Landscape Urbanism lecture series updated

Each year, an international and diverse range of speakers are invited to offer new perspective on the issues that concern the practice of Landscape Urbanism at the Architectural Association. This will open up the possibility of actively contributing to the (re)definition of landscape urbanism as a new operative field. This year the lecture series will run from the 26th may to the 17th of June and speakers will include: Chris Reed, Alex Wall, Alberto Clementi, Steve Graham, Erik Swyngedouw, Alejandro Zaera, Simon Marvin, and Mike Hodson.

LANDSCAPE URBANISM LECTURE SERIES: STEVE GRAHAM

An investigation of the ways in which the disruption or destruction of the infrastructure systems that continually sustain contemporary urban life act to reveal the usually hidden politics and geographies of the city.

LANDSCAPE URBANISM LECTURE SERIES: ERIK SWYNGEDOUW

Nature and its more recent derivatives, like ‘environment’ or ‘sustainability’, are ‘empty’ signifiers. There is no such thing as a singular Nature around which an environmental policy or an environmentally sensitive planning/architecture can be constructed and performed. Rather, there are a multitude of natures and a multitude of existing, possible or practical socio-natural relations. The obsession with a singular Nature that requires ‘sustaining’ or, at least, ‘managing’, is sustained by a particular ‘quilting’ of Nature that forecloses asking political questions about immediately and really possible alternative socio-natural arrangements. I conclude with a call for a politicization of the environment, one that is predicated upon the recognition of the indeterminacy of nature, the constitutive split of the people, the unconditional democratic demand of political equality, and the real possibility for the inauguration of different possible public socio-ecological futures that express the democratic presumptions of freedom and equality.

LANDSCAPR URBANISM LECTURE SERIES: ALEX WALL, THE URBAN SURFACE - PUBLIC, GLORIOUS, URGENT

The Urban Surface - public, glorious, urgent"Programming the Urban Surface" is the title of an article Alex Wall contributed to Recovering Landscape, edited by James Corner and published in 1999. In the early days of landscape urbanism, the article looked at the emergence of projects, nascent theories and the potential significance of an "extensive" design of the urban landscape. Since its publication, the twin forces of urbanization and climate change bring a far more urgent focus on the performance of public space and the public realm. The lecture will consider the design of the urban surface with respect to the city as a context "as found," to questions of density, social equity, and as Philippe Rahm has put it, "public space becomes the place where the quality of air is defined.

AA Landscape Urbanism tutor and Groundlab Director Alfredo Ramirez will lecture at the International congress “Designing Ecotown”in Pescara Facoltá di Architettura,Italy, on 13th may. In “From the academia to the praxis” Alfredo will present the research of the AALU MA and its application in the large scale urban projects Groundlab has been developing recently.

www.unich.it/dart/ecotown.htm

LANDSCAPE URBANISM LECTURE SERIES

Each year, an international and diverse range of speakers are invited to offer new perspective on the issues that concern the practice of Landscape Urbanism at the Architectural Association. This will open up the possibility of actively contributing to the (re)definition of landscape urbanism as a new operative field. This year the lecture series will run from the 26th may to the 17th of June and speakers will include: Chris Reed, Alex Wall, Alberto Clementi, Steve Graham, Erik Swyngedouw, Alejandro Zaera, Simon Marvin, and Mike Hodson.

more info soon

AALU @ GSD HARVARD

AALU tutor and Arup Engineer Eduardo Rico and Enriqueta Llabres (who teaches the Relational Urbanism workshop in LU) have been invited as part of the final year critics to GSD Harvard last week of April. They will be attending pinups showcasing the work of the Landscape Architecture IV design studio directed by Chris Reed. They will also be attending presentations of the urban design courses directed by Alex Krieger and Joan Busquets.

AALU PRESENTATION IN BOLZANO

On 20th April AALU, Trento and Innsbruck students present their work in Bolzano to a panel of officials, architects and journalists. The event concluded with a discussion and round table where various issues regarding the future of Bolzano Sud were discessed in detail. Professor Pino Scaglione, AALU tutor and Arup Engineer Eduardo RIco as well as Architect Thomas Demetz chaired the event.

AALU BOLZANO SUD IN PECHA KUCHA

On 21st April, Thomaz Demetz gave a presentation on the work carried out byt the AALU team in Bolzano Sud during the Redesign Boundaries with the universities of Trento and Innsbruck. The presentation formed part of the Pecha Kucha event organized in the Italian city by Werkbank: http://diewerkbank.com/2010/04/21/my-home-is-my-castle-______________/

AALU WORKSHOP RESULTS: BOLZANO SUD

AALU students have finalised a one week long workshop in the Italian city of Bolzano. The work consisted in the outline of visions for the southern are of the city confined between the A22 Brenner highway and the Virgolo Hill. The proposals of the students were shown to the urban authorities in Bolzano as well as different newspapers and local television.
PROJECT DESIGN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y55lfcoigIE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhighrsdJbU
AALU IN Video 33
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfr7EEmdeUw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljRa5JNtHlA