FCL LunchTalk: Density, Architecture and Territory

Event Date: 14 May 2015 04:00 AM - 14 May 2015 05:00 AM

Event Venue: Tower Building, Level 6, SEC, Value Lab Asia

Seminar Abstract
The concern of our contemporary society which confronts us on a daily basis inside the present horizon is the future of urban development : a total metropolisation of the territory by an inexorable and uncontrollable densification.

This vision is negatively implanted in the mind, losing the quality of the social relationships in which we live and we evolve. How can history inform the constitution of the city when the accumulation of this ‘built field’ gradually destroys the landscapes and the “Nature” in the deep sense of the term?

The history of the Western cities, from this point of view, shows precisely that the densification always constitutes the major vector of the formation of the cities and urban communities.

But the question of density is related initially to the ‘habitability’, in the broad sense, of the contemporary territories creating social cohesion.

From this point of view density is not actually a problem of densification, but a question of territorial coherence. The book in the course of publication “Density as model of sustainable development”, subject of the lecture tackles these questions from five major topics in five European cities:
– density as a territorial question
– program for the territories
– landscapes of the density
– new residential typologies
– economy of the territories and process

Today, Architecture is in question through these topics which constitute a fundamental approach for the sustainable development of our modern societies.

Speaker’s Biography
Jean-Pierre Pranlas-Descours is an architect, urban-planner, and professor at the Paris-Malaquais School of Architecture with a Masters in Architecture and History.

He received the prestigious Rome prize in Architecture from the French Academy in Rome in 1986, and was honored with a residency the following year at the Academy’s campus.

Jean-Pierre Pranlas-Descours was selected as the laureate of the International Competition for the extension of the Diagonal of Barcelona (1990). His current realizations include the town center of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande near Rennes (3,000 housing units, public facilities, and spaces on 100 acres), the development of the Bottière-Chênaie neighborhood in Nantes (2300 housing units, public facilities, and planted grounds on 85 acres), planning for the Porte de Montreuil in Paris (200 000 m2), and the development of the Haute Deûle district in Lille (250 acres) and the Pré Nouvel district in Seyssins. His multimedia library in Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande was nominated for the Équerre d’Argent award in 2000. His 42-apartment/kindergarten project in the 17th district of Paris and 20-apartment project in the 11th district of Paris were nominated for the same award in 2003 and 2006, respectively.

He won at the first rank the extension of downtown Reykjavik, Vatnsmryri International competition (2008) and the project for EL PRAT de LLOBREGAT (Barcelona) (2009).

He received in 2011 the Robert Auzelle Prize for the Bottière Chenaie Urban Design, Nantes. In 2012 Jean-Pierre Pranlas-Descours received the honor medaille of the French Academy of Architecture.

A monograph Pranlas-Descours, Architecture, situations with an introduction by Kenneth Frampton was published in 2011 along with an exhibit in Paris, in Berlin, and Ulm,(2012-2013).