In 2024, GSAPP public programming brought faculty and students together alongside activists, architects, artists, designers, developers, ethnographers, historians, planners, policymakers, politicians, thinkers, and community organizers from around the world to work beyond disciplinary divides and interrogate the built environment. A broad variety of formats summarized and stated underrepresented histories, possible futures and paradigms that emerge from the cracks opened by intersecting crises (climate, ecological, societal, geopolitical, and technological).
Spring 2024 continued the School’s AFFIRMATIONS series of discussions with designers, researchers, planners, preservationists, and activists affiliated with a broad spectrum of geographies and organizations to affirm and interrogate how to think and redesign the built environment at the intersection of climate, ecological, societal, bodily, and technological crises and defiance. As a project convened to practice the reworlding of societies and ecosystems now, AFFIRMATIONS took place to align evidence and aspirations.
Claiming the inseparability of discourse, practice, and activism, Columbia GSAPP launched ACTIONING SUMMITS in Fall 2024 as an unprecedented effort to affirm how the disciplines of the built environment (architecture, computational design, development, historic preservation, urban design, and urban planning) are anticipating desirable and alternative futures. The summits address crucial methodological shifts in the way these disciplines operate and collaborate with each other on how to action, acknowledging and reflecting on what specific practices, knowledges, design strategies, tools, and processes contribute to this intellectual and ethical engagement.
The Library is Open is a lunchtime series taking over the central space of the School to feature recently published works and their authors. Hosted in Avery Hall’s main stair, the events honor GSAPP’s historical connection to Avery Library, the world’s largest Architecture library, and introduce books by faculty members, Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, and outside collaborators through informal discussions.
Among the many additional lectures and events held throughout the year were the inaugural PhD in Urban Planning Lecture by Joe Schaffers, the annual Detlef Mertins lecture by Dwight Carey, a series of conferences hosted by the Buell Center, and the day-long Historic Preservation Fitch Colloquium “Repairing Architecture Schools.” Even more events were organized by student organizations, faculty, and the academic programs. An extensive archive is available online, and we invite you to view the full documentation and recordings at the links below.
