The Indian city of Chandigarh and Casablanca, the North African harbor town, were among the most important large scale urban projects after World War II. This book looks into the development of the two cities over the past fifty years, revealing an alternative historiography of post-war urbanism. At this occasion, the Het Nieuwe Instituut and the Jaap Bakema Study Centre host a public seminar organized by TU Delft and the Canadian Centre of Architecture (CCA).
The seminar is part of the ambition of Het Nieuwe Instituut together with TU Delft and the Jaap Bakema Study Centre to foster research and its public dissemination while connecting historical and cultural studies with the urgent issues of today.
Presentations and debate will focus on the emergence, character and role of Casablanca and Chandigarh, two radically modern cities planned in the beginning of the 1950s. In a world marked by decolonization and upheaval, the two cities appear simultaneously as exponents of and countercurrents to modernization and its development perspectives. The research of the authors Tom Avermaete and Maristella Casciato sets the context for reading Casablanca and Chandigarh as the results of nuanced, dynamic processes of international exchange driven by the expertise of a new class of design professionals. After a presentation by Maristella Casciato and Tom Avermaete there will be reactions to particular themes and perspectives by Stanislaus von Moos, Antoni Folkers, and Frits Palmboom.
Date: 29 November 2014
Time: 14:30 to 16:30. After the debate drinks will be offered
Location: Het Nieuwe Instituut, Museumpark 25, Rotterdam
Language: Dutch and English
Entry: Free
We’re looking forward to welcome you at the Het Nieuwe Instituut!
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Tom Avermaete, Maristella Casciato: Casablanca Chandigarh. A Report on Modernization
Photographic Missions by Yto Barrada and Takashi Homma
In cooperation with Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA), Montreal
Paperback, 368 pages, 224 color and 122 b/w illustrations, 17 x 24 cm, ISBN 978-3-906027-36-4 English, ISBN 978-3-906027-39-5 French
EUR 35.00 / GBP 30.00 / USD 45.00
Lecturer, Ph.D. Position/Assistantship, and Postdoctoral Fellowship in Urban Studies
Urban Studies at the University of Basel is rooted in disciplinary approaches of architecture, geography, anthropology, social and political theory, and history, and oriented towards global Southern and postcolonial questions. With a regional focus on Africa, Europe,...