Kim Förster: Uncementing Modernity - online lecture at Gallery VI PER

Currently, cement is the most widely used material after water; it is sold either in bags as the smallest unit for DIY enthusiasts or as full truckloads of ready-mixed concrete for large construction projects. As the future of concrete is being questioned more than ever due to its impact on atmospheric warming, this lecture will explore how architectural humanities might approach cement as an internationally traded commodity. Cement, once a critical building material of 20th-century modernity, which has now been naturalized, will be examined in terms of its past, present, and future: we will address the architectural history of the kiln, which is the center of the technological system; recent dominant ideas about future architectural materials, processes, and technologies; and ecological approaches to the reclamation of unused quarries, read as a parable of how to treat all of Earth’s systems. If concrete is the most prevalent geological feature of the Anthropocene and architecture remains dependent on it, knowledge of the global history of cement is essential for planetary survival and justice.
Kim Förster is a historian of architecture, writer, and educator, who has been lecturing at the University of Manchester since 2019, where he is part of the MARG (Manchester Architecture Research Group). In his research and teaching, he engages with ecology in architecture, environmental, energy, and material histories, as well as a humanitarian perspective on cement as a critical building material.
The lecture is part of the accompanying program of the exhibition Planetary Home Improvement. It will be contextualized by Amelyn Ng, architect and one of the curators of the exhibition.
The event will take place via the platform Zoom.