I am honoured to be invited to give a speech at Joint Master Seminar S3: “Crisis Architecture – 2 / Relation Nature – City : Permanent crisis situation” which is being hosted at Hepia, part of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland, in Geneva from 1 to 5 December 2014. I am so happy to find chance to speak about my academic, civic and personal experiences regarding to -our-Attachment to the Frozen Crises (through the very special case of Cyprus!). I am also so excited to visit Geneva for the first time!
Crisis Architecture – 2
Relation Nature – City: Permanent crisis situation?
To build in crisis or emergency situation has, as in other contexts, an impact on the transformation process of our environment, our architectural culture, our art to build.
An attentive observation of our environment let us see numerous tracks of actions carried out with the aim of protecting our establishments and become a significant part of our urban and regional landscape.
The contemporary urban sprawl leads to a cohabitation in rising conflicting between constructed sectors and spared natural zones. This evolution creates new conditions of risk which were recently highlighted by natural disasters in the major impacts: collapses, earthquakes, avalanches, floods etc.
In parallel with this evolution, the requirements regarding law and order and the weak tolerance admitted in front of any uncertainty on these questions leads to a permanent revision of the standards and the constraints compulsory for any new construction.
The medium and long-term impact of these phenomena and their current events are in the heart of the subjects which will be treated within the framework of the seminar of December, 2014.
Following the model of the first seminar organized on the same theme in 2010, the week will be shared between periods dedicated to conferences and periods of experiment of project in situation of urgency or crisis.
Michael Jakob, professor hepia, will be responsible of the theoretical part of the seminar and the conferences;
Ivan Vuarambon, architect EPFL and responsible de project in the DDC will be responsible of the practice part of the seminar.
The seminar of the JMA will approach this phenomenon by proposing a historic, theoretical and specific analysis of the relation structure and crisis.
C E R E N B O G A C 