*********************************
There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
*********************************
Elise Dainese
Assistant Professor, School of Architecture
elisa.dainese@design.gatech.edu
Summary Sentence: Speakers discuss challenges of (practicing, teaching) architectural design in violent environments.
Full Summary: Focusing on regions where planners, architects, and artists are involved in concrete initiatives on the ground, the War Diaries Symposium looks at complex postwar settings to illuminate design responses to urban warfare and violence against the built environment.
War Diaries book cover
Elisa Dainese
Aleksandar Staničić
Emily Gunzburger Makaš
Pamela Karimi
Delia Duong Ba WendelThe symposium will take place in the Price Gilbert Memorial Library Scholars Event Theater (room 1280) and can also be followed online. Colloquium speakers will discuss state of affairs in the field and what are the next challenges of (practicing, teaching) architectural design in violent environments.
Not able to attend in person? Join the meeting on Zoom
Meeting ID: 923 3577 0735
Passcode: 810476
Welcome 12 – 12:15 p.m.
Introduction by Elisa Dainese and Aleksandar Staničić 12:15 – 12:45 p.m.
Lecture by Emily Gunzburger Makaš 12:45 – 1:30 p.m.
Lecture by Sean Anderson 1:30 – 2:15 p.m.
Coffee Break 2:15 – 2:45 p.m.
Lecture by Pamela Karimi 2:45 -3:30 p.m.
Lecture by Delia Duong Ba Wendel 3:30 - 4:15 p.m.
Final Q&A 4:15 - 5:00 p.m.
In recent decades, the development of advanced weaponry systems and the instant flow of information have redefined the notion of urban warfare as a local phenomenon with global effects in an increasingly interconnected world. The annihilation of Aleppo and the broadcasted demolitions of Palmyra demonstrate the accelerating politicization of the destruction process. In this timely volume, Elisa Dainese, Aleksandar Staničić, and a broad range of contributors explore the weaponization of architecture—targeted attacks on art and infrastructure meant to destroy not only physical structures but also political unity and cultural memory.
Focusing on regions where planners, architects, and artists are involved in concrete initiatives on the ground, War Diaries looks at complex postwar settings to illuminate design responses to urban warfare and violence against the built environment. The essays discuss creative strategies for rebuilding and restabilizing damaged sites, often within the context of continuing animosities; the establishment of design coalitions to work with local communities on reconstruction; the designing of emergency settlements; the development of new and customized strategies for rebuilding diverse parts of the ravaged world; and the teaching of culturally sensitive design practices to architects and urbanists, among many other topics. A much-needed contribution to our understanding of post-conflict design, this volume maps the creative approaches that specialists have used to remediate the effects of violence against cities and cultural heritage.
War Diaries: Design after the Destruction of Art and Architecture (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2022) was written by Elisa Dainese and Aleksandar Staničić.
