Autumn Seminar, 2008
HUMANS AND NATURE
HOW WE SHAPE AND ARE SHAPED BY OUR ENVIRONMENT.
23rd and 24th February 2008
Held in RIBA (The Royal Institute of British Architects)
66 Portland Place
London W1B 1AD
Introduction
Human beings evolved as part of the natural world. We have developed societies, tools and structures in response to an often hostile environment. However, most of us live in a man-made, urban world. Whether we enjoy nature or ignore it, we no longer believe it to be the dominant force in our lives.
Now our society is becoming preoccupied with nature again, in the form of global warming - but is this at the expense of a wider enquiry: how do we shape and how are we shaped by our surroundings?
This seminar challenged us to re-examine fundamental aspects of how we perceive and relate to the environment we live in. How are perceptions and behaviour formed by our surroundings? How do we react to threats and why do we respond so slowly to global warming, but so quickly to global terror?
What are the implications for architects? How should they design and plan to give value to the natural world? Do we control or are we controlled by the environment we build?
At a time when more human beings choose to live in cities than anywhere else, we need to look again at the relationship between humanity and nature.
Subjects and Lecturers
Saturday, February 23 2008
Welcome by Sunand Prasad, President of the RIBA
Chairman's introduction
Professor Sir Patrick Bateson
What are we doing to Planet Earth?
Sir Brian Hoskins FRS
Intimate relations: human evolution and the environment
Professor Robert Foley
Why do we live in cities?
Professor Ricky Burdett
Environments for life: turning the world outside-in
Professor Tim Ingold
Panel discussion:
When the Environment we affect impinges on the environment we experience, what should be done?
Sunday, February 24 2008
Why do we leave it so late? Reactions to environmental disasters and the rules of place
Professor David Canter
Nature and daylight in healthcare buildings
Professor Roger Ulrich
Architecture - Putting Humpty together
Richard Burton
Panel discussion:
Can the built world be designed more intelligently to meet the conditions that we need?
Fields of the Mind - Dr. Rupert Sheldrake
more info >>
Scheherazade and the global mutation of teaching stories - Robert Irwin
more info >>
Consciousness, will and responsibility - Chris Frith
more info >>
home | about us | events | publications | links | contact us
© Institute For Cultural Research. Website by Brightlemon UK
Reg. Charity No. 313295
Accessible Text-only / Printable version of this page