Call for Papers for the "Drawing the Urban" Symposium
The representation of the urban is not merely a descriptive operation, but one that deals with the epistemological challenges of how to know, understand, and study urban processes and conditions.
The DRAWING THE URBAN symposium that will be held on the 16 and 17 November 2023 at the Istituto di Studi Urbani e del Paesaggio (ISUP) and organized together with the Tom Avermaete Chair of the History and Theory of Urban Design at ETH Zurich will investigate the multiple ways in which recent and current urban conditions are represented, analysed, and informed, through drawings.
Among the multiplicity of urban processes constantly and simultaneously shaping the built environment, the symposium aims to explore dynamics of urban expansion and densification, as well as shrinkage, land speculation, and gentrification. We are similarly interested in the material and graphical analyses of social phenomena such as migration, social exclusion, demographic shifting, and intensive commuting.
Submit your abstract by the 31st of March 2023!
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Kristiaan Borret (Bouwmeester-Maitre Architecte of the Brussels-Capital Region), Julian Lewis (East architecture, landscape urban design ltd), and Huda Tayob (Manchester School of Architecture)
ISUP (Istituto Studi Urbani e del Paesaggio), Accademia Architettura Mendrisio, CH
In the last decades, the notion of the city as a definable entity has been increasingly contested and reframed in relation to fluid and heterogenous urbanization processes. If the term still retains a collective intelligibility, this is because the urban imaginary is deeply rooted in individual lived experiences. A key role in defining and reiterating urban imaginaries is played by the way the city is narrated and represented. Therefore, the representation of the urban is not merely a descriptive operation, but one that deals with the epistemological challenges of how to know, understand, and study urban processes and conditions. At the same time, drawings are the instruments that allow urbanists, architects, and designers to envision and steer spatial and social transformations.
This conference will investigate the multiple ways in which recent and current urban conditions are represented, analysed, and informed, through drawings. Among the multiplicity of urban processes constantly and simultaneously shaping the built environment, we are particularly interested in dynamics of urban expansion and densification (whether top-down and bottom-up), as well as shrinkage, exclusion, land speculation, and gentrification. We are similarly interested in the material and graphical analyses of social phenomena such as migration, demographic shifting, and intensive commuting.
We welcome contributions that investigate existing forms of urban representation – for example, institutional and administrative documentation, urban codes, maps, and construction drawings – as well as creative, subjective, situated, and propositional ways of visually depicting urban processes and conditions.
The conference will pursue three tracks, namely:
Drawing urban conditions and processes
Drawing as a (legal) tool of transformation
Drawing marginal spaces and alternative agencies
Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Kristiaan Borret (Bouwmeester-Maitre Architecte of the Brussels-Capital Region), Julian Lewis (East architecture, landscape urban design ltd), and Huda Tayob (Manchester School of Architecture).
Scientific Committee: Tom Avermaete (gta, Institute for the History and Theory of Architecture ETH Zurich), Irina Davidovici (gta Archives, ETH Zurich), Giulia Scotto (Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies, Accademia Architettura Mendrisio), Jonathan Sergison (Institute of Urban and Landscape Studies, Accademia Architettura Mendrisio)
Two scholarships (travel and accommodation in Mendrisio) will be offered to people who can’t have expenses covered by their institutions (see application form).
