Prof David Everatt executive Director GCRO on the Gauteng city region concept; Jean Louis Cohen on the French presidential competition ‘Grand Pari(s)’; members of City of Johannesburg metro council staff; Moderated Prof Alan Mabin.

Thursday 22 October 2009

Registration from 08h00

08h30 – 13h00

New Seminar room,  2nd floor, John Moffat Building (R170 , students R90)

Think Metropole: Large city regions have been thought about and governed in a myriad of ways over past decades. Political, ideological and intellectual shifts have altered the discourses, analyses and politics of the question of the large city region. The President of France appointed ten teams led by top international architects and urbanists (Richard Rogers, Jean Nouvel, etc) who have done sophisticated work visualising futures for Grand Pari(s), now on display [ http://www.legrandparis.culture.gouv.fr/ ].

This explosion of thinking reveals shifts and contradictions as well as continuities in ways of thinking about the metropolis. Paris is exceptional as all large city regions are: yet its experience can be compared with others of different politics and histories. Gauteng City Region centred on Johannesburg is one such region which has also been rethought and contested in very recent years. These regions are central to the political, cultural and economic life of their respective countries.   

The purpose of the round table discussion is to share information and provoke discussion on the vocabulary, changing representations, and recent developments in these metropoles. Given the importance of architects as well as urbanists of diverse backgrounds in the shaping of new thinking on the metropolis, we invite you to participate in this discussion, which CUBES in the School of Architecture and Planning at Wits is pleased to host during the Beyond Modernism festival in the School.  Presenters will include Jean-Louis Cohen of NYU - a member of one of the Paris teams - and David Everatt and colleagues of the Gauteng City Region Observatory [ http://www.gcro.ac.za ].