SAHANZ conference: Historiographies of Technology and Architecture
On 4 July the Faculty of Architecture and Design is hosting the international SAHANZ conference, exploring themes in architectural history and theory.
The 35th Annual Conference of the Society of Architectural Historians of Australia and New Zealand (SAHANZ) is being held at Victoria University of Wellington this year. Running from 4-7 July, this year’s theme is “Historiographies of Technology and Architecture.” The conference will explore changing relationships between technology, society, and architecture.
The Keynote Speaker is Claire Zimmerman, Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and Director of the Doctoral Studies in Architecture Programme. Her lecture, Heedless Oblivion and Techno-Politics in Postwar American Architecture, will discuss the impact of post-war politics on the built environment in the United States, revealing the ways in which the growth of US industrial power was accompanied by a retreat from the city and the creation of a secretive, specialist exurban architecture.
The first night of the conference coincides with the opening of the internationally regarded exhibition Struggling Cities: From Japanese Urban Projects in the 1960s. This exhibition has been travelling the world for 25 years and Wellington, New Zealand is its final point of call.
“The exhibition takes a fresh look at proposals on the city that were put forward by Japanese architects in the 1960s, when Japan saw a flourishing in the arena of architecture,” says Naohiko Hino, architect and supervisor of the exhibition. “The exhibited proposals are all ambitious ideas addressing various problems engendered by urbanization, which Japan was facing in this period.”
The SAHANZ conference is open to the University community and members of the public. Registrations are likely to open from the middle of May.
More information about the event, including an itinerary, will be available on the SAHANZ 2018 conference website soon.