Tonight we had the pleasure of hosting Maria Aiolova, discussing the Art of Urbaneering, as part of the Winter Lecture Series 2014.
During the lecture, Maria touched series of themes very much of interest today: Whose job is it to create a city? Our intention is to jumpstart a new profession that can re-invent and negotiate the complex mix that encompasses a city. We have defined a radical new occupation to regenerate, pioneer, and sustain the future urban realm. These innovative multi-disciplinarian advocates are called Urbaneers. Their immense task is to manifest and facilitate the City 2.0 across the globe. Each Urbaneer is an individual with a different set of versatile abilities that merge previously disparate occupations. They range from combined ecological architects and engineers to action based urban planners and developers. Almost any recombined professional activities will work, so long as they meet the constantly changing needs of urbanization. Urbaneers perform in a role akin to Jane Jacobs, but at the magnitude and accomplishment of Robert Moses. An excellent historical example of an Urbaneer is Frederick Law Olmstead. For years, we have shaped a school called ONE Lab that has expanded on this very notion. Now, the Global Architecture and Design Programs will instruct in the art of Urbaneering to students seeking to augment their sensibilities and operate within cities.
MARIA AIOLOVA is an educator, architect and urban designer in New York City. Her work is focused on the theory, science and application of ecological design. She is a Co-Founder of Terreform ONE. In 2013, Maria was appointed Academic Director of Global Architecture and Design of CIEE (Council on International Educational Exchange). Presently, Maria chairs the ONE Lab NY School for Design and Science and the One Prize Design and Science Award. She is an institutional adviser to New Lab at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She won the 2013 AIA NY Award for Urban Design. Maria is currently a visiting faculty at University of Applied Arts Vienna. Most recently, she taught at Pratt Institute and Parsons the New School for Design. Formerly, she served as Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer of ETEX Corporation, a bio-tech company in Cambridge, MA. Maria is an inventor, who holds 18 technology patents. She was the winner of the Victor J. Papanek Social Design Award, and the Museum of Arts and Design in 2011. Maria has won a number of design competitions including first place in the CHARLES/MGH Station, Boston, and the Izmir Post District International Competition, Turkey. She also won the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity and the Build Boston Award.
