Nature-Culture-Sustainability/
Neil Brenner, Professor of Urban Theory, The Graduate School of Design, Harvard University
April 3rd BEB 6.30pm
"Is the World Urban? Thinking Planetary Urbanism
Neil
Brenner is one of the most cited urban theorists in the world and key
point of reference now for contemporary architecture, design and urban
planning.In this lecture, Brenner will explore some of the problems with
the literature on the urban age and excavates Henri Lefebvre’s
notion of generalised urbanisation for insights into the emergent
planetary urban condition. He argues that the geographies of
urbanization can no longer be conceptualized only with reference to
cities, megacities or metropolitan regions, but today encompass diverse
patterns and pathways of land-use intensification and infrastructural
development across the planetary landscape, from Manhattan to the
Matterhorn, from the Pearl River Delta to Mount Everest, from the Nile
River valley to the Pacific Ocean. This variegated urban fabric must
become a central focal point for new approaches to urban theory,
strategies of collective intervention and design imaginaries.