Habitat: Expanding ArchitectureHabitat: Expanding Architecture

On Thursday 7 March, Georg Vrachliotis (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology) will deliver the final lecture in the discursive programme of Habitat: Expanding Architecture. Vrachliotis will talk about the influence of systems theory on architecture and planning, with particular attention to the case of Swiss architect Fritz Haller, who created one of the most enigmatic visions regarding total urban systems.

In February, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre organises archive conversations with and about the authors of the archive material that is on show at Habitat: Expanding Architecture. Sunday 24 February, Pjotr Gonggrijp and Frits Palmboom will be talking about their work based on the material on show in the exhibition.

In February, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre organises archive conversations with and about the authors of the archive material that is on show at Habitat: Expanding Architecture. Sunday 3 February, the members of the Tanthof Working Group that were responsible for the Delft expansion Tanthof in the 1970s. Frans Hooykaas, Peter Lüthi, Joost Váhl, Hiwe Groenewolt and Anneloes Groenewolt-van den Berg will share their memories of this process using material from the exhibition.

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.

In collaboration with TU Delft, the Jaap Bakema Study Centre is organizing a research and archive seminar with Leonardo Zuccaro Marchi and Elisa Dainese. On this occasion, the new PhD programme, Architecture and Democracy, will also be announced.

To mark the opening of Habitat: Expanding Architecture, a lecture by Erik Rietveld will explore the relationship between ecological psychology, the philosophy of 'affordances', and architecture.

The Jaap Bakema Study Centre organised the second Total Space research workshop on November 2nd in Het Nieuwe Instituut. The research workshop was part of the research project into structuralism, and is part of the preparations for an exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut in 2017. The workshop aimed to explore current developments in the digital realm and their impact on city planning and architecture.