13:00
Architectural Association School of Architecture
October 22
AA Lecture Hall, 36 Bedford Square
This book is a sub-urbanist manifesto. Its author, Sébastien Marot, challenges the dominant role of the programme in regulating the design project, and argues that instead attention should be redirected towards the site – the site read in depth, with an active regard for memory. Exploring this analysis, he considers in turn Frances Yates' book The Art of Memory, Sigmund Freud's analogy between the past of a city and the workings of memory, Robert Smithson's account of a tour of his suburban birthplace and Georges Descombes' design for a small park in the Geneva suburb where he spent his childhood. Marot’s conclusion brings these different strands together and highlights, in memory, a precept that is essential to the renewal of current architecture.
To mark the publication of a new edition of the book by AA Publications this year, Sébastien Marot will be joined in the AA Lecture Hall by Georges Descombes, Iris Hansen and guests for a discussion chaired by Maria Shéhérazade Giudici.
Sub-Urbanism and the Art of Memory is available in the AA Bookshop.
Please get in touch to let us know of any access requirements that you might have and how we can best accommodate these. If you are unable to attend physically but would like to participate in the event remotely please email publicprogramme@aaschool.ac.uk