ACTIONING SUMMITS

We have to discuss the “how.” Whereas there is a broad understanding of the need to reset a world built on violence and extractivism to one based on relations of fair coexistence and mutual care, how to action this reset through the built environment remains under accounted. There is an urgency to acknowledging and reflecting on what specific practices, knowledges, design strategies, tools, and processes contribute to this intellectual and ethical engagement. “How can they be enacted as a material, social, ecosystemic, disciplinary, and professional reality?”, “How is this paradigm change being actioned?”, and “What are the specific methodologies to reworld our planet in connection with critical sensitivities of inclusivity?” are vital questions in order to move towards fair possible futures. 

Claiming the inseparability of discourse, practice, and activism, Columbia GSAPP  announces the launch of eight ACTIONING SUMMITS: an unprecedented effort to affirm how architecture, planning, development, and preservation are anticipating desirable and alternative futures. Designs, processes, practices, and professions are sites for change. Inherited forms of intervening in the built environment are readily replaced by a vibrant ecosystem of “ways of doing” that demands attention and actioning. During a period of eight months, these summits will convene activists, architects, artists, designers, developers, ethnographers, historians, planners, policymakers, politicians, thinkers, and community organizers from around the world to address together eight crucial methodological shifts in the way the disciplines of the built environment (architecture, computational design, development, historic preservation, urban design, and urban planning) operate and collaborate with each other. 

Participants will include Anna Tsing, Ada Colau, Mabel Wilson, James Bridle, Carles Baiges, Marjetica Potrč, Elizabeth Povinelli, Joseph Zeal Henry, Philippe Rahm, Paulo Tavares, Marisol de la Cadena, Barika Williams, David Benjamin, Aimi Hamraie, Albena Yaneva, Hilary Sample, Snoweria Zhang, Laura Kurgan, David Gissen, Michael Wang, Alejandro Echeverri, Supawut Boonmahathanakorn, Mehrdad Mahoutian, Michael Marder, Juan Herreros, Ziad Jamaleddine, Lydia Kallipoliti, Kaja Kühl, Edmund Asiedu, Erica Avrami, Michael Bell, Lola Ben-Alon, Lindy Roy, Lydia Chilton, Seth Cluett, Renato Cymbalista, Anthony Vanky, Ignacio G. Galán, Catherine Griffiths, Mark Hansen, Adam Lubinsky, Tom Slater, William Martin, Alysson Martinez, Na’Im Merchant, Christopher Munsell, Chelina Odbert, Marina Otero, Karla Rothstein, Dan Taeyoung, Laura Tripaldi, Adam Vosburgh, Violet Whitney, and additional guests.

We will ask: How to work collectively now (in cases of community engagement) / How to speed up the response to urgent crises (in facing the eviction and housing crisis) / How to connect local-AI with local knowledge / How to scale up (to make carbon sequestration impactful) / How to think through/as more-than-human intelligence / How to bring science, spirituality, and politics together (acknowledging indigenous knowledge) / How to project disability forward / How to repair

The summits will offer a space and opportunity to situate specialized knowledge within specific histories and contexts. During the ACTIONING SUMMIT, participants will discuss a concrete methodological shift elaborated through the tools, practices, protocols, and forms of engagement that have unfolded as part of specific projects or processes they have actively participated in. 

Please visit GSAPP’s event calendar (times noted in Eastern Time) to learn more about each ACTIONING SUMMIT. All summits will be livestreamed on GSAPP’s YouTube channel. To receive updates, readings, and reminders please sign up using this form. 

The ACTIONING SUMMIT are curated by Andrés Jaque, Dean, and Bart-Jan Polman, Director of Exhibitions and Public Programming and Curator of the Arthur Ross Architecture Gallery. 

The full list of sessions
ACTIONING SUMMIT I: How to work collectively now (in cases of community engagement)
Monday, September 9, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

Supawut Boonmahathanakorn (Jai Baan Studio/Community Architects Network), Alejandro Echeverri (URBAM/TEC Monterrey), Alysson Martinez (Brooklyn Level Up), Chelina Odbert (Kounkuey Design Initiative). With interventions by Erica Avrami (GSAPP), Joseph Zeal Henry (GSAPP, Sound Advice), Kaja Kuehl (GSAPP, youarethecity).

ACTIONING SUMMIT II: How to speed up the response to urgent crises (in facing the eviction and housing crisis)
Monday, September 30, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

Carles Baiges (Lacol), Ada Colau, Renato Cymbalista (FICA), Barika Williams (ANHD). With interventions by Juan Herreros (GSAPP, estudio Herreros), Adam Lubinsky (GSAPP, WXY), Hilary Sample (GSAPP, MOS), and Tom Slater (GSAPP). 

ACTIONING SUMMIT III: How to connect local-AI with local knowledge 
Day-long conference organized by the AI Activation Network with the M.S. Computational Design Practices program, Friday, November 1, 9am–5pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

With David Benjamin (GSAPP, The Living), Lydia Chilton (Columbia Engineering), Catherine Griffiths (GSAPP), Seth Cluett (Columbia Computer Music Center), Violet Whitney + William Martin (GSAPP, Spatial Pixel), Dan Taeyoung (GSAPP), Anthony Vanky (GSAPP), Christopher Munsell (GSAPP), Snoweria Zhang (GSAPP, Google Delve), and more to follow. Responses by Mark Hansen (Brown Institute), Laura Kurgan (GSAPP) and Adam Vosburgh (GSAPP).

ACTIONING SUMMIT IV: How to scale up (to make carbon sequestration impactful)
Monday, November 11, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

David Benjamin (GSAPP, The Living), Mehrdad Mahoutian (Carbicrete), Na’im Merchant (Carbon Removal Canada), Albena Yaneva (GSAPP, University of Manchester). With interventions by: Lola Ben-Alon (GSAPP), Michael Bell (GSAPP, Bell Seong Architecture), Lydia Kallipoliti (GSAPP, ANAcycle), and Philippe Rahm (GSAPP, Philippe Rahm architectes).

ACTIONING SUMMIT V: How to think through/as more-than-human intelligence
Monday, January 27, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

Michael Marder (UPV/EHU), Laura Tripaldi (NYU Shanghai), Anna Tsing (UC Santa Cruz). With interventions by: Catherine Griffiths (GSAPP, Catherine Griffiths), Marina Otero (GSAPP), Lindy Roy (GSAPP, Roy Projects), Anthony Vanky (GSAPP), Michael Wang (GSAPP).

ACTIONING SUMMIT VI: How to bring science, spirituality, and politics together (acknowledging indigenous knowledge)
Monday, February 17, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

Marisol de la Cadena (UC Davis), Elizabeth Povinelli (Columbia Department of Anthropology). With interventions by: Ziad Jamalledine (GSAPP, L.E.FT); Karla Rothstein (GSAPP, Latent), and additional guests.

ACTIONING SUMMIT VII: How to project disability forward
Thursday, March 27, 6:10pm, Location to follow

The session is co-curated with Ignacio G. Galán. With Edmund Asiedu (DOT), Ignacio G. Galán (Barnard College, Columbia University), David Gissen (Parsons/The New School), and Aimi Hamraie (Vanderbilt). 

ACTIONING SUMMIT VIII: How to repair
Monday, April 7, 6:10pm, Wood Auditorium, Columbia GSAPP

With Marjetica Potrč, Paulo Tavares (autonoma, University of Brasília), Mabel Wilson (GSAPP, AAADS), and additional guests.