STADSSALONSURBAINS

STADSSALONSURBAINS

A meeting point for urbanites

The city is the future? Most definitely! Throughout the last decade many new ideas and insights have been presented in the field of Urban Studies. At the STADSSALONSURBAINS we invite renowned international professors to present their ideas to the Brussels audience.

The STADSSALONSURBAINS are a brand new series of lectures and documentary screenings for urban professionals, students and all city lovers. A meeting point for urbanites on Fridays in the Beursschouwburg, just before the weekend starts.

10 October, 24 October, 7 November, 28 November and 12 December 2014

from 17:30 until 19:30

at Beursschouwburg (rue Auguste Orts 20-28, 1000 BXL)

Lectures in English

Autumn programme

We kick off on Friday 10 October with a lecture by Patrick Le Galès, professor Sciences Po in Paris and expert on the detransformation of cities, European regions and large cities worldwide. Friday 7 November, we welcome Susanne Heeg, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, who is analysing the effects of the liberalization of financial and property markets on cities. We will screen the documentary “The Human Scale”, a critical view on the way we build and use our cities by Andreas M. Dalsgaard and Jan Gehl Architects. And the 1980 documentary “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces” by William H. Whyte, that has gained a cult status in the field of urban studies.

Friday 10 October 2014

STADSSALONSURBAINS #1

PATRICK LE GALÈS (SCIENCES PO, PARIS)

GLOBAL MINDS, ROOTS IN THE CITY. EUROPEAN MIDDLE CLASSES IN EUROPEAN CITIES

Political scientist and sociologist Patrick Le Galès recently finished a research project on transnationalism and urban practices with two colleagues in Milan and Madrid, containing 500 interviews about the way professionals and managers combine a slow increasing transnationalism with solid roots in cities. The book will be published in december. At our very first STADSSALONSURBAINS, Patrick Le Galès will give you a preview of the research findings.

By comparing four European cities (Paris, Lyon, Milan and Madrid) Le Galès explores the role of urban upper middle classes in the transformations experienced by contemporary European societies. He reveals how segments of Europe’s urban population are adopting exit or partial exit strategies in respect to the nation state.

Friday 24 October 2014

STADSSALONSURBAINS #2

THE SOCIAL LIFE OF

SMALL URBAN SPACES

A DOCUMENTARY BY WILLIAM H. WHYTE

With an introduction by Pol Ghekiere

This 1980 documentary became a highly influential film in architecture and planning circles. In the film urban planner William H. Whyte analyses the success and failures of urban spaces in New York. Observing the natural order of spaces and the way people move through them, Whyte provides an intuitive critique of urban spaces and ways these spaces can be improved.

Friday 7 November 2014

STADSSALONSURBAINS #3

SUSANNE HEEG (GOETHE-UNIVERSITÄT, FRANKFURT)

THE POWER OF FIGURES: CALCULATIVE PRACTICES IN THE REAL ESTATE INDUSTRY

Urban geographer Susanne Heeg examines the role and importance of calculative practices in the process of establishing a global property market. These practices have contributed to the transformation of the property market into a calculable relation, which makes it possible to perceive and assess the real estate market and its objects internationally. Comparability – which includes the transformation of social, political and economic conditions into numbers – has created the context in which investment decisions take place because they suggest transparency and calculability. These practices are created and shared in a network of global real estate professionals and go along with strategies of territorializing and delineating markets.

Friday 28 November 2014

STADSSALONSURBAINS #4

BRIAN DOUCET (UTRECHT UNIVERSITY)

CAN’T FORGET THE MOTOR CITY: DETROIT IN TEN BUILDINGS

Detroit is the most intensely scrutinised city in America today: bankruptcy, abandonment, arson and the small-scale creative revival of Downtown. But there is so much more to understanding what has happened to Detroit and what it means for the rest of the urban world. The aim of this talk is to go beyond the normal discourses on the city to challenge what we think we know about Detroit.  We will experience the Motor City by way of a virtual driving tour, stopping at ten buildings in the city and its suburbs to further explore the lessons from Detroit, visions coming out of the city and why what happens in Detroit matters for other places as well.

Friday 12 December 2014

STADSSALONSURBAINS #5

THE HUMAN SCALE. BRINGING CITIES TO LIFE

A DOCUMENTARY ON JAN GEHL BY ANDREAS M. DALSGAARD

With an introduction by Jens Aerts (Cosmopolis VUB, BUUR)

The Danish architect and professor Jan Gehl has studied human behavior in cities through 40 years. He has documented how modern cities repel human interaction, and argues that we can build cities in a way, which takes human needs for inclusion and intimacy into account. “The Human Scale” meets thinkers, architects and urban planners across the globe. It questions our assumptions about modernity, exploring what happens when we put people into the center of our planning.

Practical

The STADSSALONSURBAINS take place on Fridays at 17.30 at the Beursschouwburg, rue Auguste Ortsstraat 20-28 in the city center of Brussels (premetro La Bourse, metro Sainte-Cathérine, metro De Brouckère). Access is free and you don’t need to make a reservation. You just have to listen to the invited speaker when he or she lectures. That’s all. Be welcome!

An initiative of the Brussels Academy and the Brussels Studies Institute.

Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research

Cosmopolis is a research centre within the Department of Geography of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is dedicated to research and teaching in geography, spatial planning and urban design. Committed to pursuing both academic and practice relevant research, Cosmopolis actively engages policy makers, governments, citizen networks and other urban partners to transform knowledge into action.