“Humanizing Urbanism”
Margaret Crawford
Professor, Architecture, UC Berkeley
Wednesday, August 30, 12:00-1:30pm
Cal Design Lab, Wurster 494, Wurster Hall
Over the last two decades Margaret Crawford has explored methods of introducing humanities content into urban design and urban history courses. In her presentation, she will discuss the ongoing challenges and varied results of this endeavor, focusing on the two Global Humanities Research Studios that Crawford co-taught, one with Anne Walsh and one with Winnie Wong.
As a professor of architecture, Crawford teaches courses in architecture, urbanism and urban history and studios focusing on everyday urbanity. Her research focuses on the evolution, uses and meanings of urban space. She has edited and published several books, including The Car and the City: The Automobile, the Built Environment and Daily Urban Life (University of Michigan Press, 1991), Building the Workingman's Paradise: The Design of American Company Towns (Verso, 1996), and Everyday Urbanism (Monacelli Press, 2008), and numerous articles on shopping malls, public space, and other issues in the American built environment. Crawford’s current work investigates the rapid physical and social changes in China’s Pearl River Delta. Prior to coming to Berkeley, she was Professor of Urban Design and Planning Theory at the Harvard GSD and Chair of the History, Theory and Humanities program at the Southern California Institute for Architecture.