Deen Sharp at King's College Cambridge

Terreform co-director, Deen Sharp, will be giving a talk at King’s College Cambridge on October 17, 2019.

Organized by King’s Urban Network, Deen’s talk examines the notable recent expansion of joint-stock corporations into the urban fabric of the Middle East and analyzes how the built environment was utilized to absorb surplus capital.

I look to how corporate capitalization draws on future financial revenues through the production of present urban space. In analyzing how the corporation arranges contemporary urban life through the future, I center on capitalization, the central mechanism through which the modern joint-stock corporation organizes its operations.

Capitalizing urbanization is the extension of time, the drawing of future revenues into the present through the concentration of space (urbanization). Far more than a mere financial operation, capitalizing urbanization is a force that is increasingly organizing collective life in the Middle East and beyond.

The event will be held at King’s College Audit Room.

Read Deen’s latest from Public Books, “The World the Gulf has Built” to Sustaining Peace in an Urban World and Progress in Human Geography: Difference as practice: Diffracting geography and the area studies turn.

BEYOND THE SQUARE: URBANISM AND THE ARAB UPRISINGS

Deen Sharp and Claire Panetta, Editors

Contributors: Khaled Adham; Susana Galán; Azam Khatam; C. Lanthier; Ed McAllister; Julie Mehretu; G. Ollamh; Duygu Parmaksizoglu; Aseel Sawalha; Helga Tawil-Souri

“Revolutions do not occur in a vacuum; rather, they are caused by a complex mix of domestic and international factors. They ultimately come to fruition in places, and not just in central squares.

Beyond the Square fills a major gap in our understanding of how urban space factors into popular uprisings. It is a valuable contribution to the analysis of space and politics. ”

— Asef Bayat, author of Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East

Terreform is a nonprofit 501(c)(3), urban research studio and advocacy group founded in 2005 by Michael Sorkin. Its mission is to investigate the forms, policies, technologies, and practices that will yield equitable, sustainable, and beautiful cities for our urbanizing planet.

See our latest projects.

Proyecto Helicoide at Seoul Biennale

Celeste Olalquiaga, Director of Proyecto Helicoide and Downward Spiral co-editor, exhibition at the 2019 Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism.

At a moment when cities are increasingly unequal and segregated it asks if they can continue to be perceived as collective spaces and what tools or strategies can be used to transform cities into collective spaces. (E-flux)

Learn more about the “Cities Exhibition”. Proyecto Helicoide > Infrastructure > Caracas, Venezuela.

#ICYMI Olalquiaga in CNN:

Once hailed as the would-be icon of Venezuela's fast paced modernity, El Helicoide's downward spiral sadly represents the collapse of a national dream built on untenable social divisions.

One can only hope that both country and building will rise from their current situation and meet the challenges of a country whose vast oil reserves still hold an unfulfilled potential. For this to happen, justice must be served for the country's political prisoners, but also for its ever-present masses of urban poor. (CNN: “El Helicoide: The futuristic wonder that now sums up Venezuela's spiral into despair,” 2019).

Folleto El Helicoide de la Roca Tarpeya: Centro Comercial y Exposición de Industrias, 1956.

Learn more and download the table of contents of Downward Spiral: El Helicoide’s Descent from Mall to Prison.

#URDownwardSpiral

Learn more about Proyecto Helicoide, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the architectural, cultural and social value of El Helicoide de la Roca Tarpeya in Caracas, Venezuela.

Terreform Urban Research Receives Graham Foundation Grant 2019

Terreform has received a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts for its imprint, Urban Research.

The Chicago-based Graham Foundation has released a list of organizations that will receive its coveted Production and Presentation Grants to pursue architecture-related projects this year.

In line with the Graham Foundation’s mission to “foster the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture,” awardees will receive assistance with production-related expenses for a variety of undertakings that aim to enrich architectural discourse, including films, publications, exhibitions, and lectures. Final decisions were made on the basis of four criteria: originality, feasibility, capacity, and potential for impact.

More from The Architect’s Newspaper.

See list of projects UR (Urban Research) 2019.

Anas Awad, "The Merchandise Tunnel," illustration, 2019. In "UR13: Open Gaza: Four Tunnels" by Bin Al-Sirhid (Pseudonym).

Urban Research (UR), the imprint of Terreform, publishes progressive books about cities and their futures.