UNEASY ARCHITECTURE // ESSAYS ON ARCHITECTURE OF DISASTER

Beginning in 2006, cityLAB is undertaking a two-year project to investigate through design and critical studies the notion of UnEasy urbanism and its architecture. UnEasiness comes from the inherent indeterminacy of contemporary architecture and urbanism, ranging from the merely unpredictable to catastrophic disaster. UnEasy architecture may or may not be difficult, but rather it reflects the instable, anxious, and fluid context for design. It stands in contrast to program and plan in their rigid, fixed formulations. UnEasiness is part of the contemporary metropolitan landscape, where fear and risk are accepted as part of everyday life. Recent crises, from the riots in suburban Paris to Katrina's devastation of the Gulf Coast , make painfully clear the limits of architecture and planning. Through a series of events, we will explore the uneasy possibilities of architecture and urbanism, so that they might play a more significant role in both day-to-day and emergency circumstances. The premise is that an uneasy architecture will produce a responsive environment that dynamically responds to its political, cultural context.

>> download UnEasy Architecture: an Intro, by Dana Cuff [PDF]