DeCoding Asian Urbanism

The symposium on DeCoding Asian Urbanism explores the current discourse and creation of innovative architecture and urban interventions that are effectively transforming the spatial and operational landscape of the complex Asian city. The focus is to highlight efforts that strategically embrace the rapid growth and the cultural and physical complexity of the built environment in Asia. The symposium builds on an exhibition at the A+D Architecture +Design Museum>Los Angeles, curated by Kenneth Frampton, Ken Yeang and Farooq Ameen. The comprehensive effort including the exhibition, this symposium and accompanying publication stimulates a dialogue between designers, policy makers and public officials who are shaping the Asian city today.

Friday October 28, 2016

09:00 Introduction
Rahul Mehrotra, South Asia Institute
Abul Khair, Bengal Foundation
Dora Epstein-Jones, A+D Museum

09:30 Keynote: Who Owns the City
Kenneth Frampton

10:30 Definition: Situating the Asian City
Edward Glaesar  Triumph of the (Asian) City
Weiping Wu China’s Urban Transformation
Sarah Williams Ghost Cities – Beyond the Image
moderated by Kazi Ashraf

12:30 Lunch

01:30 Definition: Decoding the City
Peter G. Rowe  De-Coding East Asian Cities Around Matters of Form
Rahul Mehrotra  INDIA: Towards a Smart Urban Turn?
Qingyun Ma  Manifesto: China Urbanism
moderated by Farooq Ameen

03:30 Coffee Break

04:00 Mediation: Responding to the City
Farooq Ameen  deCoding Asian Urbanism 
Jennifer Yoos  Parallel Cities
Bimal Mendis  A Model for the City of 7 Billion
moderated by Kenneth Frampton

06:00 deCoding Asian Urbanism
Presentation on the A+D Exhibition
Kulapat Yantrasast    Experiencing the Code

06:30 Reception

Saturday October 29, 2016

09:00 Welcome
Farooq Ameen, A+D Museum

09:15 Keynote: Mediatory Urban Intervention
Saskia Sassen

10:00 Transformations 1: The Formal Response
Rafael Vinoly  TBD 
Ken Yeang  Eco-Architecture and Eco-Masterplanning
Kashef Chowdhury   Consciousness Of Place
moderated by Rahul Mehrotra

12:00 Lunch

01:00 Transformations 2: Dense Ecology:The Premise of Dhaka
Kazi Khaleed Ashraf   A Theorem for a Liquid Urbanism
Anuradha Mathur   Dhaka in an Estuary
Stephen Kieran   Levittown Redux
moderated by Anita Berrizbeitia

03:00 Coffee Break

03:30 Transformations 3: The Sustainable Response
Kongjian Yu   The Sponge City Campaign in China 
Jonathan D. Solomon  Hong Kong: Aformal Urbanism
Diana Balmori  Putting the City in Nature
moderated by Peter G. Rowe

05:30 Closing Discussion

More about it: http://southasiainstitute.harvard.edu/decoding-asia-conference/