Lecture by Lucia Allais

e-flux Architecure presents “The Protective Matrix: Sandbags, Monuments, and Law in the Twentieth Century,” a lecture by Lucia Allais at e-flux on Thursday, May 4 at 7pm.

A remarkable protective architecture was invented over the course of the twentieth century: the international practice of covering monumental structures with lattices of sandbags. The lecture traces the evolving legal and technical justifications that were given for these structures, including in debates about the “humanization of war” at the League of Nations, ultimately proposing to detect a distinct spectrum of aesthetic ideologies behind this protective matrix. 

Lucia Allais is an architectural historian who writes about design, politics, and technology in the modern period and on the global stage. Her first book, Designs of Destruction: the Making of Monuments in the Twentieth Century, was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2018. She has written numerous articles about the history of architectural knowledge, including “The Real and the Theoretical, 1968” and “Rendering: On Experience and Experiments.” Most recently, she co-authored, with Forrest Meggers, a critical history of the carbonation equation for reinforced concrete, titled “Concrete is 100 years Old.” Allais is Associate Professor of Architecture at Columbia University, the Director of the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture, a member of the Aggregate Architectural History Collaborative, and an editor of the journal Grey Room.

“The Protective Matrix” is presented as part of e-flux Architecture Lectures, a monthly series inviting researchers and practitioners to discuss timely issues in contemporary architecture, theory, culture, and technology.

For more information, contact program [​at​] e-flux.com.

Accessibility                  
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.       
–For elevator access, please RSVP to program [​at​] e-flux.com. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.                
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the event space and this bathroom.

*Image above: Municipal workers finish covering a statue of Italian poet and philosopher Dante Alighieri, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, March 23, 2022 (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda).