Agency/Agents of Urbanity Colloquium
Event details
| Date | 01.06.2015 › 03.06.2015 |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
The PhD colloquium, Agency/Agents of Urbanity, to be held in 2015 from June 1st to June 3rd at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland asks for contributions that shed light on one or several agents of urbanity. Call for contributions is now open: http://contour.epfl.ch/fr/agencyurbanity/
Urbanity is an elusive quality of an urban place. It can be found in an Alpine town and yet be absent from a large American city. It is neither determined by building density, population density nor good design. Urbanity is a quality that emerges from a combination of elements that is greater than its parts. Nothing that contributes to its presence seems to do so intentionally. The failure of many attempts to artificially create urbanity suggests it will remain just out of reach. It is both physical and social, manifest and ephemeral—it cannot be fabricated.
Or can it? A contemporary understanding of agency would suggest that each element both human and non-human that comprises the experienced environment engages passively or actively in creating the emergent phenomena we call urbanity. From the people in physical and digital places to the technologies that mediate their interactions to the sensory qualities of the built and natural environments and the affordances they provide for movement and co-presence, urbanity as contingent and constructed can only be unpacked through the lenses of multiple methods, objects and theories of research.
Information concerning registration fees and accommodation possibilities will be available by February 16th.
Urbanity is an elusive quality of an urban place. It can be found in an Alpine town and yet be absent from a large American city. It is neither determined by building density, population density nor good design. Urbanity is a quality that emerges from a combination of elements that is greater than its parts. Nothing that contributes to its presence seems to do so intentionally. The failure of many attempts to artificially create urbanity suggests it will remain just out of reach. It is both physical and social, manifest and ephemeral—it cannot be fabricated.
Or can it? A contemporary understanding of agency would suggest that each element both human and non-human that comprises the experienced environment engages passively or actively in creating the emergent phenomena we call urbanity. From the people in physical and digital places to the technologies that mediate their interactions to the sensory qualities of the built and natural environments and the affordances they provide for movement and co-presence, urbanity as contingent and constructed can only be unpacked through the lenses of multiple methods, objects and theories of research.
Information concerning registration fees and accommodation possibilities will be available by February 16th.
Links
Practical information
- Expert
- Registration required
Organizer
- Michael R. Doyle, PhD candidate, Architecture and the Sciences of the City, Laboratory for Urban and Environmental Economics (LEURE), EPFL.
Dario Negueruela del Castillo, PhD candidate, Architecture and the Sciences of the City, Atelier de la conception de l’espace/ ALICE Laboratory, EPFL.