Prof. Antony Radford
(School of Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban Design,
University of Adelaide, Australia)
Wednesday 22 September
at 12-14 o’clock, lecture room 7
(New side of the University Main Building, Fabianinkatu 33, 3rd floor)
TITLE
”Urban Aesthetics in Relation to Warwick Fox’s Concept of Responsive Cohesion”
OUTLINE
In this talk I shall argue that the relation of responsive cohesion between
a ’thing’ and its contexts offers a practically useful way to consider the
aesthetics of urban environments, and to make and justify decisions about urban
aesthetics. The theory of responsive cohesion is set out in Warwick Fox’s book
A Theory of General Ethics: Human Relationships, Nature, and the Built
Environment (MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2006). I shall draw parallels with
the writings of others about the urban scene, citing particularly Christopher
Alexander, Pauline von Bonsdorff, Kevin Lynch, Peter F. Smith, and Peter
Zumthor. I shall briefly discuss some examples from architecture and urban
design, and suggest that the continuing attraction and relevance of the work of
Alvar Aalto can be partly explained by its qualities of responsive cohesion.
Prof. Radford’s homepage: http://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/antony.radford