Hilde Heynen: Reset Modernity ? / EDAR
Reset Modernity? Challenges and Issues for Architectural Culture Today
According to Bruno Latour, we need a serious reset of our understanding of modernity. The Anthropocene, and the ecological crisis that results from it, puts into question humankind’s relation with the earth. Architecture is, arguably, at the heart of these considerations, since it is thoroughly involved in the making and remaking of our human world. This lecture will rely on this perspective to frame the major challenges that architectural culture is faced with today – sustainability, inclusivity, democracy. It will ask whether and how these issues are dealt with in contemporary architectural discourses and practices. Elements from recent Venice Biennales will be used as reference points to gauge current concerns and strategies.
Hilde Heynen is a professor of architectural history at the KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research focuses on issues of modernity, modernism and gender in architecture. In Architecture and Modernity. A Critique (MIT Press, 1999) she investigated the relationship between architecture, modernity and dwelling, arguing that critical theories such as those of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno offer crucial insights when revisiting the Modern Movement. More recently she engaged with the intersection between architecture and gender studies, which resulted in the volume Negotiating Domesticity: Spatial Productions of Gender in Modern Architecture (co-edited with Gülsüm Baydar; Routledge, 2005). Her most recent books are both co-edited volumes: The Figure of Knowledge. Conditioning Architectural Theory, 1960s-1990s (with Sebastiaan Loosen and Rajesh Heynickx) and Making Home(s) in Displacement. Critical Reflections on a Spatial Practice (with Luce Beeckmans, Alessandra Gola and Ashika Singh), both open access volumes with Leuven University Press.
The spring series of SCHOLARS in Transition, entitled Contemporary Modernity, aims at revisiting notions, works, architects, and authors of XXth Century Modernism. The debates will focus on the timeless aspiration of 'being modern', as it simply means ‘being contemporary’ – matching the characteristics of the era you live in. Is today the adjective ‘modern’ an historical category to be referred to a past era? Or, on the contrary, do our interpretations echo our contemporary concerns about architecture and, more widely, our built environment?
According to Bruno Latour, we need a serious reset of our understanding of modernity. The Anthropocene, and the ecological crisis that results from it, puts into question humankind’s relation with the earth. Architecture is, arguably, at the heart of these considerations, since it is thoroughly involved in the making and remaking of our human world. This lecture will rely on this perspective to frame the major challenges that architectural culture is faced with today – sustainability, inclusivity, democracy. It will ask whether and how these issues are dealt with in contemporary architectural discourses and practices. Elements from recent Venice Biennales will be used as reference points to gauge current concerns and strategies.
Hilde Heynen is a professor of architectural history at the KU Leuven in Belgium. Her research focuses on issues of modernity, modernism and gender in architecture. In Architecture and Modernity. A Critique (MIT Press, 1999) she investigated the relationship between architecture, modernity and dwelling, arguing that critical theories such as those of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno offer crucial insights when revisiting the Modern Movement. More recently she engaged with the intersection between architecture and gender studies, which resulted in the volume Negotiating Domesticity: Spatial Productions of Gender in Modern Architecture (co-edited with Gülsüm Baydar; Routledge, 2005). Her most recent books are both co-edited volumes: The Figure of Knowledge. Conditioning Architectural Theory, 1960s-1990s (with Sebastiaan Loosen and Rajesh Heynickx) and Making Home(s) in Displacement. Critical Reflections on a Spatial Practice (with Luce Beeckmans, Alessandra Gola and Ashika Singh), both open access volumes with Leuven University Press.
The spring series of SCHOLARS in Transition, entitled Contemporary Modernity, aims at revisiting notions, works, architects, and authors of XXth Century Modernism. The debates will focus on the timeless aspiration of 'being modern', as it simply means ‘being contemporary’ – matching the characteristics of the era you live in. Is today the adjective ‘modern’ an historical category to be referred to a past era? Or, on the contrary, do our interpretations echo our contemporary concerns about architecture and, more widely, our built environment?
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- EDAR Doctoral Programme
Contact
- Sila Karatas