OUR WORLD IN DESIGN: Immortal Spaces

is a one-day symposium on the spaces that make us human, the legacies we leave behind, and the future we want to build.



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SPEAKERS


Michael Arad

Architect, Memorial Designer, Partner, Handel Architects

Andrea Armstrong

Lawyer, Professor, Loyola University New Orleans

Spencer Bailey

Writer, Editor, Journalist; Host, Time Sensitive Podcast

Marlon Blackwell

Founding Principal, Marlon Blackwell Architects

Ángel Cabrera

President, Georgia Institute of Technology

Jack Cebe

President & CEO, The Stitch project

Kristy Edmunds

Director, MASS MoCA

Rodney Ellis

Harris County Commissioner (Houston, TX)

Shirley Franklin

Former Mayor of Atlanta

Alex Grodd

Founder & CEO, The Disagreement

Phil Harrison

Principal & CEO, Perkins&Will

Are Høidal

Prison Reform Activist, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Correctional Service

Julie Ju-Youn Kim

Chair, Georgia Tech School of Architecture

BJ Miller

Hospice and Palliative Care Physician; Co-Founder, Mettle Health

Susan Magsamen

Neuroaesthetics Expert; Executive Director of Arts + Minds Lab, Johns Hopkins University

Michael P. Murphy

Architect, Educator, and Author; Founder, AMMA

Monica Obniski

Curator of Decorative Arts and Design, High Museum of Art

Brandan “BMIKE” Odums

Artist; Founder, StudioBE

Joshua Roman

Cellist and Composer

Samuel Stubblefield

Artist

Dan Tangherlini

Managing Director, Emerson Collective

Jonathan Tate

Principal, OJT

Hank Willis Thomas

Artist

Gregory Thompson

Scholar; Designer; Creative Director, National Memorial to the Underground Railroad; Founder, Convivium Studio

Andrew Westover

Director of Learning and Civic Engagement, High Museum of Art

Jeff Williams

Principal, Urban Design, Perkins&Will

Dela Wilson

Founder and Principal, Axle Impact Studio

+ more





LOCATION

High Museum 
of Art


Hill Auditorium

1280 Peachtree St NE
Atlanta, GA 30309




ABOUT


Architecture has always flirted with the spectrum and seduction of immortality. The things that we create, we imagine, will shape the world we leave to the next generation. And why shouldn’t we? History has been written in the physical forms of buildings, in monuments, and the names of places in which we live. And to be the author of these structures is to set in stone narratives and stories for others to be influenced and guided by. As Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape our buildings and afterwards, our buildings shape us.”

But the space-shaping field is shifting beneath us. Structures are becoming automated, technologists are now chasing physical as well as physiological immortality; outer space is the next frontier of building forms and authorship is increasingly artificial while it is becoming a politicized center of the culture wars around us. Recent advances in neurological research are showing us that space, architecture, and built form influence sensory responses, and shape neurological reactions at an elemental unconscious deeper level. How we shape structures is changing, but they are still shaping us.

As we explore new frontiers of inhabitation and culture, spaces and their design matter more than ever. Who the architect is, however, might be the contested ground we no longer need to wrestle over.

Our World in Design: Immortal Spaces explores these dimensions of spatial politics and space making; and the hot button issues of why architecture remains at the center of them all, despite where authorship, mortality, and the meaning of space changes amidst us. 

We are convening a group of thinkers, practitioners and curious advocates to chart the paths required to imagine the space we need for tomorrow.








SCHEDULE


April 15

Evening (limited preview)




7:00 PMBook Talk, Signing, & Reception

Michael P. Murphy in conversation with 
Gene Kansas and Ellen Bassett

Our World in Ten Buildings:  
How Architecture Defines Who We Are and How We Live
by Michael P. Murphy

Hosted by A Cappella Books at Wrecking Bar Brewpub
292 Moreland Ave NE









April 16

Morning




9:00 AMDoors Open

9:30 AMOur World in Design: Immortal Spaces Michael P. Murphy
9:45 AMThe City and Memory: Curating a Thriving Public Realm
Rodney Ellis, Shirley Franklin, Jeff Williams, Dan Tangherlini

10:15 AMOn Memory, Authorship, and the Built Environment Greg Thompson, Dela Wilson, Michael Arad, Spencer Bailey


10:50 AMCoffee Break



11:30 AMThe Complexity of Rehabilitation: The Design of the Prison Are Høidal, Andrea Armstrong, Alex Grodd

12:00 PMBuilding at the Fringe: Rehabilitation at the Urban Scale Marlon Blackwell, Brandan “BMIKE” Odums, Jonathan Tate, Julie Kim
12:30 PMLunch (on your own)

Visit Isamu Noguchi 
“I am not a designer” 
at the High Museum








April 16

Afternoon




2:00 PMThe Seduction of Immortality: 
Palliative Aesthetics and Preparing for Life Beyond Earth
BJ Miller, Susan Magsamen

2:40 PMMind-Body-Space Connection: The Emergence of Neuro-Architecture Samuel Stubblefield, Joshua Roman, Susan Magsamen

[world premier of an immersive musical performance by Joshua Roman and Samuel Stubblefield]



3:15 PMAfternoon Break



3:50 PMDesigning Culture: The Public Institution and the Places that Stitch Us Together Ángel Cabrera, Kristy Edmunds, Jack Cebe, Phil Harrison

4:30 PMLegacies in the Built World: The Artist and Architect in Collaboration Hank Willis Thomas, Michael Murphy, Monica Obniski
5:15 PMClosing Remarks, Cocktails, and Conversations

Hosted by Perkins&Will Atlanta







CONTACT

For more information, please visit our Instagram, or email info@ourworldindesign.com


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