School Lecture Series: Menna Agha, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes / EPFL Architecture
Event details
| Date | 15.04.2025 |
| Hour | 18:30 › 20:00 |
| Speaker | Menna Agha, Charlotte Malterre-Barthes |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
MENNA AGHA, CHARLOTTE MALTERRE-BARTHES
"A Moratorium on New Construction" Book Launch & Talk
To mark the launch of the long-awaited book A Moratorium on New Construction (Sternberg Press & MIT Press), architect-researcher Menna Agha joins author Charlotte Malterre-Barthes to challenge architecture's addiction to construction and explore alternatives. Together, they'll tackle the thorny question of how a field built on material extraction can transform itself, the massive value shift it requires, and what we might gain by not building, building less, building with what is there, and caring for it.
Menna Agha is an Assistant Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism (University of Ottawa, Ca.) and an architect-researcher whose work examines the intersections of spatial justice, race, and gender. Previously leading the spatial justice agenda at the Flanders Architecture Institute in Belgium, she is cross-appointed at Carleton University's Institute for African Studies. Her perspective as a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian deeply informs her research on space, territory, and displacement. Dr. Agha holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp and previously served as the Spatial Justice Fellow at the University of Oregon.
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL, where she leads the laboratory RIOT. Most recently Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Malterre-Barthes conducts research on contemporary urbanization, material extraction, climate emergency, and ecological/social justice. She holds a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich on the political economy of commodities in the built environment and is the co-author of several prize-winning books.
This lecture is part of the school lecture series
HOUSING VOL.2 - Housing and Reuse
Reuse of existing buildings is increasingly becoming a good practice. Yet, reuse is easier said than done. Within a capitalist society, buildings are produced as commodities and, as such, they are not meant to last. Moreover, what is at stake within reuse is not simply the reuse of buildings per se, but the whole process of building production behind each architectural project.
This lecture series explores projects of reuse in which former offices, factories, or houses are transformed or expanded as residential spaces. Each lecture will focus on one building in order to shed light not only on the advantages of reuse but also on its limits and challenges. The lecture series will be complemented by the launch of Professor Charlotte Malterre-Barthes’s A "Moratorium on New Construction".
"A Moratorium on New Construction" Book Launch & Talk
To mark the launch of the long-awaited book A Moratorium on New Construction (Sternberg Press & MIT Press), architect-researcher Menna Agha joins author Charlotte Malterre-Barthes to challenge architecture's addiction to construction and explore alternatives. Together, they'll tackle the thorny question of how a field built on material extraction can transform itself, the massive value shift it requires, and what we might gain by not building, building less, building with what is there, and caring for it.
Menna Agha is an Assistant Professor at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism (University of Ottawa, Ca.) and an architect-researcher whose work examines the intersections of spatial justice, race, and gender. Previously leading the spatial justice agenda at the Flanders Architecture Institute in Belgium, she is cross-appointed at Carleton University's Institute for African Studies. Her perspective as a third-generation displaced Fadicha Nubian deeply informs her research on space, territory, and displacement. Dr. Agha holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Antwerp and previously served as the Spatial Justice Fellow at the University of Oregon.
Charlotte Malterre-Barthes is an architect, urban designer, and Assistant Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology—EPFL, where she leads the laboratory RIOT. Most recently Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Malterre-Barthes conducts research on contemporary urbanization, material extraction, climate emergency, and ecological/social justice. She holds a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich on the political economy of commodities in the built environment and is the co-author of several prize-winning books.
This lecture is part of the school lecture series
HOUSING VOL.2 - Housing and Reuse
Reuse of existing buildings is increasingly becoming a good practice. Yet, reuse is easier said than done. Within a capitalist society, buildings are produced as commodities and, as such, they are not meant to last. Moreover, what is at stake within reuse is not simply the reuse of buildings per se, but the whole process of building production behind each architectural project.
This lecture series explores projects of reuse in which former offices, factories, or houses are transformed or expanded as residential spaces. Each lecture will focus on one building in order to shed light not only on the advantages of reuse but also on its limits and challenges. The lecture series will be complemented by the launch of Professor Charlotte Malterre-Barthes’s A "Moratorium on New Construction".
Practical information
- General public
- Free