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Urban designer who calls for a new architecture is Clarkson chair
By PATRICIA DONOVAN
Contributing Editor
In his most recent book, "After the City" (2001, MIT Press), urban designer Lars Lerup confronts the fact that "the city is being swept away by the metropolis."
This change is so profound, he says, that it demands a radical change in the way in which architecture is conceptualized, designed and taught. He advocates an architecture that facilitates liberated movement and encourages the free use of space, and calls on architects to take an active role in making the world a better place.
A distinguished international author, educator and designer, Lerup has been named the 2003 Clarkson Visiting Chair in Architecture at UB and in that capacity will present seminars and colloquia to the school's faculty. He also will present a free, public slide lecture at 5:30 p.m. March 19 in 301 Crosby Hall, South Campus.
The Swedish-born Lerup is dean and William Ward Watkin Professor of the Rice University School of Architecture, one of the top four schools of architecture in the U.S. He holds degrees in engineering (Sweden), architecture (University of California, Berkeley) and urban design (Graduate School of Design, Harvard), and is an emeritus professor of architecture at Berkeley. He also is a member of the Swiss Foundation for the International Institute of Architecture.
He has written several books and at least 50 published essays, but his most recent writing concerns the change from city to metropolis.
This change, he says, "does not just replace one noun with another, but radically turns the state of affairs into a state of perpetual motion." Just as the metropolis has replaced the city, he says, "architecture as a static enterprise has been displaced by architecture as a form of software."
He describes contemporary society as one in which speed dominates stasis and in which stasis is now "a state of mere pause and rest."
This fact "completely undermines the age-old concepts of permanence and identity in favor of transformation and event," Lerup says, "and requires an architecture that factors this sensibility into its design."
Rather than design structures, Lerup maintains that the solution is to design "meaningful spaces for bodies in motion—places to be for a world where 'being' means being in motion."
He makes a strong appeal to architects, reminding them of the human purpose of their profession—"we help living bodies." In Lerup's view, the desire for personal greatness has led architects away from their true calling, and purged thoughtful and artistic designs from the everyday experience of the average citizen.
Rather than concern themselves with grand projects, fame and prestige, he suggests that architects insert themselves into humble projects, like suburban developments, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of being the "formation of the metropolitan consciousness.
Lerup's own award-winning design work includes projects and competitions for new towns, buildings, houses and furniture, and has been exhibited throughout the world.
The Clarkson Visiting Chair is a visiting position endowed by Will and Nan Clarkson and awarded semi-annually to a distinguished scholar or professional in the disciplines of architecture, planning, and design. The award recognizes excellence in pursuit of scholarship and professional application within these disciplines.