Lecture at Studio-X NYC, Columbia University GSAPP. Friday 13 at 7:00 pm
The talk will be followed by a Q&A and light refreshments. Free & open to the public.
A short survey of Arctic engagements by architect David Garcia
In the imagination of the virtual visitor, both past and present, the Arctic often evokes romanticized scenarios on both sides of the utopian/dystopian discourse. In reality, the world’s polar regions are sites of complex cultural, and ecological significance — particularly today, when their climate-changed landscapes are the subject of geopolitical and territorial conflicts, while at the same time posing new opportunities for transnational and intercultural cooperation.In this presentation we will explore a series of exercises that aim to generate a palette of understandings of this often surreal landscape, based on expeditions and experiences in the Arctic. From Greenland to Iceland, via Svalbard, students and practitioners have created devices and shelters in an effort to chart, record, map, or otherwise engage with the realities of a context that on the surface seems almost beyond architecture.