AMES, Iowa -- One of the nation's key voices on urbanization and issues facing contemporary cities will speak at Iowa State University.
Albert Pope will present "Airquakes: Climate Change, Ontology and Urbanization" at 5 p.m. Monday, April 4, in Benton Auditorium, Scheman Building, Iowa State Center. His talk is the keynote address for the university's Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities symposium, "What is the Urban?" His free talk is open to the public.
An airquake is an assault of human-made pollution on the environment like that experienced by Harbin, China (population 11 million). On October 21, 2013, the city closed all businesses and schools and suspended public transportation due to the lack of breathable air.
Pope is the Gus Sessions Wortham Professor of Architecture and director of the Present/Future Program at Rice University. Pope's seminal book on the postwar American City, "Ladders," is in its second edition and considered a classic in urbanism. He has written and lectured extensively on the broad implications of post-war urban development.
Pope currently researches the urban implications of climate change. He is formulating new models of density because of the extraordinary demands soon to be placed on the global urban environment.
Pope's design work has received numerous awards, including national and regional awards by the American Institute of Architects and a design citation from Progressive Architecture. He holds degrees from Southern California Institute of Architecture and Princeton University and has taught at Yale University.
Pope's talk is co-sponsored by the Center for Excellence in the Arts and Humanities; the departments of Anthropology, Architecture, Community and Regional Planning, English, Geological and Atmospheric Sciences, and History; DATUM: Student Journal of Architecture; the Climate Science Program; Global Resource Systems Program; and the Committee on Lectures, which is funded by Student Government.
More information on ISU lectures is available online, or by calling 515-294-9935.
