Achitectural gifts are everywhere: libraries funded by wealthy philanthropists, shelters donated by humanitarian organizations, farms paid for with development grants, mosques financed by Islamic foundations, and stadiums handed over as part of diplomatic charm offensives. Embedded in religious and imperial traditions of gift-giving, architectural gifts shape the urbanization process across the world. Humanitarian, developmentalist, and diplomatic building-gifts have become ubiquitous in rapidly expanding African, Asian, and South American metropolises and their hinterlands. In North American and European cities, philanthrocapitalists invest in cultural, social, and educational facilities passed down by the dwindling welfare state.
New construction as an exception? “Waste” as a new building material? Affordable housing vs. climate protection? How do we design a building’s whole lifecycle? How do we calculate grey energy honestly? What is zero-carbon concrete? Which insights are new, and how can we tap past knowledge to develop solutions for the future? How do we shape this complex change process together? “Second City. On the New in the Old” is the theme of Architecture Matters 2023, where we will explore this topic at different levels: materials, buildings, society.
topic 2019: THINK BIG! Great Ideas, Large Scale Projects and Disaster
mission: Architecture Matters is an international conference on the future of architecture and cities, which brings together all relevant stake- holders from architecture, real estate and politics. A provocative platform for the curious and the courageous – exploring urban utopias and entrepreneurial visions. With lectures, discussion pan- els, workshops, speed dating and surprising extras. Held in Munich once a year. Inspiration, business, network.