Post-urban entropy: from American suburbia to China rural villages

news | conference

Tuesday May 10th, 2016.  13:00-14:30
Politecnico di Torino – Lingotto, Aula Magna
via Nizza 230, Torino

lecturer: Pietro Valle
discussants: Marco Trisciuoglio, Davide Tommaso Ferrando

Capitalist consumerism of space and buildings has produced a new termporality, one not based on gradual aging but a schizophrenic succession of destruction, substitution and new building where growth and induced decay are undistingushable. While the American suburbia is the “ancestor” of this relentless consumption of cities, the new scenario of post-communist China has brought city entropy to new levels of dynamism with the spread of rural villages beyond city centers to shape an endless ex-urbia.

The conference by Pietro Valle, which is part of the cycle “Lectures of Architecture Construction City” organised by the Politecnico di Torino, Master Degree in Architecture Construction City, analyses post-historical notions in the analysis of city growth and considers time over space as the crucial element in the assessment of contemporary urban phenomena.

Pietro Valle, architect, Udine 1962, is the head of the design department of Valle Architetti Associati, based in Udine and Milan. Since 1994 he has been teaching as visiting critic in many universities in Europe and the USA. He regularly writes for architectural magazines such as Lotus, Arch’it and Zeroundicipiù. He has published five books: 00_arch’it papers, Mecanoo, Experimental Pragmatism, Dan Graham Half Square – Half Crazy, Alpe Adria Senza and the recent Limboland on the USA and China.