Three Cities in Flux

"Conceived in the virtual space of the computer, and with no imminent prospect of realisation, these projects remain virtual in every sense. By retroactively creating physical originals, this exhibition hopes to make the virtual tangible, as an alternative reality. Prints on canvas, paper on card show the imagery as if dug up from an archive…history with a message for the future, looking back as a way of looking forward...". Reinier de Graaf

In this sixth event of our programme "Three Cities in Flux, an investigation into urban regeneration in London, Milan and Rome", Reinier de Graaf, Partner at The Office for Metropolitan Architecture, will present the lecture and exhibition "On Hold".
De Graaf will exhibit ten of his practice's masterplanning schemes: urban regeneration in White City in London, Nuova Bovisa in Milan, and a selection of projects in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As the projects are commissions which are now on-hold or discontinued, the representations exhibited may well be their only physical manifestation.
The architect will discuss the sometimes difficult role that architects play in master planning as they negotiate the forces of the private sector, political pressures, the declining power of the public sector and the severe economic crisis. Through the analysis of these urban plans, De Graaf will reflect on the rehabilitation of urbanism as the 'other product' of the construction boom, as well as the implications these plans have for the future.

4–25 May 2011
On Hold Architecture Programme British School at Rome curated by Marina Engel
6:00 pm talk: Reinier de Graaf presented by Pippo Ciorra
7:30 pm exhibition opening
Tuesday–Saturday 5.00–7.30 p.m.
The British School at Rome
Via Gramsci 61

Partners:
Abitare, Architectural Association, London, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Rome, Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Direzione generale per il paesaggio, le belle arti, l'architettura e l'arte contemporanee, Servizio Architettura e Arte contemporanee, Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, the Netherlands New London Architecture, Università degli Studi Roma Tre

With the support of:
Académie de France à Rome – Villa Médicis, Bryan Guinness Charitable Trust, Cochemé Charitable Trust, Estate 4, INARCH Lazio, John S. Cohen Foundation, Marco Goldschmied Foundation