Conference on Architecture, European Urbanisation and Globalisation

Mirko Zardini, an architect, is the Director and Chief Curator of the Canadian Centre for Architecture since 2005. His research engages the transformation of contemporary architecture by questioning and relooking at the assumptions on which architects operate today. Imperfect Health: The Medicalization of Architecture (2011), his latest exhibition, exposes the excessive optimism in the therapeutic role of architecture.
Zardini has been editor for Casabella and Lotus International magazine and his writings have been widely published. He has taught design and theory at architecture schools in Europe and the United States, including Harvard University GSD, Princeton University SoA, Swiss Federal Polytechnic University (ETH) at Zurich, and the Federal Polytechnic at Lausanne (EPFL).

Dietmar Steiner studied architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. Until 1989 he held a teaching post in architecture history and theory at the Hochschule für angewandte Kunst in Vienna. Dietmar Steiner has been director of the Architekturzentrum Wien since 1993. In 2002 he curated the Austrian contribution to the Architecture Biennial in Venice in his capacity as Commissioner.
He is a member of the advisory committee for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award, the most significant European architecture award, as well as being president of ICAM – International Confederation of Architectural Museums – the umbrella organisation for architecture museums world-wide. In addition, Dietmar Steiner works as an architecture consultant on a number of juries and for a number of appraisals. His many years' editorial experience with the Italian journal 'domus' and many published articles on the topics of architecture and urban development are also among his activities.

Hans Ibelings is trained as an architectural historian. He was the editor of A10 new European architecture, which he founded together with graphic designer Arjan Groot in 2004. He has just started The Architecture Observer a multiform tool for architectural criticism. Last year he published European architecture since 1890 (SUN Amsterdam 2011)/Europäische Architektur seit 1890 (Jovis Berlin 2011).
www.architectureobserver.eu

Aglaee Degros is cofounder of Artgineering (2001), an office for research and design at the border between urban planning and infrastructure. In 2010 she was visiting professor of Urban Culture and Public Space at the Vienna University of Technology. She has also been visiting lecturer at TU Delft, Academy of Architecture Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Arnhem, as well as at the UCL and ULB in Brussels.
She is a member of the 'Vlaams Jaarboek 2012' editorial committee and the Europan scientific committee. She has served on the juries of Europan 10 (The Netherlands), Europan 11 (Switzerland), plus several competitions involving public space in Belgium. She is a member of the city of Nijmegen's 'Beeldkwaliteit' committee (2009-2013), and the SFA committee. In 2005 Aglaee Degros was a jury member of Archiprix. She has written ‘N4-toward a living infrastructure’ (2007) with S. Bendiks, and ‘A12NU-onderzoek naar de A12 zone tussen Utrecht, Nieuwegein en Houten’ (2009) with H. van der Vegt and S. Bendiks. She is currently working with S. Bendiks on 'Cycle infra' (2012).
About Aglaee Degros was published in Dialogue (Taiwan, 2009), A+ (2008) , Elle (2001) and Dérive (2006) and her work has been exhibited in the NAI (Rotterdam 2008), Westarch Ludwigforum (Aken 2010) and the Centre for Architecture Aorta: A12NU (Utrecht).

Winy Maas is a Dutch architect, landscape architect, professor and urbanist. In 1991 together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries he set up MVRDV. He completed his studies at the RHSTL Boskoop, graduating as a "landscape architect", and in 1990 he got his degree from the Delft University of Technology. He currently is visiting professor of architectural design at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is professor in architecture and urban design at the faculty of architecture, Delft University of Technology. Before this he was professor at among others Berlage Institute, Ohio State and Yale University.
In 1991, together with Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, he founded the MVRDV studio (an acronym of the initials of the names of the three founders), which produces designs and studies in the fields of architecture, urban studies and landscape design. The studies on light urbanism for the City of Rotterdam, the headquarters of the Dutch Public Broadcasting Company VPRO and the Wozoco's senior citizens' residences in Amsterdam, which won the J.A. van Eck Prize of the Dutch Architects' Association, have brought MVRDV to the attention of a vast collection of clients, giving the studio international renown. Today, the studio is actively involved in numerous projects in various parts of the world. MVRDV designed the Dutch pavilion for Expo 2000 in Hanover, the Logrono Eco-City in Spain, the Gyre building in Tokyo and many others.
Winy Maas presented a keynote address “New solutions for new challenges” at the inaugural Holcim Forum, “Basic Needs” at the ETH Zurich in 2004. In addition he designs stage sets, objects and was curator of Indesem 2007. He is member of the research board of Berlage Institute Rotterdam, president of the spatial quality board of Rotterdam and supervisor of the Bjorvika urban development in Oslo. He is director of the Why Factory, a research institute for the future city he founded in 2008 which is connected to the Delft School of Design.

Michele Brunello, architect, lives between Milan and Venice where he is coursing his Ph.D. at the IUAV university and collaborating as associate professor. He is partner in Stefano Boeri Architetti. After having coordinated the project in La Maddalena and Milan 2015 Expo Masterplan, he is now developing the city of innovation "Skolkovo" in Moscow. He is also founder of the architectural studio DONTSTOP.
He has held several lectures in different European universities (HfG Karlsruhe, TU Delft, TU Graz, KAM Creete) and obtained many rewards and recognitions for the work he has developed regarding the Venice lagoon system as a metaphor of the Mediterranean city.

Markus Hesse is Professor of urban studies at the University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Humanities, with the Geography and Spatial Planning research centre.
With an academic background in geography and spatial planning, he published widely in the field of urban and regional development, economic and social geography and, more recently, on housing issues and metropolitan regions. Recent publications include ‘The City as a Terminal. The Urban Context of Logistics and Freight Distribution’ (2008, with Ashgate Publishers, Aldershot/UK) and the forthcoming ‘Cities, Regions and Flows’ (2012, co-edited with Peter V. Hall, published with Routledge Publishers, Oxford/UK), also a variety of peer-reviewed articles on reurbanisation, metropolitan regions and suburban developments.
Markus Hesse’s research is concerned with principles of urban and regional development (particularly patterns of urbanisation and sub-urbanisation), European urban development and policy, and the significance of global flows and mobilities for cities and regions. Developments and conflicts in Luxembourg and the Greater Region are subject of his research as well. Markus Hesse is elected member of the German Academy of Spatial Research and Planning (ARL), active in working groups of the German Society for Geography, member of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and fellow of the Royal Geographic Society with the British Institute of Geographers (RGS with IBG). He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the ‘Journal of Transport Geography’ and of ‘European Spatial Research and Policy’, also as referee for numerous academic and planning journals. In 2010, he was appointed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Bonn, Germany.

Markus Hesse is Professor of urban studies at the University of Luxembourg, Faculty of Humanities, with the Geography and Spatial Planning research centre.
With an academic background in geography and spatial planning, he published widely in the field of urban and regional development, economic and social geography and, more recently, on housing issues and metropolitan regions. Recent publications include ‘The City as a Terminal. The Urban Context of Logistics and Freight Distribution’ (2008, with Ashgate Publishers, Aldershot/UK) and the forthcoming ‘Cities, Regions and Flows’ (2012, co-edited with Peter V. Hall, published with Routledge Publishers, Oxford/UK), also a variety of peer-reviewed articles on reurbanisation, metropolitan regions and suburban developments.
Markus Hesse’s research is concerned with principles of urban and regional development (particularly patterns of urbanisation and sub-urbanisation), European urban development and policy, and the significance of global flows and mobilities for cities and regions. Developments and conflicts in Luxembourg and the Greater Region are subject of his research as well. Markus Hesse is elected member of the German Academy of Spatial Research and Planning (ARL), active in working groups of the German Society for Geography, member of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) and fellow of the Royal Geographic Society with the British Institute of Geographers (RGS with IBG). He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of the ‘Journal of Transport Geography’ and of ‘European Spatial Research and Policy’, also as referee for numerous academic and planning journals. In 2010, he was appointed as a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR), Bonn, Germany.

Brett Steele is the Director of the Architectural Association School of Architecture, including the AA Public Programme and AA Publications. The Architectural Association is the UK’s oldest and only private school of architecture, which has for decades been recognized as an influential worldwide leader in architectural education. AA graduates are the recipients of the world’s leading prizes and awards in architecture, including three of the past nine Pritzker Prizes, the RIBA Gold Medal & Stirling Awards, AIA and other design awards. AA graduates have created many of the iconic buildings and led the most important schools of our time. The AA School is the world’s most international school of architecture, with 90% of the school’s 650 full-time London students originating from sixty or more overseas countries each year. In 2008 Brett founded the AA Visiting School, an international programme of global design workshops that have enrolled more than a thousand visiting students in Dubai; Turin; Istanbul, Madrid, Berlin and elsewhere in Europe; in Santiago, Chile; Bangalore, India; Singapore; Shanghai; Beijing; San Francisco; Dae Jon, Korea; Tel Aviv; Madrid; San Paolo; Tokyo; Tehran; and other cities.
Brett is the founder and former Director of the AADRL Design Research Lab, an innovative team-based M.Arch programme established as the school’s first-ever full-time, accredited graduate design degree. He is a partner of desArchLab, an architectural office in London, and has taught and lectured at schools throughout the world. He is the editor of NEGOTIATE MY BOUNDARY (2002); CORPORATE FIELD (2005); DESIGN AS RESEARCH (Beijing 2005); FIRST WORKS: ARCHITECTURAL EXPERIMENTATION OF THE 1960S & 1970S (2009; vol. 1 of his ‘works’ trilogy on the critical and experimental architectural of the 20th century); and SUPERCRITICAL: PETER EISENMAN MEETS REM KOOLHAAS (2009). Brett’s articles, interviews & lectures have appeared in ARCH+, ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW, A+U, ARCHIS, AA FILES, HARVARD DESIGN MAGAZINE, HUNCH, WORLD ARCHITECTURE, LOG, MARK, FRAME, JAPAN ARCHITECT, MONOCLE, ICON, DAIDALOS, AREA, and other journals; on CNN and the BBC, in THE WALLSTREET JOURNAL, FINANCIAL TIMES and other media. He is the series editor of ARCHITECTURE WORDS, critical writings in modern and contemporary architecture; and AA AGENDAS, a series documenting the work of the AA School.

Murray Fraser is Professor of Architecture and Global Culture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, where he currently acts as the Director of Research.
He has published extensively on design, architectural history & theory, urbanism, and cultural studies. In 2008 his book, Architecture and the 'Special Relationship' (Routledge), won the RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-Located Research and the CICA Bruno Zevi Book Prize for best architectural book published anywhere in the world in the previous year. He is the co-editor for a major new book series on ‘Design Research in Architecture’ (Ashgate) as well as the co-editor of The Journal of Architecture (Routledge/RIBA), one of the leading international refereed publications. Also a qualified architect, he has jointly set up the Palestinian Regeneration Team (PART) to carry out projects in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Professor Fraser is the new Chair of the RIBA’s Research and Innovation Group and he also serves on the RIBA Awards Group, which amongst its duties selects the annual shortlist for the Stirling Prize. He is currently a committee member of the European Architectural History Network, a representative on the European Network of Heads of Schools of Architecture, and also a founder-member of the Architectural Humanities Research Association (AHRA). He has been an advisor and external examiner for many architectural schools in the UK and internationally, including from 2005-08 as Senior Visiting Professor at the Technical University of Malaysia and more recently as Senior Academic Consultant for setting up the Nazeer Hussain University in Karachi, Pakistan. He has given major lectures and been a keynote conference speaker in many countries around the world.

Christian Schulz is Professor of European Sustainable Spatial Development and Analysis at the University of Luxembourg and since 2007 Head of its interdisciplinary Research Unit IPSE (Identités. Politiques, Sociétés, Espaces).
His research and teaching mainly focus on cross-border regional development in Europe as well as on environmental economic geography. He recently co-edited the first handbook on spatial development in Luxembourg (Chilla/Schulz 2011: Raumordnung in Luxemburg / Aménagement du territoire au Luxembourg, Binsfeld). In March 2012, a co-authored textbook on economic geography will be released in German (Braun/Schulz 2012: Wirtschaftsgeographie, UTB-Ulmer, forthcoming). He co-directed the ESPON study METROBORDER - Cross-Border Polycentric Metropolitan Regions (2008-2009).
He is a core group member of the Regional Studies Association’s research network on ecological regional development, member of the editorial board of The Canadian Geographer and Europa Regional, and acts on the international advisory board of the International College of Territorial Sciences / Collège International des Sciences du Territoire (CIST) based in Paris.