Page 49 - Norman Foster Foundation Re-materializing Housing Workshop

2021 Re-materializing Housing Workshop
Contents Report
Public Debates
Keynote Presentations: Second Block
Keynote Presentation – Carme Pinós
For the second keynote of the Public Debates’ second block, Carme Pinós addressed the responsibility of architects and designers to build spaces that foster relationships and recognise the history embodied in the built environment. As stated by Pinós, society and architecture are one, and design, therefore, is a social act. Recognising that, through building, nature is very much impacted—if not altogether destroyed— she made the case to the audience that architects and designers must work in dialogue with the natural environment, arriving at a complex synergy that, according to Pinós, is not achieved simply by planting trees along a street, rather through the creation of a new urban model altogether.
Keynote Presentation – Brinda Somaya
In her keynote, Brinda Somaya referenced her conservation of the Louis Kahn complex at the Indian Institute of Management (2014). Her restoration of the dormitories, in particular, which reused the old woodwork in Kahn’s basic plan, embodied the architect’s belief that the complex should foster interaction between students and faculty, and physical connections between space, sound and light. Somaya informed the audience that, since, the Institute has announced the demolishment of several dorms due to structural damage, sparking enormous controversy. Noting the inmeasurable link that we each have to our physical surroundings, Somaya ended by saying that it is up to young designers to decide what to save and what to build anew.
Carme Pinós on-stage at Fundación Francisco Giner de los Rios
Brinda Somaya during her keynote at the Re-materializing Housing Public Debates
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