November Talks 2019 - lecture series at the Faculty of Architecture CTU

November talks by foreign architects, urban planners, and landscape architects at the Faculty of Architecture of CTU will focus on the transformations of the boundaries of these professions and the tasks placed upon them in today's changing world. The series is part of a lecture program supported by the Sto-Stiftung foundation at European schools of architecture since 2006. This year, lectures will take place in London, Paris, Venice, Stuttgart, and Graz, as well as at the Faculty of Architecture of CTU in Prague for the fifth consecutive year.

“I reached out to architects, urban planners, land use planners, and landscape architects whose work transcends the boundaries of these traditionally well-defined fields and who emphasize the creation of living, or rather, life environments regardless of the scale and type of assignment. In their projects, it is difficult to determine where one profession begins and another ends, and this poses a significant challenge for collaboration and the education of these professions,” explains Irena Fialová, Vice Dean for International Relations at the Faculty of Architecture CTU. The title of the series “Transformation: Transformations of Professional Boundaries in a Changing World” is related to the theme “New Dimensions: Reflection on Scale Enlargement and Discipline Overlap,” which will be addressed at the international conference of the European Association of Architectural Education EAAE, organized by the Faculty of Architecture CTU in Prague at the end of August 2020.

The series will begin with Ivana and Jan Benda, Czech-Canadian architects and urban planners with extensive global professional experience, who have returned to live in Toronto after working in China for the last 20 years. Their topic relates to the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution. It is a reflection on the key research conducted in the 1970s under the leadership of Jiří Ševčík at the newly independent Faculty of Architecture, from which they drew inspiration for their international architectural and urban design work over the following 30 years.

The second speaker will be Jean-Marc Fritz, a French architect and urban planner, partner at SEURA, and co-author of the highly complex urban, landscape, and infrastructure project of the new transport hub, park, and downtown center Les Halles in Paris. In his lecture, he will discuss the “Belly of Paris” and its latest redevelopment, which SEURA planned and coordinated.

The third speaker will be Michel Desvigne, a prominent French landscape architect, and one of the stars of the reSITE conference in 2014. Desvigne collaborates with renowned architectural firms such as Herzog & de Meuron, Foster + Partners, and Jean Nouvel. He will speak about the transformation of the landscape architect's profession and its challenges, which today are more climate and ecological than aesthetic, as they were previously.

On the first Monday of December, the lecture series will conclude with Ali Madanipour, a theorist of urbanism and a professor of land use planning specializing in sociology. Madanipour has authored dozens of highly cited publications. His personal experience from childhood and adolescence in the Middle East, combined with a British education and training in critical thinking, enables him to perceive issues of European urbanism in broader contexts and thus open key themes. “He is interested in the drums that beat deep,” explains Irena Fialová.

The lectures will take place every Monday at 6:00 PM in lecture hall 155 Gočár at the Faculty of Architecture, Thákurova 9, Prague 6 Dejvice. They will be conducted in English. They are intended not only for students but also for the general public, and admission is free and barrier-free. A welcome drink combined with an informal meeting with the speaker will be held in the foyer starting at 5:30 PM.


November Talks 2019 program at FA CTU:

November 4, 2019 Ivana and Jan Benda
Benda Architects (CAN)
Image of the City: From Research to Design to Build
www.benda-arch.com

November 18, 2019 Jean-Marc Fritz
SEURA Architectes (FR)
Les Halles de Paris: Interior Cities
www.seura.fr

November 25, 2019 Michel Desvigne
MDP Michel Desvigne Paysagiste (FR)
Transforming Landscapes
www.micheldesvignepaysagiste.com

December 2, 2019 Ali Madanipour
Newcastle University (BG)
Crossing the Boundaries: In-between Spaces and Dialogic Practices
www.ncl.ac.uk/apl

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