Monday 17 October 2016

Mapping Castle Street workshop



StreetSpace - Mapping Castle Street

You are invited to the workshop: ‘Mapping Castle Street: an interdisciplinary workshop about the character of the street’, in PLACE NI on November 17-18, 2016.
Streets are scenes of conflict. They are contested public spaces where fundamentally different people can meet. Architects, planners, designers and policy makers have designed, managed and controlled the way streets are used, occupied and transited. Academics have raised awareness of the value of streets that are diverse, vibrant and inclusive, while urban policy focuses on the commercial value of city streets, and urban designers in their aesthetic and formal qualities. But what makes a good street? Is it the boundaries and thresholds created by buildings binding it? Is it the use of those buildings? Or is it the street’s identity, history and memory?
We will develop a series of layers of analysis including but not limited to: mapping, drawings, diagrams, photographs, interviews, archive work, soundscapes, interviews, and more.
We are not looking for a universal solution to the use, design and management of streets, but a culturally specific array of possibilities that our streets could potentially have. Castle Street is an ideal case study to consider, for it is in the core of the city, it connects very different areas, and above all it is loaded with meaning and potential.
We invite students, academics and professionals of architecture, planning, anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, film, media, arts and any other disciplines interested in the analysis of public space.

Join us for two days of exploration!

The workshop is free of charge.

Location: PLACE NI – Garfield Street. Belfast
Date: Thursday 17 and Friday 18 November 2016

Please RSVP Agustina Martire to confirm your attendance before November 16th. a.martire@qub.ac.uk

Facebook event: Check for updates on presentations and participants.

Monday 30 May 2016

Jane Jacobs 100. Delft, May 2016



Thanks so much Roberto Rocco for hosting a very significant conference on the work of Jane Jacobs and its influence on recent urban theory and practice. I was delighted to lead the track on Streets as Public Spaces. The papers presented in our sessions were:

Jane Jacobs and the Theory of Placemaking in Heritage Context, by Azadeh Arjomand Kermani

Mémoire en route: Jerusalem’s Route No. 1 ­a study in motion, by Maier Yagod

Hussien Al-Mimar Street, The tale of a restricted space, by  Bedour Hemeid, Ph.D.

Shared Space: Traffic engineers finally entering the Post-Modern era, by Dick van Veen M.Sc. Eng, M.Sc. Arch.

Exploration into the role and relevance of public spaces within the modern city fabric, by Ailish Killilea

(Un)Natural Proprietors in San Francisco’s Alleyways, by Antje Steinmuller

Hidden Monuments of Everyday Life. Conquering street life in São Paulo,  Sarah Hartmann

Thanks to the presenters for great evocative, challenging and striking papers and also thanks to guests for the lively discussions. I hope we can continue this discussion further.

all the best

Agustina



Wednesday 20 April 2016

April has been a very busy month. I spent a couple of weeks in Buenos Aires and Santiago, where I gave a couple of lectures and presentations, I met some really interesting new people and reunited with old colleagues and mentors.
I gave the lecture: Belfast Encadenada: Autopistas, disturbios y suburbios en Santiago y Buenos Aires.
In Buenos Aires I presented it in the Instituto de Arte Americano within Facultad de Arquitectura Diseño y Urbanismo of Universidad de Buenos Aires. Thanks to Mario Sabugo and the Institute for the invitation and to all the audience for a very lively discussion about the politics of urban renewal.
To see the presentation please got to the youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKMI-m8cQkg

In Santiago, I presented the paper at Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y Estudios Urbanos de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Many thanks to the dean Pepe Rosas for the invitation and to Macarena Ibarra for facilitating the meetings with the doctorate programme of architecture and urban studies. Many thanks to the audience for raising new issues about conservation and motorways in a broader perspective.

Saturday 30 January 2016

Walking the city session aiarg2016

Many thanks to aiarg2016 for organising a great conference in Cork and to the speakers for their very interesting contributions to the session.
Adam d'Arcy, Kate Buckley, Tony Duggan and Mairtin D'Alton we will keep in touch!
Thanks Miriam Fitzpatrick for one more successful collaboration.

http://aiarg2016conference.com

Friday 23 October 2015

AIARG 2016 Session 7 - Walking the city: Streets vs Motorways

A series of very good abstracts were sent to the session, but only 4 papers could be accepted. Thanks to all those who submitted their proposals and congratulations to Adam D'Arcy, Tony Duggan, Máirtín D’Alton and Kate Buckley. 


Looking forward to seeing you in Cork in January.


www.aiarg2016conference.com/





Delighted to have participated in the Spaces and Flows Conference in Chicago.  http://spacesandflows.com/2015-Conference




Presented paper: Walking the City: No More Motorways for Belfast, and was part of a very lively discussion about walk-ability, motorway development, street spaces, cycling and in general the use of streets as public spaces. Gracias Tomas Errazuriz, Milagros Zingoni y Giancarlo Carmelino por un par de dias fantasticos en Chicago.


Monday 12 October 2015

Many thanks to those who participated in the reading group last Wednesday! It was a really great experience to hear the comments and questions of people with very different backgrounds and experiences. Looking forward to our next meeting on November 4th!