The conference hosted as part of the FAST events calendar, is part of the Bright Cityscapes program, organized by the Polytechnic University of Timișoara and FABER, with funding from Timișoara City Hall through the Project Center, the Romanian Order of Architects, the Flex Foundation and the Alber Foundation.
Bright Cityscapes is a multidisciplinary program within the Timișoara 2023 European Capital of Culture initiative. Its purpose is to create a design laboratory for the city — one interested in observing, responding and acting on the contemporary urgencies within both Timișoara and the discipline of design, architecture and digital culture. Starting from situated research in Timișoara’s productive and academic ecosystem, the program brings together international thinkers, designers, sociologists, creative networks, academia, institutions and companies, in a series of exhibitions, conferences, workshops and other events.
Within FAST, the Bright Cityscapes lecture series highlighted architects and pedagogues who’s research methodology and design output captures alternative modes of operation with our most pressing urgencies in relation to rural, industrial and fringe city landscapes .
The presentations were opened by Flavia Matei and Nadine Dajanovic of Linz University’s Base Habitat studio. Their presentation focused on some of their studios work, dealing with sustainability from the lens of material and construction methods embracing advanced timberwork techniques as well as rammed earth applications.
This first presentation was followed by a lecture from Studio Muoto’s Gilles Delalex and Georgi Stanishev. Studio Muoto was present in FAST curtesy of the Timisoara French Cultural Institute. Entitled Practices of Freedom the lecture given by the two Parisian architects, gradually build up an argument for a situationist approach towards building, culminating with their radical French Pavilion at 2023 Venice Biennale.
The conference was be closed by 2022’s Swiss Architecture Award laureate, and Academy of Mendrisio professor Xu Tiantian, of DNA Architecture. Mrs Tiantian’s lecture dealt with the radical social, cultural and economic transformations of the rural Chinese landscapes, and architecture’s power to heal these landscapes through acupuncture interventions.
