SEMINAR ON URBAN VISONS, RESILIENT CITIES

Free of charge, RSVP required at events@straightforward-design.net

Let’s focus on the various manifestations of the ingenious resilience that cities are demonstrating today. Cities around the world are facing, now more than before, severe changes in all their defining milieus: the physical, the economical, the social and the cultural. Cities are expanding and contracting in response to new threats and opportunities that are arising as a result of the increasing global interaction between localities and the introduction of new technologies. The dominance of the once great cities is being challenged by new emerging centers of power. At the same time, many cities are facing the threat of a slow disappearance as they are being propelled into economic and demographic decline fueled by an eroding employment base and violent crime.

Is the new geography of cities one of sustained development or one of mere survival? What is the capacity of our aging cities to adapt to the changing demands of the globalizing world and to respond to the needs of today? How can we mold our existing urban environments to become more sustainable, both in an economic sense and in an ecological sense? How should we look at urban issues in order to identify the most pressing needs and to propose effective solutions?

The seminar, moderated by Juulia Kauste (Executive Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York) features five fascinating speakers:

• Cameron Tonkinwise (Parsons School of Design) talks about “Anticipatory Social Innovation“, explaining the role of design, particularly service design, in accelerating socio-economic change in dense cosmopolitan cities.
• Michail Galanakis (Aalto University, School of Art & Design, Helsinki) shares his thoughts on the dynamics of discrimination in public spaces.
• Pekka Korvenmaa (Aalto University, School of Art & Design, Helsinki) compares the urban visions of Alvar Aalto to today’s realities of urban life.
• David Benjamin & Soo-in Yang (The Living) discuss their prototypes of flexible, adoptive architecture that enable communication between citizens, buildings and natural ecosystems