As the global population continues to grow and the human footprint on earth rapidly expands, the longevity and sustainability of our built environment is called into question. Construction and maintenance of our buildings emit immense CO2, and much architecture is not designed for sustainability. At the same time, shortages and inequalities have made housing increasingly unaffordable, and historical urban design choices have rendered many cities ill-prepared for a sustainable future. Can we build our way out of current crises, or does our planetary health require finding alternatives to new construction?
Come to hear the diverse voices of experts tackling our built environment challenges in theory and practice. Hosted by noted Swiss architect Marc Angélil, this roundtable discussion brings together expertise from academia, non-profit, and public sectors. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes from the Harvard Design School will present the case for a global moratorium on new construction – that we instead work with the buildings we have. Kenzie Bok, a Boston City Councilor, will present her experiences working to create a fair and equitable housing infrastructure in our communities – and the challenges to reaching that goal.
Program
- 5:15 pm – Doors Open
- 5:30 pm – Opening remarks and introductions
- 5:35 pm – Speaker statements
- 5:50 pm – Moderator lead discussion between panelists
- 6:15 pm – Open mic with audience Q&A
- 6:45 pm – Social Reception
- 7:30 pm – Doors Close
Where Do We Go From Here?
It’s 2022, and there’s no going back. Since 2020 the status quo has been shaken. Old assumptions and old norms no longer persist unquestioned. The space to rebuild gives us the room to rethink foundations and rewrite codes. Where do we go from here?
Swissnex in Boston reopens its doors for a new in-person series probing how we can co-create the post-2020 future. Through talks, debates, and open discussions, we’ll test our shifting values, push the edge of what’s possible, and ask how we regain control of planetary systems. And we’ll do it together, in person.
Panelists
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Speaker
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes
Assistant Professor of Urban Design, Harvard Graduate School of DesignCharlotte Malterre-Barthes, most recently a guest professor in the Architecture Department of TU Berlin, directed, managed, and taught the post-graduate Master of Advanced Studies in Urban Design at ETH Zurich from 2014-2019. Charlotte’s teaching and research interests are related to how struggling communities can gain greater access to resources, the mainstream economy, better governance, and ecological/social justice. Her pedagogy is built on a research-based design approach for identifying urgent aspects of contemporary urbanization. She believes that educators and universities have an obligation to be responsive to the challenges of our urbanizing world, equipping young practitioners and researchers with both critical skills and design tools to address them. Charlotte maintains an active feminist practice, engaging in parity & diversity works with the understanding that to be feminist today cannot be understood without intersectionality; the convergence of struggles against sexism, racism, capitalism, and imperialism, as conceptualized by Françoise Vergès. She is also co-founder of OMNIBUS, an urban design laboratory focused on the interdisciplinary exploration of community-building factors in various metropolitan contexts.
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Speaker
Kenzie Bok
Boston City Councilor, District 8, City of BostonKenzie Bok is a lifelong Bostonian who grew up in the small downtown neighborhood of Bay Village. She cares passionately about making Boston a great city for people from all walks of life and all stages of life to flourish and put down roots. With a background in affordable housing, budget analysis, and civic engagement, Councilor Bok was elected to represent District 8 on the Boston City Council in 2019 and was re-elected in 2021. Her district includes Mission Hill, Longwood, Audubon Circle, Fenway, Kenmore, Back Bay, Beacon Hill, and the West End.
In her first term, Councilor Bok served as the Chair of the Council’s Ways & Means Committee and its new PILOT Reform Committee. Now in her second term, Councilor Bok serves as the Chair of Boston’s COVID-19 Recovery Committee and the City Services and Innovation Technology Committee.
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Moderator
Marc Angélil
Professor Emeritus of Architecture and Design, ETH-ZürichMarc Angélil is currently Visiting Professor of Architecture and Urban Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. He is a practicing architect and urban designer at agps architecture, a firm with ateliers in Los Angeles and Zurich. He held the 2021 Kenzo Tange Visiting Professorship in Architecture and Urban Design at Harvard University and is professor emeritus from ETH Zurich, conducting research on social and spatial developments of metropolitan regions worldwide. His most recent publication Mirroring Effects: Tales of Territory, co-written with Cary Siress, explores the socio-spatial impact of development-led urbanization on local habitats in different world regions today. His built projects, done in collaboration with Sarah Graham and Manuel Scholl, include the headquarters extension of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Gland/Geneva, the Children’s Museum of Los Angeles (CMLA), the Portland Aerial Tram Incorporated (PATI) infrastructure project in Portland, Oregon, the Zurich International School (ZIS), and the midfield terminal at the Zurich international Airport (Terminal E). They have received international acclaim, most recently for an off-the-grid ranch in California, including three recognitions from the Los Angeles AIA Chapter. Marc Angélil is a fellow of the Bund Schweizer Architekten (BSA) and a founding member of the Board of the Holcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction.