Seminar Programme 2009

Less Does More

UNLEASHING THE ENERGETICS OF NATURE
Exploring what new scientific discoveries may offer architecture.

• Examining how the natural, chemical and biological potential of different materials can be best understood to serve the ends of designers.
• Identifying how this affects the role of the designer?
• Outlining the practical implications of scientific innovation for architecture and design
• “Reburbia” – rethinking the concept of home
• Creating artificial physical environments that serve a dynamic practical purpose

Prof Neil Spiller, Avatar Group

Dr Rachel Armstrong, Avatar Group

Martin Hanczyc, Associate Professor, Department of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark

Cities

GOVERNANCE: OBLIGATIONS AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARCHITECTS

• What are the obligations and opportunities that architects face depending on forms of governance
• How can scientific modelling aide good architectural governance and future planning?

Alastair Moss, Councillor Westminster City Council,

Didier Madoc Jones, Managing Director GMJ Design

Philip Follent, Queensland Government Architect

Less Does More

STABILISING A COUNTRY: AGOSTINHO NETO UNIVERSITY
Outlining how an intelligent approach to architecture can help create an institution whose graduates can help the future of Angola.

• Demonstrating the materials to build the institution can be sourced, maintained and replenished locally creating a fully sustainable complex
• Making buildings habitable in an equatorial zone without over-reliance on complex power systems

Ralf Johnson, Design Principal, Perkins+Will.

Guy Battle, Director, Battle McCarthy Consulting Engineers

Cities

MANAGING EXPLOSIVE URBAN GROWTH

• Many international cities have been characterised by explosive growth which in turn has created its own problems
• How can this be managed?
• What can architects contribute to this and what opportunities exist within this conundrum?

Arturo Ortiz, Director, Taller Territorial de México

Michel Rojkind, Founder, Rojkind Arquitectos

Sanjay Puri, Founder, Sanjay Puri Architects

Meng Yan, Partner, Urbanus Architecture & Design Inc.

Less Does More

BEYOND PERMANENCE - THE DESIGN OF THE 2012 STADIUM

Using intelligent design to solve the paradox of an Olympic stadium by targeting resources exactly where needed

• Maintaining the balance between a temporary and
  permanent built legacy for 2012.
• Can a stadium be created with ‘built in obsolescence’?
• What is the appropriate lifespan and lifecycle for this type of building?

Rod Sheard, Senior Principal, Populous

Paul Westbury, Principal, Buro Happold

Jerome Frost, Head of Design, Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA)

Barcelona Now - New Practices

Diane Gray, Coordinator, European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award
Eduardo Cadaval,  Founder, Cadaval & Solà-Morales, Barcelona
Clara Solà-Morales, Founder, Cadaval & Solà-Morales, Barcelona

Keynote one – Farshid Moussavi

Farshid Moussavi, co-founder of Foreign Office Architects (FOA), noted as one of the world's most creative design firms, will be talks about the ' Function of Form' and her thoughts on how this essential manual on structural systems can aid architects in their capacity to produce a variety of forms

Less Does More

Examining how a particular architectural type (housing) fits within, takes advantage of and serves a particular social context, in both developing and developed worlds.

• Exploring how a radically rethink of approach to the typology of housing can create asset revenue and social value
• Tapping the social, economic and physical resources of a particular place
• Designing economic security and benefit into the building

Roger Zogolovitch, Managing Director, Lake Estates

Cezary Bednarski, Founder, Studio Bednarski

Indy Johar, Director, Architecture00

Cities

REGENERATION

Examining an international mix of cities where regeneration is changing the look at feel of the urban environment

Lee Mallett, Director, Urbik

Robert Hammond, Co-founder, The High Line, New York

Dan  Stubbergaard, Architect, COBE, Denmark

Less Does More

MAKING THE UNINHABITABLE HABITABLE - MASDAR CITY , THE MOST RADICAL & AMBITIOUS URBAN DEVELOPMENT IN THE WORLD

• Exploring how intelligent architectural thinking can navigate traditional problems encountered with extreme climates
• Harnessing the power of the desert to not only create a habitable community but create it so that it is sustainable and has zero net output.
• Identifying how a collaborative international effort can help accelerate the development of renewable energies and clean technology.

Gerard Evenden, Senior Partner, Foster + Partners

Chris Bosse, Co-founder, Lava, Laboratory for Visionary Architecture.

Cities

PRESERVING HERITAGE

International panel discussing perils and privileges of cities where preserving heritage is crucial. Looking at the examples of St Petersburg, Havana and Cairo

• What kind of regulations, state laws and local norms should protect the heritage?
• How should civil society work to defend the heritage?
• The ethics of an architect - should he/she agree to make a design if there is doubt, which concerns preservation of the heritage?
• Individual monument and historical tissue of the city - differences in attitudes in preservation.
• Heritage of 20th century architecture - less or more important than previous centuries?

Peter Kudryavtsev, Editor-in-Chief, Building ARX Magazine

Professor Julio César Pérez Hernández, Harvard University Loeb Fellow

Cameron Rashti, Director, Historic Cities Programme, Aga Khan Trust for Culture

Less Does More

OPPORTUNITIES IN THE SUPPLY CHAIN

Demonstrating how intelligent co-operation with product suppliers can achieve more with less

• ‘Dove tailing’ the design, construction and procurement
  processes whilst benefiting from cost savings alongside an increase in quality
• Examining how less transportation can lead to better use of products used in the construction process

James Pickard, Director, Cartwright Pickard Architects

Tim Macfarlane, Structural Engineer, Dewhurst, Macfarlane and Partners

Teddy Cruz, Founder, Estudio Teddy Cruz

Simon Lofts, Director For Business Innovation, Nike

Barcelona now

Young Catalan architects speak about their vision for Barcelona for the next 10 years.

Miquel Lacasta Cordorniu, Architect, Archikubik

Enric Ruiz-Geli, cloud 9

Keynote two – Rafael Viñoly

An international architect whose work ranges from the US to Europe to the Far East.

Category winner presentations

Keynote three – Road to Copenhagen

With the UN Climate Change Conference meeting in Copenhagen in December. Where does the profession stand on the issues that will be discussed at the Conference?

• How do you engineer an urban quarter / plan for rapid growth of a city? Can a city in China or India or Latin America that will undergo rapid 'industrialisation' and growth follow a zero net output model?
• What can governments do for the industry? Is there the will in the governments and infrastructure industries of the developing world to match and follow the example of more progressive countries?
• How could we best make switches from high to low-carbon environments through devolved energy provision and virtuous power sources?
• What is the relationship between architects and engineers, and the way in which planning regimes can work with utility companies to address problems which we know are coming our way.