1. Architecture is made for people

23.09.2009/ 17:00

Nikos A. Salingaros

Christopher Alexander’s approach to design has opened up a new freedom to apply the latest scientific advances to architecture and urbanism. At the same time, it has led to an unexpected reunion of cutting-edge design techniques with timeless traditional techniques.

Going forward based upon scientific understanding has made us realize how much sophistication was included in traditional typologies and practices. Perhaps the most important was a sustainable approach to building.

Christopher Alexander’s approach to design has opened up a new freedom to apply the latest scientific advances to architecture and urbanism. At the same time, it has led to an unexpected reunion of cutting-edge design techniques with timeless traditional techniques.

 Going forward based upon scientific understanding has made us realize how much sophistication was included in traditional typologies and practices. Perhaps the most important was a sustainable approach to building.

 Nili Portugali

In this lecture Architect Nili Portugali will present her particular interpretation of the holistic phenomenological worldview in architecture both in theory and in practice.

 A humanistic worldview (which she will argue is much beyond the given definition of sustainable architecture) stands in recent years at the forefront of the scientific discourse as a whole in disciplines like cosmology, neurobiology, psychology, particle physics, brain sciences, and recent theories of complexity as well as in convergence with the fundamentals of Buddhist philosophy.

Portugali will demonstrate how this approach was implemented in selected buildings and projects she designed and built in Israel for more than 30 years.

2. The Classical Tradition today

24.09.2009/ 17:00

The New Palladians exhibit collects recent projects of the world’s top traditional architects. One of the featured projects is by Hadi Simaan, José Cornelio da Silva, and Nikos Salingaros. 

These designs reveal that Classical design is very much in demand today. It can be practiced, and very successfully indeed, in a variety of blends using traditional and contemporary materials and construction techniques. This exhibit shows that the scope for innovation in contemporary Classical design is immense, disproving the common accusation of restricted design freedom.

Location: TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Berlagezaal

Nikos A. Salingaros 

The New Palladians exhibit collects recent projects of the world’s top traditional architects. One of the featured projects is by Hadi Simaan, José Cornelio da Silva, and Nikos Salingaros.

These designs reveal that Classical design is very much in demand today. It can be practiced, and very successfully indeed, in a variety of blends using traditional and contemporary materials and construction techniques. This exhibit shows that the scope for innovation in contemporary Classical design is immense, disproving the common accusation of restricted design freedom.

 

About the speakers

 

Nikos A. Salingaros is the author of “Anti-Architecture and Deconstruction”, “Principles of Urban Structure”, and “A Theory of Architecture”, as well as numerous scientific papers. A Professor of Mathematics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he is on the architecture faculties of universities in Holland, Italy, and Mexico, and designed the Commercial Center in Doha, Qatar with Hadi Simaan and José Cornelio-da-Silva. Dr. Salingaros is one of the “50 Visionaries” selected by UTNE Reader in 2008.

Nili Portugali is a practicing architect working in Israel for more than 30 years, teaching at the 

Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

Her work focuses on both practice and theory, and is tightly connected to the holistic-phenomenological school of thought. She is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (A.A), London.

She did postgraduate studies in Architecture and Buddhism at the University of California in Berkeley, worked and participated in research with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkeley.

Her firm is involved in a variety of projects in unique areas of historic or environmental sensitivity, in urban design, architecture, landscape design and interior design – disciplines she regards as one continuous system.  

Portugali’s new book, Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place: A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture, was selected by The Royal Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A.) International Book Award among the 24 books of the year 2007.

 

 

 

Nili Portugali is a practicing architect working in Israel for more than 30 years, teaching at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa.

Her work focuses on both practice and theory, and is tightly connected to the holistic-phenomenological school of thought. She is a graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture (A.A), London. She did postgraduate studies in Architecture and Buddhism at the University of California in Berkeley, worked and participated in research with Prof. Christopher Alexander at the Center for Environmental Structure in Berkeley. Her firm is involved in a variety of projects in unique areas of historic or environmental sensitivity, in urban design, architecture, landscape design and interior design – disciplines she regards as one continuous system.  

Portugali’s new book, Act of Creation and the Spirit of a Place: A Holistic-Phenomenological Approach to Architecture, was selected by The Royal Institute of British Architects (R.I.B.A.) International Book Award among the 24 books of the year 2007.