04.15.20 Remote In Conversation | Elisa Iturbe and Austin Wade Smith: Human Body/Carbon City

As part of The School of Architecture's In Conversation series, Elisa Iturbe and Austin Smith’s discussed environmental issues from different scales and overlapping positions. Iturbe focused on the possibility of framing the climate crisis as a spatial problem, and the tension this creates between the individual and the collective. Smith discussed the rituals and technologies through which individuals perceive and perform their role as actors in ecological networks. Kevin Chow moderated.

Elisa Iturbe teaches design studio, analysis, and an Environments course titled “The City as Carbon Form” at the Cooper Union. She is also a critic at the Yale University School of Architecture (YSoA), where she also coordinates the dual-degree program between YSoA and the Yale School of the Environment.

Austin Wade Smith is a designer, creative technologist, and researcher. After studying biology and receiving an architecture degree from MIT, they are currently an adjunct faculty member at the Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture at the Cooper Union, teaching courses on the relationship between computation and social / environmental justice.

The In Conversation series is intended as a format for faculty and students to discuss issues that are affecting the school, the discipline, or the theories, cultures and practices of architecture. The second part of the discussion will open to questions from the audience.