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"What is your city? And what do you need to make that entire city yours?" These are some of the questions being posed by co-founding principal of nArchitects, Mimi Hoang, in reSITE’s Small Talks series. The videos, produced and edited by Canal180, were recorded during the reSITE event that took place in Prague earlier this year, titled "Cities in Migration." Reiterated again and again by several of the interviewees is the fact that migration is, in the words of founder and chairman of reSITE Martin Barry, "a natural human phenomenon; everyone is moving to cities to improve their lives."
Since 2011 reSITE has exploded into an international platform; a democratic process to "integrate people in a 21st century modern, contemporary, sustainable way," says Barry. Michael Kimmelman, architecture critic at the New York Times, calls it "a place where people can come from different parts of the world and have a conversation; often a conversation that doesn’t really take place in public." Saskia Sassen, Urban Sociologist Professor at Columbia University and the London School of Economics, reiterates that the conference "is really wonderful because it is bringing so many different perspectives."
The "migration question" is not a new one; Sassen makes a point of saying that we have always seen "this on-going influx of migration" in big cities. However, as Kimmelman reflects, "architects maybe lost touch in many cases with that role that they played more clearly, even a century ago, trying to shape society." He continues to say that now is the time to reiterate these beliefs that "will shape the way the cities of the future looks." Watch the series below to hear about the rest of their thoughts, and save the date for reSITE 2017: In/visible City on June 22-23 in Prague (check out all the details here).
Michael Kimmelman, NYT
Saskia Sassen, Columbia University
Martin Rein-Cano, Topotek 1
Joana Dabaj & Riccardo Conti, Catalytic Action
