Lecture Event

And launching event of The Israeli Architect Nili Portugali’s book

In New York City + Boston

*****
Wednesday 29th of October 2008 at 6.00 pm
Boston Society of Architects /AIA, Boston Ma, USA,
52 Broad Street (5 floor)
**
Thursday 30th of October 2008 at 4.00 pm
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge MA, USA
Bldg. 4 room 237 (“Jerusalem seminar”)
**
Monday 3rd of November 2008 at 6:00 pm
New Jersey School of Architecture, New Jersey Institute of Technology, USA
University Heights New Ark NJ
**
Friday 7th of November 2008 at 6.00 pm
Center for Architecture /AIA, New York, NY, USA
536 LaGuardia Place New York

ARCHITECTURE IS MADE FOR PEOPLE
A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture

In this lecture Architect Nili Portugali will present her particular interpretation of the holistic-phenomenological worldview in architecture both in theory and in practice. A humanistic worldview (which she will argue is much beyond the given definition of Sustainable Architecture) which stands in recent years at the forefront of the scientific discourse as a whole in disciplines like cosmology, neurobiology, psychology, particle physics, brain sciences, and recent theories of complexity as well as in convergence with the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy. She will demonstrate how this approach, as well as her unique planning process - methodology stemming from it, were implemented in a selected buildings and projects she designed and built in Israel for more than 30 years. That in respect to the spirit of the place they were planned and built on, an Israeli reality which reflects a unique interface between the orient and the west, a cultural interface Portugali personally represents.

Nili Portugali is a practicing architect working in Israel for more than 30 years, teaching at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology Architecture department, Haifa (until 2006 a senior lecturer at the Bezalel Academy of Art & Design, Architectural Department, Jerusalem).  A seventh generation descendent to of a family living in the Galilee holy city of Safad since the early 19th century .

Her work focuses on both practice and theory, and is tightly connected to the holistic-phenomenological school of thought.

She is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (A.A), London. She did postgraduate studied in Architecture and Buddhism at the University of California in Berkeley, and worked and participated in research with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkeley.

Her firm is involved in a variety of projects in unique areas of historic or environmental sensitivity, in urban design, architecture, landscape design and interior design, disciplines she regards as one continuous system.

She has recently published her new book, which was selected by The Royal Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A) International Book Award among the 24 books of the year 2007.

The Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place
A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture
/Edition Axel Menges, Stuttgart / London 2006
* ‘There is no other book quite like this one, it really is singular and worthy of your close attention’
The Royal Institute of British Architects

‘Portugali’s quiet revolution may be the one that passes the ultimate test of time’
URBAN DESIGN International, Palgrave Macmillan Journal (2007) 12

For more details on Portugali’s work & Book: http://www.niliportugali.com
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