Birds of a Feather: From Habitus to HabitatBirds of a Feather: From Habitus to Habitat

Hadas Steiner (University at Buffalo, NY) will give a lecture about the history of ecological thinking in architecture and urban planning. She will talk about how this concept entered the architectural discourse through the biological sciences, and how the understanding of these terms changed throughout the 1950s, 60s and 70s as they were variously reinterpreted and employed by architects like Alison and Peter Smithson or John McHale. Among other topics, she will discuss the ornithological architecture of Cedric Price, who designed the aviary for the London Zoo.

Hadas Steiner is Associate Professor at the School of Architecture and Planning of the University at Buffalo. Her research concentrates on the cross-pollinations of technological, scientific and cultural aspects of architectural fabrication in the postwar period. She is author of the book _Beyond Archigram: the Structure of Circulation _(2008), the first study of the prehistory of digital representation to focus on Archigram, the magazine published in London irregularly between 1961 and 1970 and the name of the group that created it.

She is currently working on a manuscript that will provide an historical analysis of the evolving use of the terms "habitat," and by extension "ecology," in architectural discourse -- from the abortive "Charter of Habitat" proposed by Le Corbusier at the seventh meeting of CIAM in 1949, through the work of John McHale in the 1970s. Her lecture at Het Nieuwe Instituut is part of the disursive programma around Habitat: Expanding Architecture.

Before the Thursday Night you can grab a bite to eat with the speakers and staff of Het Nieuwe Instituut. At 18:00 Het Nieuwe Café will serve soup with bread or a quiche with salad. Dinner vouchers are available for ¬ 7.50 up to a day before the particular Thursday Night event via the Tickets link.

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