In Focus: Radical Repair

The World Around and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain announce their first collaborative public program in Milan. In Focus: Radical Repair will take place at Triennale Milano, September 28, 2023, 6–9pm. Tickets are free and available upon registration.

In Focus: Radical Repair invites eight interdisciplinary and intergenerational designers, thinkers and creatives from all over the world to reflect on the historic responsibility and complicity that architecture and its related fields has over the current climatic crisis, and asks what role both action and imagination can play in creating and enacting radical forms of repair.

For this evening event, global line-up of renown participants from Pakistan, Bolivia, Japan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, China, US and western Europe will convene in Milan to ask whether design can go beyond the ethical guardianship of the environment to become a leading voice in repairing social, ecological and political fabrics across communities, borders and between humans and other species. As we rapidly approach the era of “global boiling” in our world of finite resources, how can architects and designers build and protect our most vulnerable communities without harming the planet further, while also operating as activists and agents in the radical repair of our planet?

The event is co-curated by Beatrice Galilee, executive director of The World Around, and Béatrice Grenier, director of curatorial affairs at Fondation Cartier. The conference will be opened by Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, and the full line-up of speakers include: 

Yasmeen Lari—Seeking Social and Ecological Justice for Humanity: Award-winning Pakistani architect gives a keynote address on a career dedicated to activism and championing humanistic, inclusive environments for the most vulnerable in society.

Joseph Grima—Design Without Depletion: Founder of Space Caviar and creative director of Design Academy Eindhoven speaks to his work mapping a new generation of non-extractive architecture practices. 

Aziba Ekio—Sunbeam: Nigerian poet and The World Around Young Climate Prize winner will be reading a poem commissioned for Radical Repair.

Freddy Mamani—Architecture with Identity: The unique Bolivian architect will share his instantly recognizable work imbuing culture, color and history into the “monochrome” city of El Alto through buildings based on indigenous architecture and crafts.

Jeanne Gang—Reversing Obsolescence: Chicago’s star architect joins us to share ways that existing buildings can be reinvented and expanded.

Junya Ishigami—Japan’s leading avant garde architect known for his experimental, creative and technical skills considers a radical approach to architecture, landscape and ecology. 

Lu Wenyu—Renew Building Materials: The co-founder of Amateur Architecture speaks to the award-winning studio’s ethos using and recycling traditional materials in their projects in rural China. 

Paul Elvis Tangem—The Great Green Wall Initiative: Understanding the interconnected and devastating issues of desertification, migrant crisis and climate emergency in the Sahel region of Africa, the coordinator of the Great Green Wall introduces radical resilience in the continent’s dry lands through a mosaic of sustainable land management and restoration projects.

Tickets for In Focus: Radical Repair at Triennale Milano include complimentary access to the exhibition Siamo Foresta from 11am–6pm on the day. Seats will be assigned on a first come first serve basis. Audio devices for simultaneous translation from English to Italian will be available for on-site guests by request. 

The World Around is an itinerant nonprofit institution for contemporary architecture based in New York. In Focus Radical Repair is the first event organized in the framework of the global cultural partnership between The World Around and Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, The two institutions will collaborate on three public programs in three different cities, convening the international architecture community around critical topics. The second program will be held at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in the Spring of 2024. The third program will be announced in the fall. 

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