BOOKTALKS| Urban Landscape Lecture Series—Our Shared Future: Public Space through Multiple Perspectives

Event Content

“The People vs. The World of Tomorrow” lecture series is extended from a late-night reading session for selected books at Winsing Art Place. Launched by the Winsing Arts Foundation, Hui-Fang Liu, Assistant Professor from the Department of Urban Development at the University of Taipei, invited experts in architecture to submit, share, and talk about their favorite theoretical works in the fields of landscape, cities, architecture, and more. Unlike previous discussions of pure architecture, we look at cities, buildings, and public spaces from a more diverse perspective, discussing concepts such as “urbanism,” “commonality,” “publicness,” and “future cities” in the books. The final session will feature Liu presenting an introduction to The Future of Public Space and Commonalities:Production of Behaviors, with architectShu-Hsien Chou joining as a special guest speaker.

The Future of Public Space, published in 2017, is part of the SOM Thinkers series that explores potential issues and possibilities, for example, challenging Americans’ preconceived notions of the wilderness and the vast West by discussing surveillance issues; the myths and stigmatization of public art, and its potential for future development; and even, architecture and social life in outer space beyond Earth. Writers contributing to the book include Allison Arieff (critic), Michelle Nijhuis (environmental observer/editor), Jaron Lanier (scientist/visual artist/writer), Rachel Monroe (writer/host), China Mieville (novelist), Christopher DeWolf (architecture and cultural critic), Ben Davis (artist critic), Sarah Fecht (writer/editor), and Lawrence Weiner (artist). The gazes and imaginative ideas of public spaces from these atypical spatial professional planners help open up the imagination of our shared future.

Commonalities: Production of Behaviors consists of 8 chapters that explore topics such as “the commonality of architecture” through articles, dialogues, case studies, reading notes, and more. In the discussion chapter, Japanese artist Koki Tanaka, historical technologist Norihito Nakatani, and social philosopher Masatake Shinohara interpret the concept of “community” and human behavior from their respective professional perspectives, providing diverse insights into the essence of “coexistence.” The chapter, “Reading Group of Commonalities,” lists 33 books on the concept of “commonality” and expands on its theoretical underpinnings. The case studies involve spatial observations of more than 10 cities in Japan, China, and Europe, as well as a detailed introduction to the projects of Atelier Bow-Wow, providing readers with a perceptual understanding of the commonality of architecture.