Spaces of architecture/architects of space

Apologies for cross-posting





Call for papers - RGS-IBG Annual Conference 2008





Spaces of architecture/architects of space



Session organisers: James Faulconbridge (Lancaster University) and Rom Imrie (Kings College London)





The contemporary work of architects and allied design and property development industries and their impacts on cities and urban landscapes has increasingly interested Geographers. Economic geographers have become fascinated by the firms involved in the production of architecture whilst urban, social and cultural geographers continue to be intrigued by the material affects of architectural forms and the spaces they create. Yet studies often tend to focus upon the outcomes of the design process – the buildings and spaces that result from the work of ‘space designers’. This session seeks to take one step back and examine the agents of production – the architects, designers, and allied professionals - and the influences upon their work. So as to better unpick the ways architectural spaces emerge, the session will explore the influences on space designers that affect how they conceptualise and understand the process of producing buildings and other spaces. In doing this the session aims to bring the work of architects but also other types of space designer (e.g. interior designers, planners, structural engineers, etc) into focus so as to help reveal the way individual and community experiences of buildings, the city and other spaces are influenced by the work of these professional groups. Possible topics for papers might include (but are not limited to):

· The work of architects within small or large firms and the social, cultural, economic and political regulation of designs;

· City planners and the influences on their decision-making process;

· Interior designers and their understandings of space;

· Examination of the way the designer’s conceptualisation of space and the public appropriation of space coincide and differ;

· Explorations of how the discourses associated with symbolic and iconic architecture, urban regeneration and entrepreneurialism influence space designers;

· The role of education in socialising and conditioning the work of space designers.



Expressions of interest should be sent to James Faulconbridge (j.faulconbridge@lancaster.ac.uk) by February 11th 2008. Please include an abstract on the pro-forma available from the RGS website (http://www.rgs.org/WhatsOn/ConferencesAndSeminars/Annual+International+Conference/Submit+an+abstract.htm)









Dr James R Faulconbridge

Lecturer in Human Geography

Department of Geography

Lancaster University

Farrer Avenue

Lancaster

LA1 4YQ

UK



Telephone: +44(0)1524 510265

Email: j.faulconbridge@lancaster.ac.uk

www.geog.lancs.ac.uk