Rapid Response: Towering Inferno: Feb 24

Rapid Response: Towering Inferno
Tuesday, February 24, 6:30 pm
Studio-X
180 Varick Street, STE 1610, (between King and Charleton Streets)

The spectacle of Beijing's TVCC tower set ablaze on February 9, 2009 spurred debate about not only regulation and building practice, but also the future of Chinese development. Not long after undergoing international scrutiny for its political and environmental policies in the run-up to the 2008 Olympics--its lasting symbol being the Bird's Nest--the Chinese state once again experienced international attention that revolved around iconic architecture. Deemed by many to be the end of the "boom," what does the fire imply for a construction trajectory that has fixated on China as a land of opportunity, and for questions of sustainability and urban development in other Chinese and global cities?

JEFFREY JOHNSON, Columbia University GSAPP; Director, China-Lab
JOSEPH GRIMA, Director, Storefront for Art and Architecture; author of "Instant Asia: Fast Forward through the Architecture of a Changing Continent"
JYOTI HOSAGRAHAR, Columbia University GSAPP and SIPA; Director, Sustainable Urbanism International

Free and open to the public, RSVP: gdb2106@columbia.edu

Held on the last Tuesday of each month, RAPID RESPONSE is an open and undetermined platform for quick response to events that have transpired over the past thirty days. [Studio-X is a downtown studio for experimental design and research run by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation of Columbia University.]

http://www.arch.columbia.edu/studiox/