International conference
ETH Zurich, November 24th–26th, 2009

Call for contributions

Organizers:

• Prof. Dr. Ákos Moravánszky, Chair for Architecture Theory, Institute GTA, Department of Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich
• Prof. Dr. Christian Schmid, Lectureship of Sociology, Department of Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich
• Dr. Lukasz Stanek, Chair for Architecture Theory, Institute GTA, Department of Architecture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH), Zurich

Partners:

• Prof. Dr. Arie Graafland, director, Delft School of Design (DSD), Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology
• Academie Jan van Eyck, Maastricht

Concept

This interdisciplinary conference is organized by the Chair of Architecture Theory and the Lectureship of Sociology at the Department of Architecture ETH Zurich, in cooperation with the Delft School of Design at the Delft University of Technology and the Academie Jan van Eyck. It addresses contemporary processes of urbanization by focusing on the theory of production of space by the French philosopher Henri Lefebvre (1901 – 1991).

Lefebvre’s theory of space as socially produced and productive in social practices is currently rediscovered by architects and social scientists as a broad framework for an understanding of the contemporary processes of urbanization. This conference brings together recent applications of Lefebvre’s theory in architecture, urban design, and social sciences in order to go beyond this theory and to conceive new analytical concepts and design tools in response to the emerging urban society.

Motivation

This conference is a decisive step in a long-term international project focused on the application and further development of Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space in today’s empirical urban research and design. This project started by bringing together theoretical and empirical studies, based on Lefebvre’s theory, which have been carried out recently both at the ETH Zurich and the TU Delft.

Delft symposium

The first result of the collaboration between ETH Zurich and the TU Delft was the symposium “Rethinking Theory, Space and Production: Henri Lefebvre Today” (Delft, November 11 – 13, 2008). The symposium in Delft attracted a lot of international attention from scholars and practicing architects. Around hundred participants attended the symposium, which gathered for the first time the most important researchers working on Lefebvre’s theory from different scientific cultures and disciplines. The symposium revealed a potential of Lefebvre’s theory to become a general theoretical framework for researchers investigating contemporary processes of urbanization in architecture, urbanism, sociology, geography, political sciences, and anthropology.

Zurich conference: call for contributions

Encouraged by the Delft symposium, the conference in Zurich will advance Lefebvre’s theory beyond its historical context. The conference is addressed both to participants of the Delft symposium and to other scholars and practitioners working with Lefebvre’s theory. The organizers invite proposals for papers which develop Lefebvre’s theory by sharpening its analytical concepts in response to today’s processes of urbanization and by conceiving new design tools for urbanism and architecture.

Possible topics of contributions include, but are not limited to:

• Urban research and architecture: appropriation and critique
• No-place for utopia? Art and architecture beyond 1968
• The everyday and its projects
• The “Right to the City” and the contemporary urban condition
• Global urbanization in comparative perspective

Each presentation should take 25 minutes and be presented in English.

Please send an abstract of up to 300 words and a curriculum vitae of up to 150 words to info@henrilefebvre.org

Abstracts can be submitted until June 30th, 2009. The selected participants will be informed by July 15th.

Limited number of travel allowances might be available for successful applicants. 

For more details, updates and inquires, please visit the web-page of the conference at: www.henrilefebvre.org