Date:
Wednesday, April 4, 2018, 12:00pm to 2:00pm
Location:
Harvard Graduate School of Design, Stubbins Room, 48 Quincy st, Cambridge, MA
In 1867, with the Industrial Revolution well underway, the engineer Ildefons Cerdà, author of the Plan for the Reform and Extension of Barcelona, published his General Theory of Urbanization. It was the first book in history in which the process of designing and building cities was systematically analyzed and defined as a science.
In it, Cerdà coined the term “urbanization,” defined as “the set of principles, doctrines and rules that should be applied so that buildings and their conglomerations, as opposed to constricting, distorting and corrupting the physical, moral and intellectual faculties of social humans, can help promote their development and vitality thereby improving individual well-being, the total of which constitutes public prosperity.”
Today, in the midst of the digital revolution, at a time when the urbanization of the planet is still in full swing and we are facing new collective challenges, the first full English translation of the Theory has been published together with its statistical analyses in graphs and interactive maps on the open data platform urbanization.org hoping to reflexively elucidate ideas, strategies and critical perspectives in the science of making cities.
This event brings together the editor of the book, Vicente Guallart, in conversation with Harvard GSD professors Joan Busquets, Neil Brenner and Charles Waldheim. The event includes a presentation of the book and the digital platform of urbanization.org as well as a conversation about the work of Cerdá. The event is organized by Daniel Ibañez together with Spain GSD and Harvard Spain and supported by Real Colegio Complutense at Harvard, the Harvard GSD Urban Theory Lab, the Harvard GSD Office for Urbanization and the MDES Urbanism, Landscape and Ecology program.
IAAC and Actar Publishers have developed the book in partnership with prestigious institutions such as Diputació de Barcelona, Incasol, CCCB and the collaboration of Bloomberg Philanthropies. The online platform of urbanization.org has been developed in collaboration with 300.000kms.
Organizers: Spain GSD; Harvard Spain