Rethinking theory, space and production: Henri Lefebvre today
International conference
Delft, November 11th - 13th, 2008 / Zurich, Autumn 2009
Call for contributions, Delft symposium
www.henrilefebvre.org

Chair of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture, TU Delft (NL)
Academie Jan van Eyck, Maastricht (NL)
Chair of Architecture Theory, Faculty of Architecture, ETH Zurich (CH)
Lectureship of Sociology, Faculty of Architecture, ETH Zurich (CH)

Concept:
The questions about the relationships between research and design,
critique and performance, analytical methods and planning techniques
belong to the most pressing in the ongoing urbanistic debate.

The international conference will address these questions by focusing
on the theory of production of space by Henri Lefebvre and its
mobilizations and development in contemporary urban research,
architecture and urbanism.

Program:
Rediscovered in the 1990's, Lefebvre's theory opened up new ways of
understanding of today's processes of urbanization and their
conditions and consequences at any scale of the social reality: from
the practices of everyday life, through the urban scale, to the global
flows of people, capital, information and ideas. At the same time,
this theory has the potential to relate urban research and design
practices because of its programmatic questioning of the links between
the urban analysis, the critique of urbanism, and the vision of a new
type of social space in the contemporary city.

The starting point of the conference will be the research recently
carried out both at the ETH and the TU Delft, which combined a
theoretical reading of the theory of Lefebvre with its employment in
an analysis of the contemporary processes of urbanization.

Broadening this focus and relating to the work of theorists,
architects, designers and urbanists, this conference will examine the
exchanges between research methodologies, theoretical frameworks,
mapping techniques, and design procedures inspired by the theory of
production of space and going beyond it.

Process:
This project will be carried out by two symposia consisting of
lectures, workshops, and debates. The first symposium will take place
in Delft (November 11th-13th, 2008), the second in Zurich (Autumn 2009).

Each symposium will confront key contributions to urban research which
mobilized Lefebvre's theory with its most recent instrumentalizations
in empirical studies and design projects. While the lectures will
gather - for the first time - the most significant applications of
Lefebvre's theory carried out during the last twenty years in various
disciplinary environments and political contexts, the workshops will
present contemporary instrumentalizations of this theory in
experimental urban research and emerging design practices. The
confrontation of these two perspectives during the debates will allow
developing critical approaches towards Lefebvre's ideas and test their
relevance for today's discourse and practice.

The Delft symposium: call for contributions
The organizers of the Delft symposium invite proposals of papers
presenting empirical urban research and architectural and urbanistic
projects which take the theory of production of space by Henri
Lefebvre as their starting point. The organizers explicitly encourage
contributions which draw theoretical conclusions from concrete
engagements with the contemporary city and allow for a critical
rethinking of Lefebvre's theory and its development.

Each presentation should take 30 minutes and be presented in English.

Please send an abstract of up to 300 words, institutional affiliation,
and a short curriculum vitae to Lukasz Stanek, lshenrilefebvre.org

Abstracts can be submitted until 15 June 2008. The selected
participants will be informed by 15 July.

The travel and accommodation costs of successful applicants can be
covered by the organizers. After the Delft workshop, selected
participants will be encouraged to develop their projects with the
possibility of presenting them at the Zurich symposium, and to
contribute to a future publication.

For more details and updates, please visit the web-page of the
conference at: www.henrilefebvre.org