In the Terrain of Water

The University of Pennsylvania School of Design will be hosting “In the Terrain of Water” on April 1st and 2nd. This two day symposium will feature a series of dialogues, exhibits, workshops, and talks, enlisting contemporary thinkers who are willing to go beyond addressing water simply as a design opportunity or an environmental challenge.

Discussions and presentations will be organized around three themes:
Activism/ Advocacy, Structure/ Infrastructure, and Imaging/ Imagining – in the terrain of water.

Participants are coming from across disciplines and the globe – joined in their intentions to re-imagine our relationship with water, challenge current visualizations, and probe projects and design-thinking that constitute water, it visible and invisible presence, in fresh ways.

A gallery exhibit coordinated with the symposium will feature drawings and other works by Narendra Juneja, Ian McHarg, Louis Kahn, Lawrence Halprin, as well as works by current faculty, including James Corner, Dilip da Cunha, and Jenny Sabin.

Participants include: Teng Chye Khoo, executive director of the Centre for Liveable Cities; Mihir Shah, co-founder of Samaj Pragati Sahayog, one of India’s largest grass-roots initiatives for water and livelihood security; film-maker Peter Hutton; UNESCO consultant, Pietro Laureano; Diébédo Francis Kéré, winner of the 2009 Global Award for Sustainable Architecture; Ila Berman, architect and founding director of New Orleans URBANBuild; biologist and applied ecologist John Todd; as well as architects, landscape architects, and planners – including Kongjian Yu, Anne Spirn, Hans Venhuizen, Elizabeth Mossop, and Tilman Latz.

This symposium was conceived and shaped by Anuradha Mathur, and organized with the assistance of Catherine Bonier.

Full schedule and complete list of speakers: http://tinyurl.com/TerrainOfWater

Schedule of Events
April 1 and 2, 2011: Symposium
April 1, 4-6pm: Gallery talk and reception
March 28 through April 4: Exhibition
March 31, 2-5:30pm: Student work exhibit and discussion

Contact: Catherine Bonier
email: [email protected]

CEU credit will be available for registered architects and landscape architects.