The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture of The Cooper Union Spring 2021 Lecture Series and Exhibitions
January 26–April 27, 2021, 6:30pm
In 2017, Bruno Latour claimed climate change, social inequality, and economic deregulation to be indivisible and intertwining problems, and envisioned the materialization of these three factors as a landing process down to earth. Perhaps we are amid this landing today.
Although there is little concrete evidence that directly links COVID-19 to the environmental degradation of natural habitats, the privileged logic of unaffectedness that has propped up such acts of ignorant denial is severely damaged. In our world, there is no place of escape. The age of extinction is also a telling blow to the denial of “climate” in a broader sense, as a material condition that impacts all human and non-human beings. In light of this sense of endangerment, it becomes manifest that in the greater planetary scale, we are the expendable ones; not the Earth. Borders loom as the weakened fantasies of nation-states to withhold sovereignty; a sovereignty that is detached from the water and the air that subjects breathe and drink, and from the materiality of their bodies in how they encounter the physical world.
The Cooper Union 2020-2021 lecture series will explore the role of architecture and urbanism within the context of interconnected global crises: the climate emergency, the public health crisis, and social inequity. In this context, we will investigate how architecture constructs, distributes, and leverages power, as well as how spaces are shaped by larger political agendas that unequivocally involve questions of race, gender, body politics, and biopolitics. The overall aim is to question and assume responsibility for architecture’s political, ecological, and social agency.
All programs are free, online, and open to the public. Find more details and register in advance.
Spring 2021 Lectures and Exhibitions: Landing: Architecture in the Age of Extinction, Entanglements, and Other Bodies
January 26, 6:30pm EST | Visiting Lecture
Julia Watson: Design by Radical Indigenism
Moderated by Elisa Iturbe
February 2, 6:30pm EST | The Fariba Tehrani Lecture
Beatriz Colomina: Sick Architecture
With a response by Anthony Vidler, moderated by Ivan Lopez-Munuera
February 4–March 12 | Exhibition
The Waltemath Foundation
February 9, 12-2pm EDT | The Scheidegger Keller Lecture
Atelier Scheidegger Keller (Jürg Keller and Christian Scheidegger): Spaces for Living
Moderated by Nader Tehrani and Nima Javidi
Co-presented with the Consulate General of Switzerland in New York
February 16, 12-2pm EST | Visiting Lecture
Lateral Office (Mason White and Lola Sheppard): Piles, Drifts, Freezers, and Icebreakers
Moderated by Lydia Kallipoliti
February 17, 6:30pm EST | Exhibition Opening
A World of Many Worlds: Opening Reception and Project Presentation
Graduate Architecture Thesis Exhibition
February 17–March 12 | Exhibition
A World of Many Worlds: Graduate Architecture Thesis
February 17–March 12 | Exhibition
The Pullman Porters
February 27, 10am-4pm EST | Workshop
Anti-Racism in Thesis
Organized by Nora Akawi and Master of Science in Architecture Students
March 2, 12-2pm EST | Visiting Lecture
Nerea Calvillo: Feminist Sensing Landing in Aeropolis
Moderated by Benjamin Aranda
March 9, 12-2pm EST | Entanglements
Robert Charles Johnson: Fatconomy and the Material Underground: Consume, Waste, Harvest, Produce
In conversation with Austin Wade Smith
Moderated by Areti Markopoulou and Lydia Kallipoliti
March 15–April 23 | Exhibition
John S. Chase – The Chase Residence
March 25, 6:30pm EDT | Exhibition Lecture
David Heymann: A Building You Should Know: The John S. Chase Residence
Moderated by Nader Tehrani
March 29–May 7 | Exhibition
Monuments Rise / Monuments Fall
March 29–May 7 | Exhibition
Margaret Morton Remembered
March 30, 12-2pm EDT | The Eleanore Pettersen Lecture
Lesley Lokko: This Fragile Condition
Moderated by Nader Tehrani
Co-presented with The Architectural League of New York
April 6, 6:30pm EDT | Visiting Lecture
Tei Carpenter (Agency-Agency): Lively Things
Moderated by Daisy Ames
April 13, 12-2pm EDT | Visiting Lecture
Gary Bates (Space Group): Spaceman
Moderated by Nader Tehrani and Hayley Eber
April 26–June 4 | Exhibition
Stanley Prowler: Brazil, Spain, and Portugal
April 27, 12-2pm EDT | Entanglements
Samia Henni: Sahara Testing
In conversation with Nora Akawi
Moderated by Tamar Zinguer
