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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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
articles
Material Witness
The Lives of Documents, Photography as a Project, Stefano Graziani and Bas Princen, Susanne Kriemann, conversation, oral history, radioactive landscapes
11 March 2024
Learning from... Rome
Filmmaker and photographer Armin Linke reveals the societal changes, cultural complexities, and beauty of contemporary Rome through two short films and architectural photographs from his archives. The first film focuses on a moment of natural choreography as some 100,000 starlings fly against the backdrop of the city of Rome. Linke presents a selection of photographs,(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
5 March 2009
Learning from... Rome
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Description:
Filmmaker and photographer Armin Linke reveals the societal changes, cultural complexities, and beauty of contemporary Rome through two short films and architectural photographs from his archives. The first film focuses on a moment of natural choreography as some 100,000 starlings fly against the backdrop of the city of Rome. Linke presents a selection of photographs,(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Disneyland, with its far-flung colonies in Florida, Japan, and France, is a key symbol of contemporary American culture that has been both celebrated and attacked as the ultimate embodiment of consumer society, of simulation and pastiche, of the blurring of distinctions between reality and mass-media imagery. The Architecture of Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme(...)
Main galleries
17 June 1997 to 28 September 1997
The Architecture of Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme Parks
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Disneyland, with its far-flung colonies in Florida, Japan, and France, is a key symbol of contemporary American culture that has been both celebrated and attacked as the ultimate embodiment of consumer society, of simulation and pastiche, of the blurring of distinctions between reality and mass-media imagery. The Architecture of Reassurance: Designing the Disney Theme(...)
Main galleries
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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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
Architectural historian Barbara Penner traces the evolution of Niagara Falls – from its 19th-century honeymoon tourism to its state of post-industrial kitsch to its recent rebirth as a honeymoon destination. The photographer Alec Soth, whose work is the starting point for this lecture, compellingly portrays a ruined post-industrial landscape of love in his series Niagara(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
23 April 2009
Learning from... Niagara Falls
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Architectural historian Barbara Penner traces the evolution of Niagara Falls – from its 19th-century honeymoon tourism to its state of post-industrial kitsch to its recent rebirth as a honeymoon destination. The photographer Alec Soth, whose work is the starting point for this lecture, compellingly portrays a ruined post-industrial landscape of love in his series Niagara(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Learning from... Brussels
Rotor members Michael Ghyoot and Maarten Gielen investigate the processes and practices of material management in Brussels and its suburbs. The concept of waste played a key role in their research and was informed by hundreds of visits to businesses, work sites, and recycling plants. The examination of discarded, unfinished products or those considered of inferior quality(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
19 April 2012 , 7pm
Learning from... Brussels
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Rotor members Michael Ghyoot and Maarten Gielen investigate the processes and practices of material management in Brussels and its suburbs. The concept of waste played a key role in their research and was informed by hundreds of visits to businesses, work sites, and recycling plants. The examination of discarded, unfinished products or those considered of inferior quality(...)
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... Los Angeles
Los Angeles-based historian and tour guide Richard Schave examines developments in Los Angeles in the 35 years since the landmark urban tour film Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (UK,1972). Schave, a former student of Banham, elaborates on his professor’s research by showing excerpts of the film in comparison with his own documentary photography. In particular, he explores(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
28 May 2009
Learning from... Los Angeles
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Los Angeles-based historian and tour guide Richard Schave examines developments in Los Angeles in the 35 years since the landmark urban tour film Reyner Banham Loves Los Angeles (UK,1972). Schave, a former student of Banham, elaborates on his professor’s research by showing excerpts of the film in comparison with his own documentary photography. In particular, he explores(...)
Paul Desmarais Theatre
Just as Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotonda helped to define for future generations the architecture of the Renaissance in Italy, so Chiswick is the locus classicus of the Palladian Revival of the eighteenth century. This exhibition follows a major architect’s thinking as he worked from source to design, from design to representation, in the making of a building which, as the(...)
Main galleries
19 July 1994 to 25 September 1994
The Palladian Revival: Lord Burlington, His Villa and Garden at Chiswick
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Just as Andrea Palladio’s Villa Rotonda helped to define for future generations the architecture of the Renaissance in Italy, so Chiswick is the locus classicus of the Palladian Revival of the eighteenth century. This exhibition follows a major architect’s thinking as he worked from source to design, from design to representation, in the making of a building which, as the(...)
Main galleries