David Gissen Lecture

The John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design hosted a lecture by architect David Gissen on March 6, 2012.

David Gissen is an associate professor of architecture and visual studies at the California College of the Arts, and the author of the book Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environment — the first book to offer a theory of pollution within architecture that falls outside of scientific or solely environmentalist concerns.

Gissen’s recent work focuses on architecture’s “less-than-perfect” encounters with the natural environment, specifically the nature that results from the trauma of urbanization, such as dust, dankness, and debris. He advocates that we let go of the fantasy of a pure and harmonious relationship with nature and the belief that some supernatural savior will fix our current environmental crises and disasters. “Pollution,” he argues, “is as central to modernity in architecture as concepts of space, structure, and programme.”

UofTDaniels