RSVP #11 KABUL: Secure City, Public City [pdf]
In October 2007 Archis Interventions went to Kabul to examine security and public space beyond the Western media, power and security bubble.

RSVP #12A NAPLES: reconnecting Naples [pdf]
In February 2008 Archis and Domus where invited in Naples to assist N.EST in thinking about Naples and developing its spatial and social program.

17:00 till 19:00 19 February, Grote Vergaderzaal, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft

An event on how to work as a designer/architect in (post) conflict areas and contested spaces. Presenting work from the ‘Public Space’ summer workshop held last summer in Beirut and the MSc Studio Border Conditions (TU Delft) reflects on 5 years of work and research. Afterwards an open discussion will be held.

Special Guest: Michael Stanton (practicing architect and teacher at American University of Beirut and coordinator of the Public Space summer workshop at Studio Beirut.

Archis, Studio Beirut, Studio Border Conditions and Partizan Publik will be present.

The event is supported by ARGUS

ARCHIS RSVP EVENT#12A SHELTER

Specially invited by N.EST AT MADRE MUSEO in NAPELS

Join from 15-18 February 2008 the open research/editorial event with VOLUME and DOMUS in the city Naples. This special RSVP will focus on the topic of SHELTER and results in a locally produced tabloid. We’ll be confronting the post-industrial fringes of the city, the spatial and the social program.

What are the urgencies and opportunities of these spaces in terms of design of social security and cultural sustainability, as well as housing and business?

NAI Rotterdam, 6 February 20:00 hrs

Architect Jolyon Leslie manages the historic cities programme of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture in Afghanistan. He has been working in Afghanistan since 1989.

Ole Bouman, director of the NAi, Archis and Partizan Publik started the conversation with him and a variety of Afghan stakeholders in the field of architecture and culture during the archis rsvp event in Kabul in October 2007.

Since then ideas for research programmes and interventions are being exchanged between the Netherlands and Kabul. Join the debate on possibilities, constraints and chances for Kabul by inscribing at www.nai.nl/register

Jolyon Leslie will lecture on cultural heritage at the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam on February 7th, invited by the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development

In the Lebanese Lebanese National Museum the room dealing with modern history is not there. Apparently there is no agreement on what Lebanon’s ‘National History’ is. Yet Lebanese seem to be united in the love for their capital. Although it is a contested and violent city, Beirut encapsulates many places, which are full of sweet, loving, memories and nostalgia. Indeed it is a city saturated with favorite places.

Find out more by exploring The Lost Room website, and find these special places and read about the their memories.

An evening of no future, little hope, desperate songs and great movies

Saturday December 22, 8 pm, Studio Beirut (Rue Gouraud, Gemmayze, red building, first floor)

Back in the eighties, right when the US were heading for a permanent void, REM came up with its classic song. Across the ocean, in Margaret Thatcher’s darkest days, the Specials had just captured the whine of the times: Ghosttown became the anthem of a sinking generation.

There’s something about the moment when the world as we know it grinds to a standstill. The future looks grim. Violence seems to be the only prospect. Yesterday was a mess, people said in Belgrade during the nineties. Today is even worse. Good that we have no tomorrow!

But just when all looks lost, there is this song, a book or a movie. It is bleak and desperate but it just cannot lie down and die. By saying goodbye to the world as we know it, it is already inventing a new one. It has to. There is no choice.

Chris Keulemans is a writer and journalist based in Amsterdam. He will be talking about today by showing clips from REM, the Specials, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Michael Haneke, Salman Rushdie, Sinead O’Connor and Lionel Richie.

Followed by the movie ‘Before the Rain’, Milcho Manchevski (Macedonia, 1994)

Back from Kabul here some of the first images and thoughts. Read George Agnew’s extensive and personal reporting on the event at his blog. The Architecture of Fear. The photo report can be watched in full size here.

Stay tuned, there is more to come.

images of The Lost Room workshop

In November 2006, Archis, Pearl and Partizan Publik together with local group of architects and designers (later organized as Studio Beirut) organized an the Unbuilt RSVP event in Beirut. A series of events in Amsterdam and Beirut later resulted in summer workshop on Public Space in Beirut last August.

So it happend that an international assembly of students and profesionals from Europe and the Middle East gathered in Beirut and joined in a two week workshop. Besides the lectures, design proposals and discussions; public interventions where executed around Beirut. From a guerrilla street cinema night to graffiti tagging sweet beiruti memories (Lost Room workshop)

Check studiobeirut.org/thinktank for the report and more projects to come…

After a reconnaissance and fact finding mission in November 2006 Archis Interventions developed an action plan that was presented at the Alpbach Forum 2007 [pdf]. This as a prelude to further action and research.

The situation in Prishtina is typical of cities that find themselves in a period of upheaval after a conflict. Most of the time, there is a complete lack of public bodies with the capacity and jurisdiction to enforce laws. In addition, a lack of social self-regulation leaves the field wide open for uncontrolled forces that cause lasting damage to a city’s urban fabric. Moreover, there is always a profound crisis of confidence in the public dimension of urban life.