upcoming conference in November 2014: East West Central 02 Re-scaling the environment 1960-80

Dear team of the shera newsletter

Please find below information on our upcoming conference: 

East West Central 02
Re-scaling the environment. New landscapes of design, 1960–80
ETH Zurich, Switzerland
28/ 29 November 2014

The conference will trace transnational phenomena within design, architecture and planning that sought to give shape to the age of large-scale systems of living, leisure and supply in Eastern and Western Europe.

The years between 1960 and 1980 were a period of a hitherto unknown scale of building production both in East and West Europe. The rhetoric of "great numbers" (Jakob Bakema), "no-stop city" (Archizoom) or "megastructure" reveal the advent of new dimensions in architectural thinking. The shift from objects to processes, systems and networks went hand in hand with rapid modernization and gave rise of technocratic concepts and utopian ideals. Economic recession and social upheavals fueled a crisis-consciousness from 1968 on, leading to a widespread criticism of modernization and modern architecture which can be seen as a counter-current to the temptations on bigness.

After "Re-humanizing Architecture. New Forms of Community, 1950-1970" our second East West Central symposium focuses on the expansion of the territory of architecture between 1960 and 1980. The aim of this symposium is to analyze how architects in East and West reacted to such contradicting pressures, questioning the disciplinary confines of architecture as well as basic tenets of modernism.

The presentations of the conference will trace the development of novel approaches and strategies for a systemic and comprehensive design of the built environment and for architectural and territorial planning since the 1960s. Transdisciplinary encounters with new subjects such as cybernetics but also with established disciplines such as economic planning and sociology had a profound influence on architecture and urbanism. New ideas of scale, efficiency and centrality were fostered by new means of traffic, programming and production in all parts of Europe. We ask to what extent these innovations and shifts in both scale and method within the practices of architecture and urbanism were symptoms of convergence and/or outcomes of the competition between different economic and political systems. The conference will examine strategies behind the material, conceptual and design-oriented changes that have fundamentally transformed the European landscapes across the East-West dichotomy. It also seeks to trace exchanges and knowledge transfer between agents across the political divide through international professional networks.

Conference participation is open to everyone. As the number of seats is limited timely reservation is requested before November 19 2014.

Further information:
http://www.gta.arch.ethz.ch/events/eastwestcentral02/information

contact:
[email protected]

Conference organizer is the Chair for the Theory of Architecture (Prof. Ákos Moravánszky). Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture gta, ETH Zurich
 
It would be great if you could spread this information for the members of shera. Please keep me updated if you publish information on the conference.

With kind regards

Karl R. Kegler



PRELIMINARY CONFERENCE PROGRAM
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28

10:30–11:00   Registration
11.00–11:15   Welcome by the conference organizers 
11.15–13.00   Introductory lectures
Introductory lecture by Ákos Moravánszky (ETH Zurich)
Hashim Sarkis (Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA): Geo-Architecture

14.30–16.30  Panel 1: Planning, state and territory
Kenny Cupers (University of Illinois, USA): Géographie volontaire and the Territorial Logic of Architecture
Jan Dostalík (Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic): Czechoslovak Urban and Regional Planning in the 1960s: Eco-friendly Theories vs. Everyday Practise
Karl R. Kegler (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): 1968 – Towards the functional society: Paradigm Shifts in Regional Planning of West and East Gemany 

17.30–19:30   Evening lecture and panel discussion
David Crowley (Royal College of Art, London, Great Britain): The Choreography of the Console – The Design of Electronic Environments and their Operators in the Cold War

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29 (morning session)

9.00–10.00   Introductory Lecture
Ljiljana Blagojevic (University of Belgrade, Serbia): Modular Design: Dialogues and Networks

10:30–12:30 (parallel panels)

Panel 2a: New scales and prospects in architecture 
Mirko Baum (RWTH Aachen, Germany): Von Bienen und Schrauben. Skolka SIAL – eine Architektenkommune in der Tschechoslowakei  / On Bees and Screws. Skolka SIAL – an Architects' Commune in Czechoslovakia
Cornelia Escher (Berlin, Germany): Between model and utopia. GEAM's large-scale designs
Torsten Lange (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): Encountering "wicked" problems: Horst Rittel and the consequences of, or for design

Panel 2b: Institutions as frameworks for exchange
Andreas Kalpakci (ETH Zurich, Switzerland): "Total Environment" and its architectural consequences. UIA’s Seminar on Industrial Architecture as sense-making strategy
Piotr Bujas/ Alicja Gzowska (Warsaw / Warsaw University, Poland): New architectural agencies. transitional frameworks and their operational modes
Tamás Meggyesi (Budapest Technical University, Hungary): Urbanism and Academia. Teaching Urban Design in East and West

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29 (afternoon session)

14:00–16:00 (parallel panels)

Panel 3a: Environmental Design and Planning 
Aleksandra Kedziorek (Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Poland): Open - linear - continuous. Oskar Hansen's Open Form in the scale of the Great Number
Axel Zutz (Brandenburgisches Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Zossen, Germany): "Complex projects". Landscape development and the typology of open spaces in the GDR
Daniela Spiegel (Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany): Vacationing within the walls. The design and development of holiday-resorts in the GDR

Panel 3b: Practices and agencies
Margareta Tillberg (Linnaeus University, Sweden): Design research in the Soviet Union 1962-91 hopes and strategies, inspirational sources and networks
Andres Kurg (Estonian Academy of Arts): Architecture and Environment in Estonia in the 1970s
Tom Cubbin (University of Sheffield/Royal College of Art, Great Britain): Culture, environment and historical time at Senezh studio 1974- 1991

16.30-18.00  Final discussion 
David Crowley (Royal College of Art, London, Great Britain)
Ljiljana Blagojevic (University of Belgrade, Serbia)
Arnold Bartetzky (Zentrum Geschichte und Kultur Ostmitteleuropas, Leipzig)
Ákos Moravánszky (ETH Zurich, Switzerland)
Hashim Sarkis (Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA)
Max Welch Guerra (Bauhaus Universität Weimar, Germany)


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Karl R. Kegler 
Dr. phil. Dipl.-Ing. Architektur/ Städtebau
ETH Zürich
Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Architektur gta
Professur Architekturtheorie, Prof. Dr. Ákos Moravánszky
Stefano-Francini-Platz 5
POSTFACH 152
8093 Zürich
Schweiz

Tel: +41-44 633 7052
www.moravanszky.arch.ethz.ch
[email protected]

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