Professor Mary Lou Lobsinger is co-organizer and participant in a conference titled 'Words in Postwar Architectural Discourse' taking place at ETH Zurich on June 19-20, 2009. The event is partially supported by the University of Toronto.

PROGRAM:
Words in Postwar Architectural Discourse

Seminar, ETH Zurich

Collegium Helveticum, Semper-Sternwarte

June 19/20, 2009

Seminar organized by Laurent Stalder, Karin Gimmi, Mary Lou Lobsinger

Architectural historiography has tended to regard the 1950s as a period of lesser theoretical intensity, particularly when compared with the 1960s. However, debates in journals and magazines as well as reported public conferences and congresses — such as postwar CIAMs, the Team X meetings or the International Ekistics Seminar — allow for an alternative interpretation. Sources such as these offer evidence of the challenges within architectural thinking that extend beyond individual contributions.

Many of the widely debated notions in the period between 1945 and 1965 took their stances from other disciplines like sociology, anthropology, or the natural sciences thereby acquiring new values and sometimes almost undertaking autonomous lives. The particular set of words — reflecting mostly the Anglo-Saxon world — challenged the codified vocabulary of the formative years of the modern movement. Organizing a system for thinking, it thus allowed architecture and urbanism to be approached and framed differently.

The purpose of this seminar is to examine some keywords used in the postwar period and how they have been adopted, transformed and popularized by the architectural discourse of the time.

Friday, June 19, 2009

14:00

Introduction: Laurent Stalder, ETH Zurich/ Mary Lou Lobsinger, University of Toronto

14:15–17:45

Section 1: Chair Stanislaus von Moos, Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio

CORE Eric Mumford, Washington University, St. Louis
GROWTH Dominique Rouillard, ENSA Paris–Malaquais PLAY Dirk van den Heuvel, TU Delft

CONTROL Hadas Steiner, University at Buffalo SOFTWARE Laurent Stalder, ETH Zurich

Discussion

18:15 A Word is Not a Thing: Adrian Forty, University College London

Saturday, June 20, 2009

09:00–12:30

Section 2: Chair Ákos Moravánszky, ETH Zurich

NEW Marilena Kourniati, EHESS, Paris
(IN)CORPORATION John Harwood, Oberlin College
PATTERN Mary Lou Lobsinger, University of Toronto

LIFESTYLE Ana Miljacki, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MOBILITY Elke Beyer, ETH Zurich

Discussion

14:00–18:00

Section 3: Chair Adrian Forty, University College London

UMWELT Volker Welter, University of California, Santa Barbara
AMBIENTE Carsten Ruhl, Ruhr–Universität Bochum
DEVELOPMENT Hashim Sarkis, Harvard University

WORDS Karin Gimmi, ETH Zurich
CULTURE Lucia Allais, Princeton University
RELIGION Reinhold Martin, Columbia University

18:00 Conclusion: Paolo Scrivano, Boston University

Click here for event poster [PDF]