Two views points on the subject, followed by a short discussion on overlaps, differences, provocations, oppositions.

Habitat

22.October
17:00—19:00 CET / 12:00-14:00 Atlantic
Hosted on Zoom by TUDelft, to register please write to t.bacchin[at]tudelft.nl

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Elisa Iturbe
“Overcoming Carbon Form“

Although the carbon footprint of the built environment can be empirically measured, the relationship between architecture and the climate crisis is elusive in regard to space and form. This lecture explores the spatial expression of our dominant energy paradigm––carbon form––in order to ask what role architecture might play in the coming transformations in energy and social form.

Elisa Iturbe is a critic at the Yale School of Architecture (YSoA), where she teaches design studios and a seminar titled The City & Carbon Modernity, which explores the spatial expression of our dominant energy paradigm in both urban and architectural form. She also coordinates the dual-degree program between YSoA and the Yale School of the Environment. In addition, she is Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Cooper Union, where she teaches both studio and an environmental course on carbon modernity. Recently she guest edited Log 47, titled Overcoming Carbon Form, and co-wrote a book with Peter Eisenman titled Lateness. She is co-founder of the firm Outside Development.

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Ciro Miguel and Vanessa Grossman
“Everyday”

Oscillating between powerlessness and megalomania, architects and urban planners have long sought to design entire habitats, civilizations, and even the planet. However, in the current climate of geopolitical insecurities and revisions of the rule of law, occurring against the backdrop of unprecedented environmental changes, design professionals acknowledge once again the vulnerability of their field. Confronted with the challenges of an uncertain future, combined with the expectations of new automation technologies, architects shift their focus to the quotidian. As a result, they reinvent their activity in an over-designed world from banal objects, daily routines, maintenance protocols, and the use of basic resources. Within the last decade, the potential of the everyday has influenced both practical and theoretical domains of architecture and urbanism by triggering a new ethic and aesthetic of humbleness.

Ciro Miguel is an architect, visual artist, and photographer. He holds a professional diploma in architecture and urbanism from the University of São Paulo FAU USP and a master’s degree from Columbia University’s GSAPP. Ciro is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the gta institute at ETH Zurich. Ciro Miguel was one of the curators of the 12th International Biennial of Architecture of São Paulo, entitled “Todo dia/Everyday”, which took place at Centro Cultural São Paulo and Sesc 24 de Maio in 2019. He worked as an assistant professor in architectural design at ETH Zurich collaborating with the departmental chair of Marc Angélil, from 2014-2019. He was a partner at Angelo Bucci/ SPBR arquitetos for almost 10 years and an architect at Bernard Tschumi Architects in New York from 2008 to 2010. As a photographer, he participated in various exhibitions, including “Access for All: São Paulo’s Architectural Infrastructures” for the Architekturmuseum der TUM in der Pinakothek der Moderne.

Vanessa Grossman, PhD, is an architect, a historian of modern and contemporary architecture, and a curator whose research focuses on architecture’s intersections with ideology, power, housing, and governance, with a special focus on global practices in Cold War era Europe and Latin America. Her forthcoming book with Yale University Press, tentatively entitled A Concrete Alliance: Communism and Modern Architecture in Postwar France, examines the remarkable burst of architectural activity that resulted when the French Communist Party became a patron for the designs, discourses, and organizational efforts of a distinguished circle of modern architects, which found their most fertile terrain in the formerly industrial peripheries of France’s major cities, the banlieue. Grossman has published a number of books, such as the coauthored Oscar Niemeyer, un exil créatif (Éditions du patrimoine, Collection Carnets d’architectes, 2020), and the coedited AUA, une architecture de l’engagement, 1960–1985 (Éditions Dominique Carré/Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine, 2015) and Modernity: Promise or Menace ? France, 101 Buildings, 1914-2014 (Éditions Dominique Carré/Institut français, 2014). She is the author of Le PCF a changé! Niemeyer et le siège du Parti communiste (1966–1981) (Éditions B2, 2013), and A arquitetura e o urbanismo revisitados pela Internacional situacionista (Annablume/FAPESP, 2006), which was awarded the 8th Young Architects Critical Essays Prize (2007) from the São Paulo Department of the Institute of Architects of Brazil. Her work has also appeared in edited volumes, as well as in encyclopedias and journals worldwide. Grossman was the cocurator of the 12th International Architecture Biennale of São Paulo, entitled Todo dia/Everyday (2019), and of Une architecture de l’engagement: L’AUA (1960–85) at the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine in Paris (2015–16). She was the assistant curator of La modernité, promesse ou menace ?, the French Pavilion at the 14th Venice International Architecture Biennale (2014), which received a special mention from the jury. Prior to TU Delft Grossman was a postdoctoral research fellow with the Center for Advanced Studies in Architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (ETH Zürich). Grossman has taught at the University of Miami Princeton University and the National School of Architecture of Versailles (ENSA-V). Grossman holds a professional diploma in Architecture and Urbanism from the University of São Paulo a master’s degree in History of Architecture from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and a PhD in History and Theory of Architecture from Princeton University.