Lecture by Matias Echanove, Co-Founder, URBZ

The city is neither designed nor accidental. It seems to elude definition because it’s not quite a thing in itself. It is polymorphic and locally embedded, yet it stretches all over the planet through networks and infrastructure. It’s partly spatial while also encompassing all realms of human activity - civic, economic, environmental and technological. It is undoubtedly the product of humankind yet seems to be shaping us in return. Kevin Lynch calls it a learning, evolving ecology. The city could be described as an embodied intelligence with a logic of its own, but it is also disjointed, and sometimes frankly insane and toxic. How can these considerations provide a starting point for a practice that is contextual and global, benevolent and experimental? Through a series of studies and projects in Asia, Latin America and Europe, Matias Echanove, co-founder of urbz, will present an urban practice that embraces the elusive nature of the city.

Matias Echanove is a cofounder of urbz, together with Geeta Mehta and Rahul Srivastava. Active in Mumbai, Bogota, Geneva and Paris, the urbz collective specializes in participatory design, planning and governance. Matias Echanove studied government and economics at the London School of Economics, urban planning at Columbia University, and urban information systems at the University of Tokyo.

Organized by M.S. Architecture and Urban Design.