Existing City / New Resource

 

 

seminario   25 maggio 2016 Badoer, aula Tafuri ore 15.30   nell’ambito della mostra Recycling Seoul: nine projects 25 > 30 maggio 2016 Palazzo Badoer, Venezia

 

intervengono

Aldo Aymonino, Università Iuav di Venezia

Alastair Donald, British Council

Enrico Fontanari, Università Iuav di Venezia

John Hong, Seoul National University

Franco Mancuso, Università Iuav di Venezia

Hyungmin Pai, University of Seoul

Vicky Richardson, British Pavilion

Finn Williams, British Pavilion

Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Princeton University

 

 

 

The Existing City / New Resource Symposium will bring together a renowned group of international scholars and professionals to discuss the salient issue of how our existing cities can be leveraged as a new resource for creative engagement. Even as ‘recycling’ has become a common household phrase, we have only begun to grapple with the concept when applied to the city itself. Terms such as ‘adaptive reuse’ merely point toward a compromised fit of program to an existing building even though the very concept of recycling with its more advanced subsets of ‘upcycling’ and ‘pre-cycling’ are fertile territory for rethinking our cities.

 

The key difference between recycling materials as opposed to urban fabric lies within the notion of space: Where the materials of our everyday life form discrete objects, the existing city is a palimpsest of spatial practices and networks framed by the material itself. In this way, cities such as Seoul, Venice, London, and beyond can become important testing grounds to demonstrate alternatives to urban erasure. Therefore the central question that this symposium poses is: Can our rapidly changing society find a reciprocal host within the diversity of existing urban fabrics so that both city and culture undergo positive transformation?

 

symposium chairs

• Alejandro Zaera-Polo: Co-director, Seoul Biennale 2017; Architect and Professor, Princeton University

• Hyungmin Pai: Co-director, Seoul Biennale 2017; Professor, University of Seoul

 

presenters

• Aldo Aymonino: Architect and Professor, Università Iuav di Venezia

• John Hong: Director of International Studios, Seoul Lab; Professor, Seoul National University

• Finn Williams: Co-curator of the ‘Home Economics’ exhibition for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale

 

panelists

• Franco Mancuso: Architect and Professor, Università Iuav di Venezia

• Enrico Fontanari: Urban Designer and Professor, Università Iuav di Venezia

• Alastair Donald, Program Manager at the British council and Coordinator of the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale

• Vicky Richardson: Commissioner of the ‘Home Economics’ exhibition for the British Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale

 

 

 

The related exhibit of current and future initiatives being undertaken by the Seoul Metropolitan Government will focus on nine projects that exemplify the question of recycling the city. Through a re-conceptualized figure-ground technique, underutilized, infrastructural, or subgrade spaces are shown transformed into alternative public and semi-public realms. Beyond traditional ideas of public squares and boulevards, the exhibit will form a backdrop for the symposium discussion revealing how existing fabrics can be recycled into new forms of urban commons.

 

Seoul mappings

• “Alternative Figures, Future Grounds,” John Hong, professor, Seoul National University

Represented Seoul Projects:

o Mapo Petro Tanks: RoA architects + Team Ten, Seogoo Heo

o Seoul 7017: MVRDV (Winy Maas)

o Sewoon Modern Vernacular: Es_cape architects

o Sejong Underground: Terminal 7 architect

o Community Service Centers

o Guui Basin Happy Housing

o Modular Housing Suseo, DMP partners

o Malli Cooperative Public Housing: EMA architects & associates

o Urban Dwelling Container Housing: UIA architects, Jinbok Wee

 

photography and film

• “SH (Study on Habitability)” Kyungsub Shin, artist

• “Seoul,” Tapio Snellman, filmmaker, artist, and architect

 

 

 

• 15:00 Exhibition Preview

• 15:30 Welcoming Statements: Professor Enrico Fontanari, Università Iuav di Venezia; Professor Alejandro Zaera-Polo, co-director, Seoul Biennale 2017

• 15:45 Presentations and Roundtable Discussions

• 16:30 Overall Panel Discussion

• 17:30 Exhibition Opening

 

 

 

• Università Iuav di Venezia

• British Council

• SH Corporation

• Seoul Metropolitan Government