ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference
Jun
24
to Jun 26

ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference

The ACSA/EAAE Teachers Conference will be held at Pratt Institute in Summer 2021. Not all 1.5°C global heating scenarios are created equal. From the current ecogenocide of the global south to the 2020 Gini Index of global inequality, the climate crisis is an urgent one of development, equity, and justice. The construction industry is responsible for 40% of global carbon emissions and architecture and other design professions have willingly, or unwillingly, sided with an uneven development that has consequences expanding from food insecurity and nutrient deficiency to imposed displacement due to collapsing ecosystems. Countries and communities that are least responsible are feeling the impact of the decisions made on the opposite side of the world ‐ a trend which will exacerbate in the future as new portions of our shared earth industrialize. As we move out of our current global health emergency and confront the next very real crisis of climate alteration, should architecture’s agenda be to rally forth in action, or can architecture construct a new type of agency in the processes of inaction? It could be argued that inaction in one field can allow for new actions to be taken in other fields and disciplines. The international lockdown, brought forth by our shared global pandemic, has allowed us to witness the effects of a pause on carbon emissions – how do we use this opportunity to not return to business as usual, but instead inform a new normal of climate order? As design educators, we must think critically about the role that the next generation of global architects will play in addressing the inequalities to which architecture as a profession contributes. Our considerations need to range across the atomization of all of our material acts ‐ at the scale of the detail, material specification, building form as well as the design of cities and regions. It is imperative that we as professional educators recognize our epoch of the anthropocene and act as agents on behalf of the globe and its citizens.

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Fruiting Bodies at The Nature of Cities Festival
Feb
26
10:00 AM10:00

Fruiting Bodies at The Nature of Cities Festival

IE is presenting a collaborative workshop at the Nature of Cities Festival! Come join us to discuss our project on the PawPaw Tree.

This workshop is an interactive conversation exploring the conviction that the urban landscape be shaped by an engagement with a varied public in participatory rituals of cultivation and care, rather than minimal maintenance protocols and efficiency. The distinctive pawpaw tree, its history, growing conditions and physicality, serve as a catalyst for discussion. Fruiting Bodies seeks to demonstrate the viability of fruiting trees in the public realm, to make evident their many benefits, including their potential to engender a new participatory logic and to counter modernist, masculine ideals of the tidy city.

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Green Week
Apr
19
to Apr 26

Green Week

This year, Pratt’s 15th Annual Green Week aligns with the 50th Annual Earth Day Initiatives starting April 19, 2020. We are excited to share work from the School of Architecture, Art, Design, Foundation, and Continuing and Professional Studies to celebrate how Pratt faculty and students have integrated sustainability in their classes.

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