CR|PT|C

Professor Jill Stoner

November 14 2019

Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism

Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada

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Interviewers in order of participation:

Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU

& Kristin Washco PhD student ASAU, CU

Amanda Lapointe MAS student aSAU, CU

Marco Ianni PhD student ASAU, CU

Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD student ASAU, CU

Devon Moar MAS student ASAU, CU

In InterVIEW/ASAU 1 Jill Stoner, Director of the Azrieli School of Architecture and Urbanism at Carleton University, was invited to discuss her motivation and process in writing her 2012 book Toward a Minor Architecture (MIT Press). She spoke of Deleuze and Guattari’s book on Kafka and minor literature as the basis for her development of the theory of “minor architecture.” This she defines as a practice within architecture’s master language, intending to disrupt it. During an in depth two-hours interview she dealt with modes of research in both practice and academia and opened up key ideas about her theory of minor architecture, including how her unique approach to professional practice shaped her approach to criticism. Through the interview she advocates for the potential of minor architecture in the context of “regretful constructions” within our corporate culture. She reflected on a number of earlier writings and projects over a two-decades career as both a Professor of Architecture at the University of California, Berkeley and a practicing architect in San Francisco, California. Lastly, she was invited to comment on the potential dichotomy that may exist between practicing minor architecture and directing a professional school of architecture in the contemporary context, and advocated for “turning the school inside out,” reflecting not simply on architecture, but outside of it, and making the ASAU part of “the edge condition,” while cultivating diversity and multiplicity of actions amongst its faculty and students.

Dr Benno Albrecht

March 12 2019

Doctoral program in Architecture

IUAV Venice, Italy

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Interviewers in order  of participation:

Federica Goffi CRIPTIC Chair, PhD & MAS Program Co-Chair ASAU, CU

& Rana Abughannam PhD Student ASAU, CU

Nicolas Arellano Risopatron PhD Student ASAU, CU

In –InterVIEW/LISTEN 1–Benno Albrecht,  the director of the School of Doctorate Studies at the Università IUAV di Venezia since 2015, introduced the history of the oldest Architectural PhD program in Italy, founded in 1983, and its tracks, which had been created by Aldo Rossi (Design), Manfredo Tafuri (History) and Bernardo Secchi (Urbanism). The program, with its over one-hundred PhD students at any one time, is unique in being the only one in Italy exclusively dedicated to questioning the project of architecture at all scales. PhD students contribute to architectural theory following a disciplinary approach to research. Some of the tracks are currently testing a problem-oriented research approach to deal with complex issues in research teams.

Albrecht was invited to discuss the role of Urbicide HUB and its influence on the doctoral research in the PhD program. He affirmed that Urbicide HUB contributes to a growing a body of knowledge on the process of destruction and reconstruction in cities where there is conflict and commented on the importance to share that knowledge to counter war strategies that inflict destruction and loss of life in urban centers. He commented on the international community’s responsibility to establish and define Human Rights to land ownership and reconstruction in conflict situations to allow refugees to go back to their cities and villages after a conflict, noting the lack of and the need for clear international laws to regulate such rights. Currently, the IUAV is working on a pilot reconstruction project in Syria to test theoretical ideas on the ground.