Design After Comfort: Shaping Microclimates For Unpredictable Futures

round table
23 Oct 2022
11.00
MAO and Livestreamed on MAO FB>>

How can physical comfort be achieved when the world is on fire? For decades, people have entrusted their well-being to technology: central heating and air-conditioning have helped regulate the temperature and humidity inside homes, relying on global energy transmission. Today, comfort is in decline, energy supply chains are breaking up, and living conditions are growing increasingly unstable. How can we create agreeable living environments in times of manifold crises? Can vernacular and premodern architecture become a source of inspiration for shaping microclimates in our homes and cities?

The discussion explores the state of design after the end of comfort.

Participants:
Daniel A. Barber, Professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS)
⁠Aleksandra Kędziorek, an architecture historian and curator
⁠Sascha Roesler, Associate Professor for Theory of Urbanization and Urban
Environments at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland
⁠Zala Velkavrh, non-profit urban design studio Prostorož

Curator:
Aleksandra Kędziorek, art and architecture historian, curator and editor

Moderator:
⁠Bor Pungerčič, arhitect, writer and editor

The event is organized by BIO27, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, Poland, and the Pekinpah Association, Slovenia. The event is also a part of expanding the theme of the exhibition “The Clothed Home: Tuning in to the Seasonal Imagination” presented at BIO27 and the upcoming Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022.

The event will be held in English.

At 15.00 you are invited to join us for the last guided tour of BIO27 with Anja Radović, head of BIO, and Nuša Zupanc, BIO27 editor.

Participants:
Daniel A. Barber is Professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). His most recent book is “Modern Architecture and Climate: Design before Air Conditioning”. His 2019 essay “After Comfort” (Log 49, 2019) has been translated into three languages: it is the basis for an exhibition at the 2023 COP meeting in Dubai, and for a forthcoming series of essays and projects on the “e-flux architecture” online platform. Daniel was recently a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies at Universität Heidelberg (CAPAS), and received a 2022-2023 Guggenheim Fellowship for the project Thermal Practices. More at @DanielABarber

Aleksandra Kędziorek is an architecture historian and curator of “The Clothed Home: Tuning in to the Seasonal Imagination” by CENTRALA and Alicja Bielawska, presented within BIO27’s main exhibition “Super Vernaculars”. She has also curated “Oskar Hansen: Open Form” (MACBA in Barcelona, Serralves Museum in Porto, Yale School of Architecture, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, 2014–2017) and “Desk in Exile: A Bauhaus Object Traversing Different Modernities” (Bauhaus Stiftung Dessau, 2016). The next presentation of “The Clothed Home” will be at the 2022 Lisbon Architecture Triennale. More at olakedziorek.com.

Sascha Roesler is an architect and architectural theorist, working at the intersection of architecture, ethnography, and science and technology studies. He is the Associate Professor for Theory of Urbanization and Urban Environments at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio, Switzerland (Università della Svizzera Italiana). He recently published “City, Climate and Architecture. A Theory of Collective Practice” (Birkhäuser, 2022), and co-edited “Coping with Urban Climates. Comparative Perspectives on Architecture and Thermal Governance” (Birkhäuser, 2022) and “The Urban Microclimate as Artifact” (Birkhäuser, 2018). More at roesler.arc.usi.ch.

Zala Velkavrh is a project and communications manager at non-profit urban design studio Prostorož with multi-dimensional approach to the challenges of contemporary urban space by day and freelance editor and writer by night. While pursuing the mission of Prostorož – to create flexible and playful public spaces in dialogue with the residents and the environment – she co-authored awarded projects in the fields of participatory urban planning and graphic design. More at prostoroz.org.

Co-organisers:
Biennial of Design (BIO), Ljubljana
The Slovenian design biennale BIO, the world’s oldest, ranks among the most preeminent international design events in Europe. First held in 1963, it has been hosted by Ljubljana’s Museum of Architecture and Design since 1972. The Biennial of Design is a cultural event that seeks innovative intersections that are ripe for development between architecture and the industrial and academic sectors. BIO’s chosen theme serves as an international platform for new approaches to design that address current burning issues in local and global environments. It is a laboratory and test track where design is viewed as a tool for examining and readdressing everyday life through a multidisciplinary and humanistic lens that reaches through the systems, services, studies, and production apparatus that run our lives, as well as the unexpected conditions involved in effecting any solutions within our living environments. More at bio27.si.

The Adam Mickiewicz Institute
National cultural institution whose mission is to develop and disseminate the cultural dimension of Poland by fostering international collaboration and cultural exchange. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute operates with the support of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. More at iam.pl.

Culture.pl
It is the Institute’s platform providing daily updates on the most pertinent events related to Polish culture across the world. The website is available in three languages: Polish, English and Ukrainian. In addition to news on numerous events organised by the Institute, Culture.pl is a rich source of biographical notes on selected artists, reviews, and essays. More at culture.pl.

Pekinpah Association
Hosting the Institute of Design, home to the Silence band, and representingradical dance artists, the Pekinpah association brings together internationally acclaimed designers, theorists, architects, choreographers, dancers and musicians. Established in 2007, the Ljubljana-based Pekinpah has facilitated artistic, cultural and scientific creation, developed theoretical discourse, as well as organised numerous events and research and education activities. Pekinpah has always aimed at deepening and upgrading these areas of cultural production, while strengthening the theoretical discourse within Pekinpah's spheres of interest. More at pekinpah.com.