Mr Brillembourg presented Urban-Think Tank (U-TT), an interdisciplinary design practice dedicated to high-level research and design on a variety of subjects, concerned with contemporary architecture and urbanism. The philosophy of U-TT is to deliver innovative yet practical solutions through the combined skills of architects, civil engineers, environmental planners, landscape architects, and communication specialists. U-TT’s work concerns both theoretical and practical applications within architecture and urban planning. Working in global contexts by creating bridges between first world industry and third world, informal urban areas, they focus on the education and development of a new generation of professionals, who will transform cities in the 21st century.

This was elaborated during the lecture through the presentation of a series of key projects regarding Public Buildings, Infrastructure and Housing projects, with the aim of confronting realities to create realisable utopias, pushing designers to step out of their comfort zones and onto the ground, giving up the concept of “signature architecture”, and ultimately designing structures that will be finished by others, according to the specific needs at hand, transforming architecture into a moderator.

Thursday 8th of May 2014

Alfredo Brillembourg
Lecture: Radical Urbanism: A search for a new architecture

@ 19.30, IAAC Auditorium
Open to the Public

ALFREDO BRILLEMBOURG
Alfredo Brillembourg was born in New York in 1961. He received his Bachelor of Art and Architecture in 1984 and his Master of Science in Architectural Design in 1986 from Columbia University. In 1992, he received a second architecture degree from the Central University of Venezuela and began his independent practice in architecture. In 1993 he founded Urban-Think Tank (U-TT) in Caracas, Venezuela. Since 1994 he has been a member of the Venezuelan Architects and Engineers Association and has been a guest professor at the University Jose Maria Vargas, the University Simon Bolivar and the Central University of Venezuela. Starting in 2007, Brillembourg has been a guest professor at the Graduate School of Architecture and Planning, Columbia University, where he co-founded the Sustainable Living Urban Model Laboratory (S.L.U.M. Lab) with Hubert Klumpner. Along with Hubert Klumpner, Brillembourg holds the chair for Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Institute of Technology (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule, ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. As co-principle of U-TT, Brillembourg has received the 2010 Ralph Erskine Award, the 2011 Holcim Gold Award for Latin America, 2012 Venice Biennale of Architecture Golden Lion and the 2012 Holcim Global Silver Award for innovative contributions to ecological and social design practices.

image credits: Urban-Think Tank Project: “Grotao Community Centre”