The Room and the City

This is the keynote lecture following the M.Arch Jury for the Housing & Urbanism Postgraduate Programme

By drawing reference to both the investigations made with students over the last twelve year at Studio Krucker Bates at TU Munich and in twenty five years in practice at Sergison Bates architects’ London studio, the lecture suggests that to consider the city one must first consider the room. Treating the plan as a spatial figure designed with the promise of use but not led by it and acknowledging that it must accommodate an unknown future brings a broader and more relevant understanding of the role of architecture to the current debate on the environmental crisis.

Stephen Bates has taught at numerous schools of architecture, including the AA London, ETH Zurich, EPFL Lausanne, ETSAB Barcelona, AHO Oslo and GSD Harvard. Since 2009 he has been Professor of Urbanism and Housing at T.U. Munich

Image: Evelyne Vanhoutte