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SUMMARY:Book launch "Architecture and Abstraction" by Pier Vittorio Aureli
  / TPOD\, ACHT\, THEMA\, HITAM
DTSTART:20240313T180000
DTEND:20240313T200000
DTSTAMP:20260511T081319Z
UID:6d13933a16b0de128a4d2325a359c140283712bcbd7f2be38112eb37
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Pier Vittorio Aureli (TPOD\, EPFL)\nIn this theoretical study 
 of abstraction in architecture—the first of its kind—Pier Vittorio Aur
 eli argues for a reconsideration of abstraction\, its meanings\, and its s
 ources. Although architects have typically interpreted abstraction in form
 al terms—the purposeful reduction of the complexities of design to its e
 ssentials—Aureli shows that abstraction instead arises from the material
  conditions of building production. In a lively study informed by Walter B
 enjamin\, Karl Marx\, Alfred Sohn-Rethel\, and other social theorists\, A
 rchitecture and Abstraction presents abstraction in architecture not as a
 n aesthetic tendency but as a movement that arises from modern divisions o
 f labor and consequent social asymmetries.\n\n\nThese divisions were antic
 ipated by the architecture of antiquity\, which established a distinction 
 between manual and intellectual labor\, and placed the former in service t
 o the latter. Further abstractions arose as geometry\, used for measuring 
 territories\, became the intermediary between land and money and eventuall
 y produced the logic of the grid. In our own time\, architectural abstract
 ion serves the logic of capitalism and embraces the premise that all thing
 s can be exchanged—even experience itself is a commodity. To resist this
  turn\, Aureli seeks a critique of architecture that begins not by scaling
  philosophical heights\, but by standing at the ground level of material p
 ractice.\n\nPier Vittorio Aureli is co-founder of Dogma and teaches at t
 he École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. His lastest book is Archi
 tecture and Abstraction (2023).\n\nNeighbours Lecture Series Vol. 3\n\n13
 /3 - Pier Vittorio Aureli (EPFL). Architecture and Abstraction: Book Launc
 h with Sarah Nichols\, Christophe van Gerrewey\, and Alfredo Thiermann\n20
 /3 - Tatiana Efrussi (L’atelier des artistes en exil). Hannes Meyer’s 
 Kinderheim Mümliswil: From Utopian 'Home' to National Memorial\n27/3 - Sa
 rah Gainsforth (Journalist). Challenging the New Housing Question\n10/4 - 
 Claire Zimmerman (University of Toronto). Industrial Architecture\, Situat
 ed in the Twentieth Century\n24/4 - Álvaro Sevilla-Buitrago (Universidad 
 Politécnica de Madrid). Against the Commons: Elements for a Radical Plann
 ing Theory\n1/5 - Spyros Papapetros (Princeton University). Pre/Architectu
 re\n8/5 - Anna-Maria Meister (Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz: Max P
 lanck Institute\, KIT and saai archive Karlsruhe). Fragile Objects\, Coded
  Knowledge\n15/5 - Platon Issaias (Architectural Association) & Ioanna The
 ocharopoulou (Columbia University). On the Polykatoikia and its Discontent
 s
LOCATION:Salle Archizoom
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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