Associate Professor An Te Liu is participating in the event r{AIR}defied futures at the University of Southern California School of Architecture in Los Angeles on March 7. 

r{AIR}efied futures honors the legacy of L. Anthony Greenberg, alumnus, modernist architect, city and community builder, whose career regenerated and enriched urban Los Angeles. The event —which will feature presentations, a symposium/roundtable, exhibit critique — and reception will consider the changing role of atmosphere itself in architecture and how the design, distribution, filtration, and conditioning of air effects and affects space. 

About r{AIR}efied futures

The significance of Los Angeles as a global city emerged at the onset of the last century in part because of the presumed proto-medicinal atmosphere of its climate - its skies were reported to be some of the finest in the world and people suffering respiratory difficulties from all over were advised by doctors to seek the pure dry air of the Southland. New forms of architecture emerged in the rarefied air of Los Angeles following the utopianism of indoor - outdoor living which the city's skies promised. A mere seventy or so years later, however, Los Angeles’s fame had transformed to that of notoriety due to the change in atmosphere and the physical palpability of its dust and smog which emerged from its embrace of car culture and rapacious development. Since then, numerous strategies have been deployed in an effort to return the air of Los Angeles to its pre-urban state. Stricter legislation, better machines, more comprehensive infrastructures, new technologies of filtration, and systems which generate energy from the atmosphere itself have all contributed. This conference will discuss the future role of atmosphere itself in the design, distribution, filtration, and treatment of the atmosphere and how it effects and affects space in architecture and urbanism. Can new forms, materials, and strategies for design emerge with the renewed interests in creating and conditioning our environments? 

For more information on this event, visit the University of Southern California's website.