April 7, 2010
115 Harris Hall
12pm
Guest presenter: Vinayak Bharne
Vinayak Bharne is a Los Angeles based urban design practitioner and educator. He holds joint teaching appointments at the School of Policy, Planning and Development and the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California. His graduate courses focus on comparative urban forms and types, trans-national urbanism, smart-growth and contemporary methods of urban design practice.
He is the editor and co-author of the forthcoming book “Emerging Asia: Concomitant Urbanities & Urbanisms”, an anthology of 21 scholarly essays on contemporary urbanism in the Asian world. A former Contributing Editor to the journal Urban Ecology, his projects and writings have also been published by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, Urban Design Quarterly, Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. His recent publications include Beyond the Corbusian Cult: Reflections on Chandigarh’s Capitol in Planetizen, and Manifesting Democracy: Public Space and the Search for Identity in Post-War Japan in the Journal of Architectural Education.
Mr. Bharne is currently an Associate and Lead Urban Designer at Moule & Polyzoides Architects and Urbanists in Pasadena. His projects include the 300-acre new town of Civano in Arizona, the 77-acre Arabian Canal neighborhood in Dubai, the Del Mar Station in Pasadena, campus plans for UCLA, UCSB and Scripps College, and housing projects throughout California and the American southwest. He currently serves on the Advisory Board of Global Urban Development, an international think-tank dedicated to research and action on urban issues worldwide.
A very interesting lecture,I enjoy it so much.
ReplyDeleteWhen talking about Asia,two polarized scene may come into one's mind:one the incredible prosperity of Pudong or Dubai,the other the chaos and poverty of slum and rural area.But besides these two extreme what are the other?
To me Asia is a place where the tradition is struggling to survive under the strong impact of globalization,and the city struggling to stand up to the burden of density. The future of Asia would be depicted by how it reactes to the two forces that shape the urbanism - the westernization and density.
I love how he juxtaposed the "rich" and the "poor" in the lecture. One of the things I immediately did after lecture was looked at satellite images of the surroundings of the Taj Mahal. The extent of the slums around such a beautiful place is very conflicting and quite curious both sociologically and urbanistically.
ReplyDeleteThis was the most interesting lecture that we have had by far. I loved how the topic was on discovering the unknown rather than rehashing topics that we have heard way too much about. His analysis of traditional Iranian plumbing and irrigation was astonishing. I would love to attend another one of his lectures.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with Arielle's comment that this was one of the most interesting lectures we had this semester. I found his opening point intriguing when thinking about the way cities develop - about how in Asia there is a city model that is uncommon in Western cultures, that cities can grow up around small cultural nodes - small shrines that may be nothing more that a sacred tree or small statue have the potential over decades and centuries to develop into city centers. Wonderful to think about.
ReplyDeleteHis lecture was very inspiring. My favorite part was his enthusiasm on the topic and the discussion about whether placement of government and trying to figure out the rhyme and reason behind placement of some of these ancient plans. Fresh and inspiring lecture. I look forward to more of his lectures in the future.
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