Michael Smith Masis: Architecture as an excuse: social agency, spatial justice and regenerative design
This keynote is part of the Building Beyond Borders Symposium, a two-yearly event, complementing the postgraduate cycle with in-depth reflection. The symposium sets up a broad conversation and reflection on the topic and live project of its most recent postgraduate edition. In doing so, we want to build an international network of thinkers and do-ers to cast the foundations for more regenerative and distributive solutions and approaches in the building sector, both in the Global North and the Global South.
Two keynote speakers, one from academics and one from architectural practice, who have an extensive expertise in the given domain will highlight different perspectives on the topics raised.
06 februari 2025
09h00 - 10h30
UHasselt, Campus Oude Gevangenis, Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt
Architecture as an excuse: social agency, spatial justice and regenerative design
Design and architecture serve as catalysts for agency in the natural and built environment. Architecture as an excuse begins by questioning sustainability as an unsustainable principle. It seeks to value comprehensive and sensitive thinking towards the systems in which we live, where transdisciplinary approaches are fundamental. It is in this overlap between disciplines that Spatial Justice and regenerative design serve as approach platforms to work and promote more environmentally just, regenerative environments that dignify the human condition, represented in a body of work carried out in the last 15 years.
About Michael Smith Masis
Architect (2005) San José Costa Rica, Master in Sustainable Environmental Design from the Architectural Association of London (2008) and Loeb Fellow from Harvard University (2019). He is director of the Entre Nos Atelier Central Office and the Spatial Justice Platform.
He is a professor and researcher at the University of Costa Rica, Universidad Veritas, Tecnológico de Monterrey and the Universidad de los Andes. His work has received important awards and distinctions at the national and international level, promoting participation, collaboration, spatial justice and sustainability.
Timing and location:
- Thursday February 6th 2025
- 09h00 - 10h30
- UHasselt Campus Old Prison, Martelarenlaan 42, 3500 Hasselt (Aula Roppe)
Registration
- Registration form
- For PhD students and postdocs, we would like to draw your attention to the cancellation and no-show policy of UHasselt.