Lectures

Pecha kucha presentations by:

• Traumnovelle
• Anna & Eugeni Bach
• JanWillem Hoftijzer

Tuesday 12 February, 13:00 - 14:00
Aula K1.6 (Dieperik)
Campus Mutsaard, Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerp

Social Housing in Brazil: from modern utopia to contemporary issue

by Diego Inglez de Souza

From consolidated readings that focus social housing as a guiding thread that allows us to understand the transformations in the field of architecture that lead to the consolidation of a modern movement, we can see in the ‘housing question' a privileged object to discuss how to approach these frequent accomplishments in the history of architecture, whose relatively narrow prism often fails to explain or even understand. It is a relatively circumscribed object in a chronological arc common to the several nations and parallel to the implementation of the modernity in different regions and continents, through which we can establish relations, parallels and common trajectories. Experimental programs, new public policies and institutional transformations are often at the basis of the formulation of pilot projects or emblematic architectural achievements. We will seek to reconstitute some episodes and characteristic achievements of the postwar period in the field of social housing in Brazil to contextualize the beginning of the 'end' of modern architecture, the transition to the postmodern condition and the contemporaneity, in which the housing and urban questions arises with great complexity, scale and urgency.

Local and strong: the legacy of the Manguebeat movement in Recife, Brazil

by Lula Marcondes

Recife, an estuary city and the capital of the state of Pernambuco, Northeast Brazil, is one of the most important and diverse cultural cities of the country. During the early 90’s, it was the center of Manguebeat (Swamp’s Beat), a multifaceted cultural movement that drove the attention of the nation over a city that was artistically recreating itself through the collective conscience about its local culture power. As an analogy to the swamp’s diversity, the movement’s Manifesto “Caranguejos com Cérebro” (Crabs with a brain) stated the idea of Recife as “a parabolic antenna embedded in the mud” where cultural hybridism, richness, and openness to the world were always welcome. The Movement put together different music cultures from folk to pop, made up by peasants or university students, and connected socially and geographically distinguished people from favelas to skyscrapers residents.
This talk focuses on the legacy of Manguebeat in terms of diversity, openness and how it changed and was changed by people’s sense of belonging to the public spaces in Recife that allowed encounters, exchanges, and placemaking that, later, shaped the development of a strong creative economy recognized internationally.

Tuesday 12 February, 19:00
Aula K1.6 (Dieperik)
Campus Mutsaard, Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerp

Meanings of Designed Spaces:
Disruptive concepts and critical approaches in the design of interior spaces

by Tiiu Poldma

Interior space is ever-changing and multidimensional. Meanings held within designed interior spaces are constructed within multiple frameworks, be these practice and theory, disciplines and contexts, all with the intention of providing transformative experiences for people. And yet how we live and what we use in our material world locally or globally is changing almost daily, disrupting the meanings we hold to be true. Spaces might be theoretical, social or personal, political or cultural, physical and/or virtual. Furthermore, as we move in and out of virtual worlds, we do so the majority of our time in interiors, dynamic places where we use all of our senses, and experience our environment through our engagement with others. And yet, often  spaces are constructed to contain some while excluding others.

This talk will present the ideas behind the book “Meanings of Designed Spaces”. Meanings of Design Spaces considers ideas, theories provocations and perspectives about how spaces are designed and how we might consider critical approaches in light of the complex contexts of diverses types of spaces. Ideas and concepts are presented as these grew out of conversations with students, teachers, professional, theoreticians and those interested in the  multiple perspectives of designed space in light of changing and emerging understandings. Contexts, meanings and experiences are multiple, and the emergence of critical thinking as a design construct provides the catalyst for pragmatic and collaborative approaches in both research and practice. Examples of mediated spaces are presented alongside the unpacking of the ideas within the book and the perspectives of over 40 authors that represent the many conversations exploring these ideas.

Please register for this lecture via this link

Wednesday 13 February, 19:00
Aula C.204
Stadscampus, Prinsstraat 13, 2000 Antwerp

Pecha kucha presentations by:

• João Quintela - Tim Simon (JQTS)
• Saurabh Mhatre - Venkatkrishnan Ashok
• Gro Rødne - Nina Haarsaker

Thursday 14 February, 13:00 - 14:00
Aula K1.6 (Dieperik)
Campus Mutsaard, Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerp