Derivas: “The reactivation of the travel diary and the fight for the right to walk”, Tuesday, March 3, 18:30, M416, Marylebone Campus

When: Tuesday, 3rd of March, 18:30-20:00

Where: M416 (Robin Evans Room), Marylebone Campus, University of Westminster, NW1 5LS

Derivas recovers the importance of walking as a research and learning tool. However, it is in the exploration of different methodologies and ways of walking where another possibility underlies, that of reconquering the world by moving our bodies through space, by practicing such an ancient performance that will allow us to recover rights that have been taken away by modern cities or that we did not even know we had: the right to the city, the right to nature, the right to beauty, the right to travel, the right to loiter…

What other rights can we regain as we walk? What new/other opportunities will London offer us if we physically walk around it and in and out of it?

Ximena and Francisco will then be leading ten days of walks/explorations across London: you are welcome to be involved.

Nibbles & drinks from 18:00

Biography

Dérive LAB is a multidisciplinary laboratory founded by Ximena Ocampo and Francisco Paillie based in Latin America, that seeks to explore, understand and inspire other (new) ways of living and thinking about life in the City. Through research, design and action, they develop projects with impact on three specific scales: public life, the built environment and everyday objects.

Ximena Ocampo is an architect graduated from Tec de Monterrey, she holds an MSc in City Design and Social Science from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). She worked as an urban designer at WRI Mexico, and later founded dérive LAB, where she currently leads different projects with a focus on public space, active mobility and, in general, the relationship between people and space.

Francisco Paillie is a psychologist graduated from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, he later studied an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He was Leader of Social Participation of the Territorialization Strategy of the City Prosperity Index (CPI), implemented by UN Habitat in Querétaro (MEX). In 2013 he founded dérive LAB, where he works to date as project manager focusing on public space, active mobility and, in general, the relationship between space and psychology.

To register for this event please go here.

“The Social (Re)Production of Architecture” Book Launch – Thursday 1st March, 6.30pm, Central St Martins

An evening symposium celebrating the launch of The Social (Re)Production of Architecture co-edited by Doina Petrescu and Kim Trogal will take place on Thursday, 1st March.

MArch DS22 studio leaders and tutors Yara Sharif and Nasser Golzari will present their contribution to the book followed by discussion.

When: 1st March 2018,  6.30pm

Where: LVMH Lecture Theatre, Central St Martins, Granary Building, 1 Granary Sq, London N1C 4AA

RSVP: The event is free no RSVP is needed, however seats can be reserved via Eventbrite, doors open at 6.15PM

Speakers include:

  • Doina Petrescu & Kim Trogal (Editors) – Introduction to The Social (Re)Production of Architecture;
  • Kathrin Böhm & Michale Smythe – Phytology National Park: strategies to keep public spaces complex;
  • Helge Moohshammer & Peter Mortenbock – Tent Cities, peoples kitchens, free universities: The global villages of occupation movements;
  • Yara Sharif & Nasser Golzari – Cultivating spatial possibilities in Palestine: searching for sub/urban bridges in Beit Iksa, Jerusalem;
  • Rory Hyde – Ways to be public

The Social (Re)Production of Architecture brings the debates of the ‘right to the city’ into today’s context of ecological, economic and social crises. Building on the 1970s’ discussions about the ‘production of space’, which French sociologist Henri Lefebvre considered a civic right, the authors question who has the right to make space, and explore the kinds of relations that are produced in the process. In the emerging post-capitalist era, this book addresses urgent social and ecological imperatives for change and opens up questions around architecture’s engagement with new forms of organisation and practice. The book asks what (new) kinds of ‘social’ can architecture (re)produce, and what kinds of politics, values and actions are needed.

The symposium will be followed by drinks.