The World Architecture Festival (WAF) has announced their program for the 2017 edition focusing on the theme of “Performance.” An incredible list of speakers including Alison Brooks, Charles Jencks, Pierre de Meuron and France Kéré will feature across 3 days from November 15th to 17th at the Arena Berlin, Germany. Conferences, city tours, lectures and critiques of the shortlisted projects from the 2017 WAF awards are among the events scheduled for the festival.
The seminars, speeches, debates and discussions will examine “the topic of performance from the perspectives of housing, public spaces, festivals, cultural institutions and new technologies.”
The opening keynote speaker, Rafael Viñoly, will initiate the festival on the Wednesday by speaking to the way his practice applies the concept of performance to architecture and a variety of building types that encourage a range of interactions. Thursday night will see Pierre de Meuron of Herzog & de Meuron, and Charles Jencks flip the role of architect and critic as Jencks presents the recently completed Elbphilharmonie and de Meuron comments. Kim Cook, the Director of Art & Civic Engagement at Burning Man Festival will close the festival on Friday, discussing the temporary structures created in the desert each year and the ultimate performance of creating a city.
Other speakers include:
Nathalie de Vries, Co-Founder, MVRDV
Will Alsop, Director, aLL Design
Alison Brooks, Creative Director, Alison Brooks Architects
Antje Buchholz, Founding Member, BARarchiteckten
Sir Peter Cook, Director, CRAB Studio
Sir Terry Farrell, Principal, Farrells
Edouard Francois, Founder, Maison Edouard Francois
Manuelle Gautrand, Founder, Manuelle Gautrand Architecture
Bettina Götz, Professor for structural engineering, UdK
Louisa Hutton, Principal, Sauerbruch Hutton
Jacob Kurek, Partner, Henning Larsen
Francis Kéré, Principal and Founder, Kéré Architecture
Simona Malvezzi, Co-Founder, Kuehn Malvezzi
Wong Mun Summ, Founder, WOHA
Michele Nastasi, Photographer, author of Starchitecture
Manit Rastog, Co-Founders, MORPHOGENESIS
Sonali Rastogi, Co-Founders, MORPHOGENESIS
Cathy Slessor, writer, and critic, Architectural editor,
Jörg Stollmann, Chair for Urban Design & Architecture, Institute of Architecture TU-Berlin
Sergei Tchoban, Partner, Tchoban Voss Architekten
Petra Vondenhof-Anderhalten, Professor, Beuth University of applied science
The Festival will also run architect-lead tours of Berlin. Among these, a look at the architectural divide and “architectural arms race” of East and West Berlin, a showcase of modern urban visions and, on the topic of performance, examples of refurbished cultural venues.
For tickets and more information see the WAF website.
