Artists: Adrien Tirtiaux, Maarten Delbeke and Mark Jarzombek

Mark Jarzombek, The Kantian City

We think of ourselves as 'moderns,' as pushing the limits of our knowledge and as invigorated by our capacity to rethink and reshape the world. Architecture and urban planning are saturated by a self-promoting culture of optimism. But, were that even partially effective, would not our cities and our buildings be far different (and better)? In a sense, if we think of the future through the lens of 'the today', we are producing a self-limited world. In this talk, I will present the philosophy of Immanuel Kant and speculate on what a Kantian City would look like. The point is to show that if we take philosophy as a design script (with Kant as just one example), we can see modernities that are far different from our own and in this way challenge architecture to expand its vision along different lines.

MATERIAL INTERVENTION

Adrien Tirtiaux, Toujours plus haut

The redistribution of means and search for alternative types of growth are central to the view on architecture and urban planning of Luc Deleu - T.O.P. office. Toujours Plus Haut (2008-2013), a material intervention by Adrien Tirtiaux, critiques the building frenzy under capitalism from a similar angle. The model simulates the rat race towards the highest tower as an endless game of means and goals echoing three distinct yet related fields: the conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s; the architecture historical schemes of Le Corbusier; and the ideological distinction between scientific and "material" thought as described by Claude Lévi-Strauss.

After the lecture by Mark Jarzombek, he and Adrien Tirtiaux will go into conversation with Maarten Delbeke on the work of Tirtiaux.

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Mark Jarzombek (US) is Professor of the History and Theory of Architecture and the Associate Dean of MIT's School of Architecture and Planning. He teaches in the History Theory Criticism program (HTC) of the Department of Architecture. Jarzombek has taught at MIT since 1995, and works on a wide range of historical topics from the Renaissance to the modern. Jarzombek received his architectural Diploma in 1980 from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule and his Ph.D. from MIT in 1986. He was a CASVA fellow (1985), Post-doctoral Resident Fellow at the J. Paul Getty Center for the History of Humanities and Art, Santa Monica, California (1986), a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (1993), at the Canadian Center for Architecture (2001) and at the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (2005). He has worked extensively on nineteenth and twentieth century aesthetics, and the history and theory of architecture. He has published several books including a textbook entitled A Global History of Architecture (Wiley Press, 2006), with co-author Vikram Prakash and illustrator Francis D.K. Ching. He is the author of Architecture of First Societies: A Global Perspective (forthcoming, Wiley Press, 2013).

Adrien Tirtiaux (BE) is an artist based in Antwerp and Vienna. He studied architectural engineering at the UC Louvain-La-Neuve and sculpture and performance at the Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna. In 2010 he co-established the exhibition and residency program HOTEL CHARLEROI, which explores the city of Charleroi as a relic of modern and industrial culture. Recent exhibitions include: Malmö Konsthal, Malmö (2013); Wiels, Brussels (2013); BOZAR, Brussels (2013); Lokaal 01, Antwerp (2013); Villa Merkel, Esslingen am Neckar (2012, solo); Stroom Den Haag, The Hague (2012); Kunst Halle Sankt Gallen (2011); Secession, Vienna (2010); Manifesta 7 (2008).

Free entrance. Registration is appreciated: [email protected]

Language English