Solid States - Changing Time for Concrete

Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) along with its Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science will bring together leading architects, engineers and scholars for Solid States: Changing Time for Concrete from October 1-3. The conference aims to unleash new understandings of this globally pervasive yet ever-evolving material. The list of over 30 notable speakers includes Columbia professors: Michael Bell, Kenneth Frampton, Laurie Hawkinson, Steven Holl, Reinhold Martin, Kate Orff, Bernard Tschumi and Mark Wigley and Mabel Wilson among others. Some of the wide range of international participants include: Jean-Louis Cohen, Professor, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University; Preston Scott Cohen, Chair of Architecture, Harvard GSD; Jesse Reiser, Professor, Princeton’s School of Architecture; Qingyun Ma, Dean, USC School of Architecture; Jacques Ferrier, Architect, Paris; Fernando Menis, Architect, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Werner Sobek, Engineer, Stuttgart; Toshiko Mori, Architect, New York; Matthias Schuler, Engineer, Stuttgart and Carlos Eduardo Comas, Architect, Porto Alegre. Solid States is the second in a multi-year series of conferences on architecture, engineering and materials organized by GSAPP and chaired by Michael Bell. In Fall of 2008 GSAPP will simultaneously launch Engineered Transparency (Princeton Architectural Press)— a book based on the first conference held in October of 2007 at Columbia. The GSAPP intends to explore the dramatically changing limits and applications of known and new materials with an explicit concern for the roles of new materials and practices in an era of rapid urbanization. As unprecedented methods of technical measurement, coordination and production become commonplace, the boundaries between professional disciplines become increasingly blurry. The upcoming conference will investigate the differences between materials science, engineering and design by mobilizing symposia, studios, exhibitions, books and films in an intensely focused investigation. Concrete is entering a renewed era of development with worldwide implications under new economic circumstances. Many questions will be explored at the conference, including: What are the futures of concrete in architecture and engineering in terms of technologies of reinforcement, materials science, emerging markets and capitalization, geographic production, installation and environmental impact? Where will innovation happen and what will instigate potentials in design and engineering? To learn more, view the full list of participants and to reserve seating, visit www.arch.columbia.edu/solidstates. Solid States is made possible with support from Lafarge www.lafarge.com