Sink or Swim
What would a city look like if its infrastructure was waterproof, buoyant and–why not!–amphibious? Given the anticipated rise of sea level at a global scale, the connection between the city and water in all its iterations–oceans, rivers, canals, waterways–is subject to change in the coming years. Montreal will be the playground of this creative laboratory of prototypes(...)
February 2017 to March 2017
Sink or Swim
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What would a city look like if its infrastructure was waterproof, buoyant and–why not!–amphibious? Given the anticipated rise of sea level at a global scale, the connection between the city and water in all its iterations–oceans, rivers, canals, waterways–is subject to change in the coming years. Montreal will be the playground of this creative laboratory of prototypes(...)
Mapping Rural Montréal
On a tour of downtown Montréal, San Francisco-based artist Amy Franceschini shows participants ‘rural’ sites and activities and questions the dichotomy of country and city. Franceschini founded Futurefarmers, a collaborative and experimental studio that addresses ecological issues, as well as the online magazine, Atlas. Inspired by the exhibition Actions: What You Can Do(...)
4 April 2009
Mapping Rural Montréal
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On a tour of downtown Montréal, San Francisco-based artist Amy Franceschini shows participants ‘rural’ sites and activities and questions the dichotomy of country and city. Franceschini founded Futurefarmers, a collaborative and experimental studio that addresses ecological issues, as well as the online magazine, Atlas. Inspired by the exhibition Actions: What You Can Do(...)
articles
Shifting Shores
Shifting Shores
Kirsten Keller and Feifei Zhou on the dynamic materialities of property-making in Jakarta
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Forces of Friction
Learning from... Detroit
Powered by powerful historical footage, including vivid images of the city’s zenith and its now derelict buildings, Julian Temple’s 2010 TV documentary Requiem for Detroit? charts the rise and fall of the “Big Three” in Detroit: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The film documents the impact that the decline of these giants has had on the city and its(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
25 April 2013 , 7pm
Learning from... Detroit
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Powered by powerful historical footage, including vivid images of the city’s zenith and its now derelict buildings, Julian Temple’s 2010 TV documentary Requiem for Detroit? charts the rise and fall of the “Big Three” in Detroit: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The film documents the impact that the decline of these giants has had on the city and its(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Mumbai
Rahul Mehrotra presents a reading of Mumbai’s form as a symbol of India’s emerging urban culture. The lecture examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
9 April 2009
Learning from... Mumbai
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Description:
Rahul Mehrotra presents a reading of Mumbai’s form as a symbol of India’s emerging urban culture. The lecture examines Mumbai, a megalopolis with more than 13 million inhabitants, as two distinct elements that occupy the same physical space. The first, the Static City, built of permanent materials like concrete, steel and brick, can be captured as a two-dimensional entity(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
events
Learning from... London
Kieran Long presents a story about the difficulty of describing a city in all its richness. London contains stories and meanings that are alive to its citizens, but apparently too difficult to talk about, too rich, and too messy to be allowed to affect those who decide how the city changes. The deafness of developers, politicians and architects to these narratives is so(...)
Paul Desmarais Theater
10 March 2011 , 7pm
Learning from... London
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Description:
Kieran Long presents a story about the difficulty of describing a city in all its richness. London contains stories and meanings that are alive to its citizens, but apparently too difficult to talk about, too rich, and too messy to be allowed to affect those who decide how the city changes. The deafness of developers, politicians and architects to these narratives is so(...)
events
10 March 2011
7pm
Paul Desmarais Theater
Where—and how—do we want to live as we grow older? Will our neighborhoods, our buildings, our cities be able to meet our needs? The evening begins with a screening of the documentary Where We Grow Older (CCA, 2023, 30 min), which explores how architecture and urban planning can respond to the challenges of an aging population. The screening will be followed by a(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
5 February 2026, 6pm
Film and conversation: Where Will We Grow Older?
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Where—and how—do we want to live as we grow older? Will our neighborhoods, our buildings, our cities be able to meet our needs? The evening begins with a screening of the documentary Where We Grow Older (CCA, 2023, 30 min), which explores how architecture and urban planning can respond to the challenges of an aging population. The screening will be followed by a(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Tongzhou
It has been standard Chinese urban policy to develop new towns in overpopulated metropolitan regions since the 1990s. This lecture by Jing Zhou takes the case of Tongzhou near Beijing as an example of the resulting mixture of planned and unplanned urban development.Tongzhou town was first planned as a satellite town in the 1950s and founded on a historic harbour town. Its(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
10 April 2014 , 6pm
Learning from... Tongzhou
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It has been standard Chinese urban policy to develop new towns in overpopulated metropolitan regions since the 1990s. This lecture by Jing Zhou takes the case of Tongzhou near Beijing as an example of the resulting mixture of planned and unplanned urban development.Tongzhou town was first planned as a satellite town in the 1950s and founded on a historic harbour town. Its(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Luanda
With a metropolitan population of over 5 million, Luanda is the third most populated Portuguese-speaking city in the world after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Architect and researcher Paulo Moreira proposes alternative approaches to urbanism based on ongoing research in Chicala, an informal settlement with direct connection with the commercial areas of the city, as well(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
1 November 2012 , 7pm
Learning from... Luanda
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With a metropolitan population of over 5 million, Luanda is the third most populated Portuguese-speaking city in the world after São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Architect and researcher Paulo Moreira proposes alternative approaches to urbanism based on ongoing research in Chicala, an informal settlement with direct connection with the commercial areas of the city, as well(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Cairo
Nasser Rabbat challenges the traditional framing strategies of East vs. West or traditional vs. modern, focusing instead on the dialectical relationship of modernity and history in the making of contemporary Cairo. Shaped by distinct waves of modernity from the colonial Napoleonic invasion of 1789 to the revolution and independence in 1952, the city responded with layers(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre
15 September 2011 , 7pm
Learning from... Cairo
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Description:
Nasser Rabbat challenges the traditional framing strategies of East vs. West or traditional vs. modern, focusing instead on the dialectical relationship of modernity and history in the making of contemporary Cairo. Shaped by distinct waves of modernity from the colonial Napoleonic invasion of 1789 to the revolution and independence in 1952, the city responded with layers(...)
Paul-Desmarais Theatre