New Urban Questions or Minor Infractions

Summary
The New Urban Questions lecture series will explore contemporary concerns surrounding current debates emerging from the intersection of the discursive practices and the material practices, including architecture, urbanism and the spatial disciplines, critically interrogating the contemporary situation of urban environments as the locust of diverse epistemologies of space and matter. Each week expert guest speakers and researchers will introduce relevant themes departing from specific philosophical and theoretical positions and modes of inquiry, relating them to the architectural and urban practices and attitudes of the present either by means of the analysis of specific case studies, or through the development of sound theoretical argumentation. Ranging from investigations on the implications of “new” philosophical and theoretical traditions such as pluralism, new vitalism and new materialism upon the practice and discourse of architecture, to questions that raise the significance of ethics, politics and agency within shifting geographies of power and knowledge, the lectures in this series address impending material questions at a time of paradigmatic global change.

Fit for whom?
It is a short lecture series (5 lectures) based on the research the Architectural Theory section is carrying out. So thematically it changes slightly each term, but is mainly directed towards understanding the paradigmatic changes in discourse and their impact on the material practices. The emphasis is on how contemporary theories and philosophies impinge on urban and architectural disciplines. The lecturers are the staff of the AT section (Healy, Radman, Bracken, PhD Kousoulas, Sohn, and sometimes we invite a guest lecturer from either a different chair or from outside the Faculty. 

Course at a glance

MSc track
A

Course code
AR3AT060

Period
quarter 1 and 3

Duration
one semester

Course load
lecture: 26 hours, self-study: 58 hours

ECTS = GS credits
3

Contact
Heidi Sohn

Description
Link to ‘Studiegids’