PhD Seminar: Adrian Forty – “The Politics of Concrete”

The Architecture Departments of Lusófona University of Lisbon and Oporto are organizing a seminar – Architecture: Design and Research – for the current academic year.

This week
9 April 2021,
14:30 (GMT)
Adrian Forty – “The Politics of Concrete”

Please, feel to participate: Zoom (class): https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/84986977917

Synopsis

Although widely presented as of universal benefit to mankind, concrete has also divided people. It has had a political dimension, which has taken different forms over the last century. Whether as the medium of a socialist Utopia, or as a factor in the politics of climate change, concrete has played a part in some of the major ideological positions of the last century. This talk looks at some of these, and considers some of the challenges presented in researching a global medium.

Biographical Note

Adrian Forty is Professor Emeritus of Architectural History at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. He is the author of Objects of Desire, Design and Society Since 1750 (1986), Words and Buildings, a Vocabulary of Modern Architecture (2000), and Concrete and Culture, a Material History (2012).
From 2010 to 2014 he was President of the European Architectural History Network.