Conférence présentée dans le cadre du processus de sélection du poste de professeur.e adjoint.e en architecture.

Abstract: 

Climatic instability, socio-political unrest and a pandemic have sharpened our awareness to the vital need for social and environmental connectedness. How might architecture support this necessity and contribute to societies’ resilience in face of uncertainty? In this talk, Dr. Ariel Genadt reflects on these questions through examples from his architectural practice, research and teaching over the past 25 years, where he has explored various possibilities for constructing a harmonious relationship between buildings and their surrounds. He will unfold the meaning and expression of architectural resilience in the Japanese context, where they have been revisited time and again. Genadt argues that while a balance between rigidity and ductility is key to structural resilience, architecture relies equally on construction and expression. Thus, the manifestations of resilience in architecture have fluctuated between resisting and yielding to environmental forces. The question remains, what kind of architectural expression might be productive for dealing with the current climatic challenges, and how might we harness 21st century construction accordingly?

Short Bio: 

Ariel Genadt is an architect, a lecturer and a scholar. His research focuses on the design and construction of architectural envelopes and their capacity to express cultural and environmental aspects of various places. He also specializes in the history and theory of 20th and 21st-century architecture in Japan. Genadt holds a PhD in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Histories and Theories from the Architectural Association, London and a B.Arch from the Technion, Israel. He has collaborated as an architect on a wide range of buildings, urban design and landscape projects, in Europe, Asia and Africa. Genadt has taught at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design (since 2011), Swarthmore College, and the Technion in Israel. He has conducted research as a JSPS Fellow at the Kengo Kuma Lab at Tokyo University (2012), and as the first visiting scholar at the Fondazione Renzo Piano, Genoa (2013). In 2018 he curated the exhibition: Critical Abstractions - Modern Architecture in Japan 1868-2018, and in 2021 he was Associate Curator and Designer of the exhibition Building in China, at the University of Pennsylvania’s Architectural Archives Gallery. 

Affiche en PDF