A symposium at the University of Virginia School of Architecture

March 24—26, 2011

Global population is poised to become fifty percent urban, making urban life the “new normal” for the first time in history. In the process, cities are growing to unprecedented sizes — at rates that exceed anything human communities have experienced before. The School of Architecture is interested in this phenomenon from an interdisciplinary position, seeking insights about the implications it may have for design, history, and urban planning.

This symposium will pose the question of whether extremely large cities and urban regions are loci of innovation and adaptation, or whether the rapid pace of change overwhelms adaptive processes. Participants will compare examples from cities around the world in an effort to identify spatial armatures, temporal trajectories, and conditions that invite innovation.