frampton Thomas L. Friedman Ray Gastil John Hockenberry Gerald Kayden Laura Kurgan Bruce Lindsey Amory Lovins Bruce Mau Rahul Mehrotra Glen Murcutt Kate Orff David Orr John Peterson Jonathan Rose Jeffrey D. Sachs Elliot Sclar SHoP Architects, PC Cameron Sinclair Michael Sorkin Alex Steffen Mark Wigley Zoka Zola and more TBA _______________________________________________________________________________ Event Co-Directors: Mitchell Joachim, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MAUD Harvard University, M.Arch. Columbia University, BPS SUNY at Buffalo w/ honors. Partner at the nonprofit organization Terreform. He is faculty at Columbia University and Washington University. Formerly an architect at Gehry Partners, Michael Sorkin Studio, and Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. He is the winner of the Moshe Safdie and Assoc. Research Fellow Award, Martin Family Society Fellow for Sustainability at MIT. History Channel and Infiniti Design Excellence Award for the City of the Future, New York. Time Magazine Best Invention of the Year 2007, Compacted Car w/ MIT Smart Cities Group. Ioanna Theocharopoulou, architect and architectural historian, Ph.D. Columbia University, History & Theory of Architecture, MSAAD Columbia University, and AA Diploma, London, UK. She teaches at Columbia University, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, and at Parsons The New School for Design. Her work focuses on urbanization and informal development as well as the history/ theory of sustainable design. CONTACT: admin@ecogram.org |
 |