Forms of Aid: Architectures of Humanitarian Space

Forms of Aid: Architectures of Humanitarian Space
Book Launch and Discussion

Authors Benedict Clouette and Marlisa Wise, in conversation with Felicity Scott and James Graham.

Forms of Aid, a recent book by Benedict Clouette and Marlisa Wise, examines the urban and architectural consequences of international humanitarian operations. Throughout the world, contemporary humanitarianism has engendered new urban forms through the convergence of non-governmental actors with economic globalization and security interests. Humanitarian space is a territory that exceeds national boundaries but nonetheless produces highly localized effects in the cities and regions that it temporarily incorporates.

Forms of Aid describes the spatial products of international aid at the scale of the building and the city, drawing attention to the responsibility that architects bear for the production of humanitarian space. The book provides a glimpse into the lesser-known spatial manifestations of aid: not just schools and clinics, but also free-trade zones, highways, checkpoints, nature preserves, cruise ships, factories, and surveillance technologies.

Funding for the research and publication was provided by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, the Architectural League of New York’s Deborah Norden Fund, and the William Kinne Traveling Fellows Prize at Columbia University GSAPP.

Benedict Clouette (‘11 MArch and current GSAPP doctoral student) and Marlisa Wise ('11 MArch), are co-founders of Interval Projects, a non-profit cooperative for architecture and urbanism based in New York.

Felicity Scott is Associate Professor of Architecture, Director of the Ph.D. program in Architecture (History and Theory), and Co-director of the Critical, Curatorial and Conceptual Practices in Architecture (CCCP) program at Columbia GSAPP.

James Graham is the Director of Publications at Columbia GSAPP, where he is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor. He directs the Columbia Books on Architecture and the City imprint.

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Organized by GSAPP Incubator at NEW INC.