The Logistical City

UIC Institute of Humanities
Cutting Edge Workshop 2016-2017
 
Tuesday Feb 7, 9:00am-5:30pm
Stevenson Hall
701 S Morgan, Lower Level
 

We live in an era where logistical systems have become central to how we work and live. We now think nothing of dropping a priority package in a drop box in Chicago at 9:30pm knowing it will arrive in L.A. by 7:30am the next morning. Talking in real time with a friend in a remote location via video-telephony is taken for granted, using nanosecond transmission signals is fundamental in the financial industry, while ordering groceries with an app and having them delivered later the same day is the norm rather than the exception. Given there is so much material and information flow in and around the spaces we inhabit, one could argue that infrastructural systems and their associated procedures are now the primary shapers of the urban environment. Yet, there are few, if any, intellectual models in place for architecture to contemplate the city from this perspective.

The one-day workshop, featuring national and local scholars as well as faculty from the UIC School of Architecture will review the social, political, material and cultural implications of logistical procedures for architecture and urbanism and debate ways in which logistical intelligence could be deployed, or re-routed toward the future design of the city. Speakers will be asked to present a definition of the Logistical City through the lens of their own unique research.

Presentations by:
Neeraj Batia, CCA /The Urban Works Agency 
Tarini Bedi, UIC Anthropology
Laura Forlano, Institute of Design and School of Architecture, IIT
Ron Henderson, Director, Landscape Architecture Program, IIT
Jesse LeCavalier, New Jersey Institute of Technology
Francesco Marullo, Garofalo Fellow, UIC School of Architecture 
Conor O’Shea, Department of Landscape Architecure, UIUC
Eric Rothfeder, AIADO, SAIC
Mark Shepard, Architecture and Media Study, SUNY Buffalo
Jonathan Solomon Director, AIADO, SAIC
Kathy Velikov, Univerity of Michigan Taubman College 
Liam Young, SCI-Arc 
 
Remarks by:
Penelope Dean, UIC School of Architecture 
Alexander Eisenschmidt, UIC School of Architecture 
Clare Lyster, UIC School of Architecture 
 
Organized by:
Clare Lyster | UIC School of Architecture 
 
Schedule:
8:45-9:00:        Arrive / Coffee  / Breakfast
9:00-9:30:        Opening Remarks: Clare Lyster
9:30-11:45:      Session 1: Frictions
  • Jesse LeCavalier
  • Tarini Bedi
  • Eric Rothfeder
  • Francesco Marullo
       Remarks: Penelope Dean
 
11:45-12:45     Lunch
12:45-3:00:      Session 2: Formats
  • Neeraj Bhatia
  • Jonathan Solomon
  • Conor O’Shea
  • Kathy Velikov
       Remarks: Clare Lyster
 
3:00-3:30:        Coffee Break
3:30-5:30:        Session 3: Techno-Cultures (Real and Imagined)
  • Mark Shepard
  • Ron Henderson and Laura Forlano
  • Liam Young
       Remarks: Alexander Eisenschmidt
 
 
The workshop is sponsored by the UIC Institute for the Humanities as part of the initiative, Cutting Edge Issues in the Humanities and run in conjunction with a year-long graduate research seminar and design studio, titled, The Logistical City, currently being conducted by Associate Professor, Clare Lyster, at the school of architecture in 2016/2017. 
 
Limited seating availbable.