A series of debates programmed in partnership with SpainNOW!, exploring the concept of urban public space and its relation with political dissidence through the voices of emerging architecture practices and thinkers that consider public space the starting point to re-think the assets of our cities. With Jane Hall and Amica Dall, Assemble, Manuel Dominguez, Zuloark and Gonzalo Herrero.
Session 1: The Power of Many
In 2011 the Occupy movement catalysed unrest and a will for change all over the world, while the Arab Spring brought about political and social change throughout northern African countries. While in these instances, the term ‘public space’ recovered its original meaning, it also became one of the central topics and claims for many young European architects. This first session, The Power of Many, includes a panel discussion, chaired by Gonzalo Herrero, with representatives of Zuloark and Assemble, two collective practices working with architecture as a political tool to improve the city and its communities.
Zuloark are a Madrid-based architectural collective established in 2001, linked to the construction of open networks, thought to match with the necessity of evolving economic and entrepreneur models. Zuloark has been diversifying its professional activity in many paths including the development of several actions through investigative and participative strategies in urban environments. It has also been involved in designing and constructing furniture and urban installation projects and is part of the meta-studio Zoohaus networking platform, collaborating in the project IC – Inteligencias Colectivas www.zuloark.com.
Assemble are a collective based in London who work across the fields of art, architecture and design. They began working together in 2010 and are comprised of 18 members. Assemble’s working practice seeks to address the typical disconnection between the public and the process by which places are made. They work in a way that is interdependent and collaborative, embracing direct action and a DIY sensibility. Their projects often deploy unconventional means, are self-initiated, self-made or self-organised, subverting typical hierarchies and procedures surrounding the realisation of architectural spaces www.assemblestudio.co.uk.
Gonzalo Herrero Delicado (CHAIR) is an architect, curator and writer of contemporary architecture and design based in London. Trained at the University of Alicante, he has worked for a number of international practices, including Lacaton & Vassal Architectes in Paris, before moving to London to start working as curator of The Architecture Foundation, in charge of its public programme of events. He is currently focusing on a number of independent projects between Spain and UK, exploring the role of the architect in the public realm through new curating formats connecting architecture and society www.gonzaloherrero.eu.
Booking for this event is essential, via information@serpentinegalleries.org
Post World’s End Architecture is a series of debates programmed in partnership with SpainNOW! the annual season of contemporary Spanish art & culture in London.
Supported by
SpainNOW!
AC/E Acción Cultural Española
ING Media
In media partnership with
Blueprint
