Recombinant Urbanism 2023; 4 Urban Design Models and the Asian Megacity/Metacity acceleration (with some student case studies).
Speaker: Professor DAVID GRAHAME SHANE Columbia GSAPP
Date: Wednesday 17th May 2023
Venue: IEB 122 19:30-20:30
Abstract:
This lecture will briefly outline the paradigm shift faced by urban designers as a result of the the earlier three urban models used in the development of cities in the Anthropocene age and their climate impacts. Kevin Lynch (1981) described these models as The City of Faith (imperial model), the City Machine (industrial model) and the emerging EcoCity. The lecture adds the Fragmented Metropolis model as a transition to the megacity/metacity of information now emerging, perhaps forming the Ecocity. It will examine the current fragmented model of the metropolis and the implications of the emerging megacity/ metacity of information for future cities. Designers have always operated between desired utopias and feared dystopias, creating fragile balances in models to ensure survival. The question now is how to set the balance for the next century. The lecture will end with some case studies of current dynamic urban growth in Asian cities (Tokyo, Shenzhen, Chandigarh) and study reworking older urban systems in Europe (Barcelona) and Latin America (San Juan PR).
About the Speaker:
David Grahame Shane studied at the Architectural Association, London (AA Dipl 1969), and at Cornell for an M.Arch (Urban Design 1972) and an Architectural and Urban History PhD (1978) with Professors Colin Rowe and Chris Otto.
He taught at the AA in the 1970’s for Alvin Boyarsky and at Bennington College, before starting at Columbia in the 1980’s, in UD since 1991. He has lectured widely and published in Europe, USA and Asia. He is the author of Recombinant Urbanism: Conceptual Modeling in Architecture, Urban Design and City Theory (2005) and Urban Design Since 1945; a Global Perspective (2011) and co-edited “Sensing the 21st Century City: Close-Up and Remote” (Architectural Design 2005). His article “Gardens as Public Space; A Century of Continuity and Change in the Great Bay Area” is in The Emerging Public Realm of the Great Bay Area (2021 Taylor and Francis). His “Notes Towards an Intellectual Biography of Colin Rowe 1938-78” will appear in the forthcoming The Urban Design Legacy of Colin Rowe (ORO Editions). He is currently editing the Archigram Oral Archives for m+ museum HK.
Links:
https://www.arch.columbia.edu/faculty/329-david-grahame-shane
http://www.recombinanturbanism.net/