There is a lecture tomorrow evening from 5:00 to 6:00 PM in Room 106 by Behrang Behin, James Templeton Kelley Prize for Architecture Thesis, Harvard University.

The lecture is entitled ‘STACK CITY’.

Stack City explores the architectural and urbanistic logic of the "carbon-neutral" or energy-efficient city, in the context of the development model that has emerged in the UAE and is increasingly exported throughout the world. Specifically, it engages the phenomenon of new cities in the Gulf and their rationalization as self-contained totalities whose performance (be it in terms of real-estate value, economic sector development, or environmental impact) is "engineered" through master-planning and design. While the urban models emerging in the Gulf may be problematic for their economic and technological determinism, they represent an increasingly prominent reality backed by an unprecedented investment of resources, and constitute a legitimate phenomenon that deserves attention. The goal of this thesis project is to operate from within this new paradigm, and to develop a framework which, by taking the current urban models to their logical conclusion, also creates new possibilities for ways of life and architectural space.