Post-Traumatic Urbanism: Architectural Design. This item is unavailable.Post-Traumatic Urbanism: Architectural Design

POST-TRAUMATIC URBANISM

Urban trauma describes a condition where conflict or catastrophe has disrupted and damaged not only the physical environment and infrastructure of a city, but also the social and cultural networks. Cities experiencing trauma dominate the daily news. Images of blasted buildings or events such as Hurricane Katrina exemplify the sense of 'immediate impact'. But how is this trauma to be understood in its aftermath, and in urban terms? What is the response of the discipline to the post-traumatic condition? On the one hand, one can try to restore and recover everything that has passed, or otherwise see the post-traumatic city as a resilient space poised on the cusp of new potentialities. While repair and reconstruction are automatic reflexes, the knowledge and practices of the disciplines need to be imbued with a deeper understanding of the effect of trauma on cities and their contingent realities. This issue will pursue this latter approach, using examples of post-traumatic urban conditions to rethink the agency of architecture and urbanism in the contemporary world. Post-traumatic urbanism demands of architects the mobilisation of skills, criticality and creativity in contexts in which they are not familiar. The post-traumatic is no longer the exception; it is the global condition.

Adrian Lahoud is a practicing architect and Senior Lecturer in Architecture at The University of Technology Sydney. His current research addresses issues of conflict with regards to urbanism in the Middle East.

Charles Rice is an architectural historian, theorist and critic. He is currently Senior Lecturer and Associate Head of the School of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney.

Anthony Burke is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Master of Digital Architecture course at the University of Technology Sydney, and Director of Offshorestudio.net, a Sydney-based design practice specializing in design and theory related to new media and advanced computational methods.