香蕉视频

Reconciling Poetics and Ethics in Architecture

September 13-15, 2007
Canadian Centre for Architecture
McGill School of Architecture

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Vernissage of the exhibition of the 2007 香蕉视频 Architectural History and Theory Graduate Studio at McGill鈥檚 School of Architecture 漏 Lian Chang

Supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, IRHA Montreal, the Embassy of Finland, Ottawa, and a generous, anonymous contribution from a graduate of the program, the 鈥淩econciling Poetics and Ethics in Architecture鈥� conference addressed questions related to the place of architecture in modern societies around the globe.

For this purpose, the conference brought together important scholars, academics, and architects to ponder the question of ethics in architecture framed as the architect鈥檚 responsibility toward users and their wellbeing, cities, and environments, and its relationship to poetics conceptualized as the creative architectural act. Within this broad theme, Terri Fuglem, J. Kent Fitzsimons, Alice Guess, Stephen Parcell, Rachel McCann, and Ricardo Castro addressed sub-themes on empathy, biology, bodies, modernity, and phenomenology. Mark West, Royce M. Earnest, Theodore Sandstra, Raymond J. Cole, and Daniel Pearl considered sustainability and architecture issues, embracing an activist, critical stance toward the technological advances of sustainable architectures. Addressing similar issues on a more theoretical plane, Lawrence Bird, Ralph Ghoche, Helmut Klassen, and Graham Livesey talked about utopia narratives in reference to architecture throughout history. Other sessions included intriguing discussions on the ethics of uncertainty and the architect鈥檚 responsibilities regarding virtual constructions. Christina Contandriopoulos, Jennifer Carter, and Rita Velloso daringly tackled architecture in social and political movements regarding nationalism and territorial narratives. Robert Kirkbride, Manuela Antoniu, and Indra Kagis McEwan challenged Quattrocento Italian histories and Lian Chang, Lisa Landrum, and Leonidas Koutsoumpos examined ethical stances in classical antiquity. The conference鈥檚 sessions reflected the wide-ranging and multifarious questions, historical, theoretical, and related to praxis, that lay at the intersection of the concepts of ethics and poetics, and which have always been at the core of the McGill History and Theory program. Scrutinizing this relationship further, the well-established architect and thinker Juhani Pallasmaa delivered the keynote address that was titled: 鈥淥n Artistic Expression, Generosity and Humility鈥攔eality sense and idealization in Architecture.鈥� A plenary lecture on Alvise Cornaro鈥檚 architectural phronesis and sophrosine, was delivered by Marco Frascari, the then director of the Carleton University School of Architecture. The opening address was by Alberto P茅rez-G贸mez, who was also on the conference鈥檚 academic committee alongside Lily Chi, Marco Frascari, David Leatherbarrow, Louise Pelletier, and Alexis Sorkin.

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Juhani Pallasmaa lecturing at the Canadian Centre for Architecture 漏 Lian Chang

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In addition to the conference sessions, the event comprised a vernissage for the exhibition of the 2007 香蕉视频 History and Theory of Architecture Graduate Studio; two book launches for Chora 5 and Architecture, Ethics, and the Personhood of Place; a CCA Study Centre and Library Tour, a CCA Public Galleries Tour, and a banquet that took place among the works of the exhibition 鈥�70 architectes sur l鈥櫭﹖hique et la po茅tique鈥� at the Centre de Design of the Universit茅 du Qu茅bec 脿 Montr茅al. The conference was planned as part of the twentieth anniversary celebration of the History and Theory of Architecture Master鈥檚 and PhD options at 香蕉视频 and wouldn鈥檛 have been possible without the able and enthusiastic assistance of the staff of the 香蕉视频 School of Architecture and the Canadian Centre for Architecture. In particular, the efforts of Luciana Adoyo (McGill School of Architecture, Ph.D. Program and History and Theory Program Administrator) were above and beyond the call of duty.

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Conference Panel Presentations and Lectures at McGill鈥檚 School of Architecture 漏 Lian Chang

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