With the help of the Cejas Foundation Grant, the FIU Department of Architecture will host the Cejas Symposium Building 2050: Americas League International Architecture Summit (ALIAS) on March 20-21. The summit is co-chaired by Nick Gelpi (Assistant Professor) and Winifred E. Newman (Associate Professor and Director of Advanced Studies).
Rising tides, changing climates, and population growth predict broad change for architecture and its context. The projected population of the Americas by 2050 is 1.3 billion, close to 11% of a projected total world population of 9 billion. The population of Latin America alone will exceed Europe. The United Nations’ population growth estimates also predict a significant influx of net international migration for the Americas.
ALIAS stems from the desire to shape this growth. The symposium’s concept is the beginning of an international coalition of architects, planners, designers, researchers, and educators united to examine the future of our shared interest in the built environments in the North and South American continents, the Caribbean, and Oceania. Miami is the gateway between the North and South Americas and an appropriate juncture for ALIAS. By way of foregrounding current practices in the many countries of South America, this first conference focuses on recent buildings in Latin America.
From deconstruction to fabrication, computing to coding, it is time to consider what new tools, new ways of making, or new modes of thinking (e.g., research, collaborative practice) will shape how we enact architecture by 2050.
The emphasis for the first meeting is on new concepts in building. For the inaugural summit, four significant new buildings built in the Americas in the last twenty years have been selected for examination and discussion.
This one-day summit invites discussion to unfold around the four buildings and the practices they represent. These projects will act as primers for discussion, allowing us to situate our discourse within concrete examples of building while also giving us a platform from which to question our own tendencies moving into the future.
The conference is specifically focused on buildings themselves, represented by the collaborative teams responsible for their construction. Whenever possible, architects, engineers, consultants, or clients will accompany these buildings to speak to their collaborative models of future possibility.
What are some of the educational, practical and constructive possibilities that will shape how we define, teach and practice architecture by the year 2050, and what are their examples today? What could we do today to take advantage of emerging technologies, ideas, or educational tools? Our best-laid plans can also capsize and pull us under, so we must also ask what could make them turn negatively. The future is now – the question is how.
Building 2050: Americas League International Architecture Summit (ALIAS) will start with a welcome reception on Friday, March 20th, 2015 at 5PM at the National YoungArts Foundation (Bacardi Building): 2100 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33131.
The summit will take place on Saturday, March 21st, 2015 at 9:30AM at the College of Architecture + The Arts | Miami Beach Urban Studios: 420 Lincoln Road, Suite 440, Miami Beach, FL.
Follow FIU Architecture on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
The School of Architecture is composed of three closely aligned departments: Architecture, Interior Architecture, and Landscape Architecture. Jointly headed by the three department chairs, the School of Architecture provides a rich and diverse platform for interdisciplinary activities at the curricular and research levels.
No Comments
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.