MAKING ARCHITECTURAL EXHIBITIONS WORK: THE NETWORKED CULTURES DIALOGUES

9-12 February 2011
CAA 2011 Conference, New York
CAA College Art Association
99th Annual Conference

Session: The Architectural Exhibition and/as Critique
Society of Architectural Historians

From the great expositions in the nineteenth century to the present, exhibitions have transformed architectural culture. This session will examine those instances in which the architectural exhibition – focused either on contemporary or historical work – is used to critique design practices and operate as a change agent. How have exhibitions challenged existing historical narratives? How does the discursive format of the exhibition differ from that of the written text? How has the exhibition revolutionized architectural writing, both journalistic and academic? The critical agency of the exhibition might be variously located: in institutional practices, curatorial decisions, strategies of display, or the discursive modalities of the exhibition itself – in forming new kinds of critical structures
or creating new terminologies and points of entry.

Thursday, February 10, 2:30 PM–5:00 PM
Clinton Suite, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York

Chairs: Karen Koehler, Hampshire College; Eve Blau, Harvard University

Exhibitions as Practice: Raumkunst at the 1906 German Applied Arts Exhibition in Dresden
Wallis Miller, University of Kentucky
Constructing the Nation: China’s Architectural Exhibition, 1936
Cole Roskam, University of Hong Kong
The New Domestic Landscape: Italian Radical Architecture on American Soil
Ross Elfline, Carleton College
Making Architectural Exhibitions Work: The Networked Cultures Dialogues
Peter Mortenbock, Goldsmiths, University of London
Discussant: Barry Bergdoll, Museum of Modern Art and Columbia University

Session: Architectural and Spatial Design Studies

In recent years, there has been a plethora of scholarly works that address spatial and architectural operations from various perspectives. Established disciplines that have an innate relation with space (e.g. architectural history or urban geography) have not provided forums that are open enough to include these diverse viewpoints. Thus, despite their commonalities, these approaches lack a space for exchange. This session presents papers that bridge studies of space and architecture with the field of design studies, and that may also be affiliated with a variety of other fields, such as cultural and urban geography, spatial anthropology, and media studies. Papers will address spatial topics of various scales, from the scale of the interior space to that of a geographical region, and spatial practices beyond the design of buildings, such as spatial representation, spatial narratives, spatial policies, and users’ practices.

Saturday, February 12, 9:30 AM–12:00 PM
Sutton Parlor South, 2nd Floor, Hilton New York

Chair: Jilly Traganou, Parsons The New School for Design

Hausprojekte as Transgressive Urbanism in the New Berlin
Daniela Sandler, University of California, Santa Cruz
Other Markets: Informal Spaces as Harbingers of Urban Change
Helge Mooshammer, Goldsmiths, University of London
Designing Radio Space in Interwar Canada
Michael Windover, McGill University
Re-engaging Cultural Heritage Archives: Imagining Human Values Embedded in Protected Sites
Lydia Matthews, Parsons The New School for Design
Gabrielle Bendiner-Viani, The New School
Discussant: Sarah Teasley, Royal College of Art