Instantiating Opportunism

ARCHITECTURE, NEOLIBERALISM AND THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PLATFORM

In his talk, DOUGLAS SPENCER considers the contemporary transformation of the city into a place of unrestrained adaptation to economic demands. This essentially neoliberal development was first articulated in the avant-garde architecture of the 1960s and 1970s and has been accompanied by a progressive discourse featuring terms such as accessibility, mobility and servicing. Taking the example of the Centre Pompidou as his starting point, the design of which already aimed to elicit post-political practices such as consumer participation and user-feedback, SPENCER makes visible the effects of platform urbanism on the spaces of the city.

DOUGLAS SPENCER is Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Education at Iowa State University’s Department of Architecture, and author of “The Architecture of Neoliberalism” (2016) and “Critique of Architecture: Selected Essays” (2020). His writing has been published in Harvard Design Magazine, Radical Philosophy, e-flux, Log, New Geographies, The Avery Review, Architecture and Culture and Volume, and in collections such as “This Thing Called Theory” (2016), “Architecture and Feminisms” (2017), “Landscape and Agency” (2017) and “Architecture and Affect after Deleuze” (2020).

Centre Pompidou, Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers, Gianfranco Franchini, and Ove Arup & Partners

 

25.11.2019, 19:00
Lecture + discussion

Architekturzentrum Wien, Podium

Museumsplatz 1
1070 Vienna

Event held in English
Admission free

Kindly pre-register at invitation@platform-austria.org

Opening remarks, Peter Mörtenböck and Helge Mooshammer

Talk by Douglas Spencer

Douglas Spencer and Bernadette Krejs in discussion

Welcome

KAROLINE MAYER, Architekturzentrum WienPETER MÖRTENBÖCK and HELGE MOOSHAMMER, Centre for Global Architecture

Lecture and discussion

DOUGLAS SPENCER, Iowa State University
BERNADETTE KREJS, TU Wien

Following the discussion all those attending will be invited to gather in the Podium for a glass of wine provided by Bioweingut Lenikus.

Supported by

ARCHITEKTURZENTRUM WIEN
UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED ARTS VIENNA
AUSTRIAN SCIENCE FUND (FWF)
TU WIEN
HOTEL TOPAZZ LAMÉEBIOWEINGUT LENIKUS WIEN