Saturday 5 November, 4.00pm until 6.00pm, Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology, Koszykowa 55, Warsawa, Poland
The debate will be in English
Tickets: free and unticketed. For further information email Szymon Żydek
The economic crisis in Europe makes it difficult to predict the future, let alone plan it. So what does this mean for architects? Should they seek to put forward a bold vision of the future, despite current uncertainties? Or should they improvise with and adapt existing 20th century architecture? Will new social movements bring about new forms of spatial organisation, and if so what role can architects play?
The meeting will held as a part of Synchronicity 2011: a project realised with the financial support of the City of Warsaw
 | Alastair Donald associate director, Future Cities Project; architecture programme manager, British Council |
 | Grzegorz Piątek architecture critic and curator; member, Centrum Architektury foundation |
 | OSSA Representative Polish Association of Architecture Students |
 | Aleksandra Wasilkowska architect; studio head for spatial and social research |
| Chair: | |
|
Claire Fox
director, Academy of Ideas; panellist, BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze; author, I Find That Offensive |
The architecture field is suffering profoundly from this recession. There are innumerable unemployed and underemployed architects and designers who are suffering and will continue to suffer if they cannot find jobs (especially if the recession does a “double dip”). Perhaps it would behoove them and those of us who are employed to stand together and do something.
Guy Horton, Archinect, 31 October 2011
Cities, by their very nature, are a mass of contradictions. They can be at once visually stunning, culturally rich, exploitative and unforgiving.
Austin Williams and Alastair Donald (editors), Pluto Press, 20 September 2011
Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest manmade structure in history, stands in glorious contrast to the pessimism of the West.
Karl Sharro, spiked, 8 January 2011
The Shard shows we’re more than capable of building big if we elbow aside conservative views of the capital.
Tim Abrahams, spiked, 17 December 2010
In the last recession, 40% of architects lost their jobs. Are they prepared for this one? And how will the crunch affect our once-booming cityscapes?
Jonathan Glancey, Guardian, 18 November 2008
