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Cultures, Communities and Design
 
In-person & Virtual.  28-30 June, 2022
University of Calgary
Calgary, Canada

The Countryside’ – a polemically generic term Rem Koolhaas has recently used to reposition debates about our cities to those of rural areas. While posited as ‘new’, it is, in reality, a well established mode of thinking. Through notions such as the peri-urban for example, geographers, sociologists, architects, urban designers and regional economists have all debated the urban-rural relationship for several decades. Under this framework we are obliged to consider the city and its architecture on its own terms, but also address the ‘rural’ in its particular context and, importantly, explore the parallels and mutual influences at play. Calgary, the host city of this conference, is a perfect example of all of this. It has heavy industry, a thriving business economy and a growing tourist sector. However, pockets of the city contend with poverty and gentrification. Others suffer disinvestment and require regeneration. Its architecture and public spaces are a combination of the ‘spectacular’ and the mundane. As a city, Calgary also ‘pressures’ its surrounding lands. These include the Rockies, the Banff nature reserve, and the First Nations lands of the Blackfoot, the Stoney Nakoda and the Tsuutʼina. As such, it is both a site of opportunity and development in its own right, and the cause of environmental concerns and social pressures, beyond its conceptual and geographic borders.

 

Sustainable Architecture(s) - Humane Cities
 
In-person & Virtual.  March 23-25, 2022
Dayananda Sagar University
Bangalore, India

The starting point for the Sustainable Architecture(s) – Humane Cities conference is a consideration of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals and how that relates to living through the current tragic situation of Covid-19 in cities. With over 80% of the world’s megacities projected to be in the Global South by 2030 it addresses the challenges faced by the region’s expanding cities: Covid-19, public health, informal development, grass roots participatory design, climate change, resilience, and more. It critiques sustainability from practical, cultural, health perspectives and more. It asks questions about physical distancing, global cities, post-colonialism and spectacle architecture. It examines the relationship between all these issues and questions of social equity and public health, whether it be in Mumbai, Beirut, Cairo, Rio, Lagos or Beijing. In a tragic moment for India’s cities it challenges us to connect questions often kept in isolation. It seeks to connect the work of the designers of our buildings, the planners of our cites, our policy makers at regional levels, and the governors of our expanding urban settlements today. At a critical moment it seeks to share knowledge on the most vexed and pressing issues cities in India, and across the world, face today.