Rethinking Urban Materiality: Time as a Resource - The Bartlett International Lectures

About

Streamed live on The Bartlett School of Architecture's YouTube channel, this event will be a discussion between hosts Julia Backhaus and Marjan Colletti, student co-hosts Ernest Chin and Carolina Mondragon-Bayarri, and speaker Anupama Kundoo. 

This event forms part of The Bartlett International Lectures Spring 2022.

This spring, each of the International Lectures will be curated by one of the school's programmes to inspire, invent, imagine, and provoke. This event is curated by Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2).

Abstract

Rethinking Urban Materiality: Time as a Resource

Our built environment is the physical stage on which all human stories are lived out. This physical stage is the historical and ongoing manifestation of human imagination operating within real (or, imaginary!) constraints. Anupama Kundoo advances the idea that architectural imagination must transcend design and enter the realms of materials science and economics where some of the bigger questions reside. She will discuss the thrust of her inquiries which have been to find practical ways to fulfill the universal human aspiration for refuge, purpose, and social engagement through extensive material research and experimentation. She will discuss 'Human Time as a Resource' in the quest for new materiality and critically examine the way the time value of money has nudged us towards code-based design and the industrialised production of building components and, sometimes, even entire buildings themselves. She will discuss materiality and consumption of finite natural resources alongside their impact on human wellbeing and human resourcefulness.

Speaker biography

Anupama Kundoo graduated from University of Mumbai in 1989 and received her PhD degree from TU Berlin in 2008. Her research-oriented practice has generated people-centric architecture based on spatial and material research into low environmental impact building that is socio-economically beneficial. Her body of work was recently exhibited as a solo show 'Taking Time' at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark till 16 May 2021. She has taught Architecture and Urban Management at various international universities, strengthening her expertise in rapid urbanisation and climate change-related development issues, and was the Davenport Visiting Professor at Yale University in Spring 2020. She is currently Professor at Potsdam School of Architecture, Germany. She is the recipient of the 2021 RIBA Charles Jencks award for her contribution to architectural theory and the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for architectural technology.

Image: 2000 WallHouse - photo by Javier Callejas