Urban environments offer the opportunity to study the design of a variety of vital systems as well as the relationship humans have with their surroundings and one another. The city is the ultimate research project, allowing us to reflect on, debate, and envision the very course of civilization. This talk traces the research threads through Guiney’s career in publishing and the non-profit sector and proposes how research can be converted into not just conversation but also action.
Anne Guiney is the director of research at Van Alen Institute. Previously, she led the Institute for Urban Design, a multi-disciplinary think tank of urbanists that represented the United States at the 13th Annual Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale with Spontaneous Interventions: Design Actions for the Common Good. That effort built on the Institute’s work in connecting design and civic engagement: Guiney developed the innovative crowd sourced design project “By the City / For the City” as part of a new public festival, Urban Design Week, which launched in September 2011. She spent five years as editor of the New York edition of The Architect’s Newspaper, and served as an editor at Architecture magazine and Metropolis, and has written widely on architecture and design for other publications, including Architect, I.D. Magazine, and Details.
Image: Still from Van Alen Sessions Season One, directed and produced by Kelly Loudenberg
