Suburbia
Building the American Dream
Who hasn't longed for the American dream? A big house with a garden, a swimming pool and a couple of cars in the garage. A quiet, safe place to live as a family, close to nature in a people-friendly neighbourhood. This exhibition traces the cultural history of a lifestyle ideal that has been endlessly reproduced on television, in advertising and in cinema, and analyses the validity and the most controversial aspects of its urban planning model.
Margaret Crawford: “Suburbanization is not the problem. It is the solution”
Margaret Crawford is an urban planner and one of the foremost experts on urban transformations in suburban areas in the United States. She champions the complexity and socio-cultural diversity of American residential neighbourhoods, suggesting that much of the criticism they face arises from ...
RADAR #1 Xesca Salvà
When we think of a scenographer’s work, we typically imagine someone who designs sets for cinema, theatre or television. Xesca Salvà goes beyond this, crafting her own stage pieces. She aims to engage us in play and storytelling, connecting us with meaningful narratives. This is ...
Richard Ford
Traces of Happiness
Richard Ford, one of the most acclaimed authors of his generation and a masterful chronicler of American society and morals., talks with Pere Antoni Pons on the occasion of the publication of his latest book, Be Mine (Bloomsbury, 2023).
Watch Out for the Doorman. Technology and Neighbourhood Surveillance
Ferran Esteve
The trends in new digital surveillance tools in the current culture of security and control.
A.M. Homes
Alienation in America
The author A.M. Homes, one of the great voices in US fiction, reflects on power, freedom and American identity following the publication of her latest novel, The Unfolding (Viking, 2022).
A morning with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Racism, resistance and reparation
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, renowned historian and activist, lecturer in Afro-American Studies at Princeton University, talks about the origins and effects of racial discrimination and the power of anti-racist movements. The session has a pedagogical dossier (in Catalan) to prepare and to ...
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
Who Has the Right to a House?
A fundamental voice in the struggle for the rights of the Black community, African American sociologist and historian Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor reveals the origins and evolution of urban racial segregation in her country, Looking at the fight for the right to housing as an example of the inequalities in American society.
Margaret Crawford
Rethinking Suburbia
Margaret Crawford, one of the foremost international specialists on urban planning in the United States, offers keys to understanding the transformations of the American suburbs in recent years and to rethinking some of the stereotypes that have historically defined suburban areas.
Nathalie de Vries and Hans Ibelings
The Public Dimension of Architecture
Nathalie de Vries, architect, urbanist, and co-founder of the architecture and urban planning studio MVRDV speaks with the architecture historian and critic Hans Ibelings. Two leading personalities from the world of architecture will discuss questions about public space and the future in European ...
Between the Climate Emergency and a Purported Hope
David Saurí, Mònica Carrera, Lidón Martrat and Irene Navarro
Agendas and Strategies for Addressing a Suburban Model
Sarai Samper, Roger Sauquet, Jordi Boixader and Francesc Muñoz
The Tourist Suburb: Second Homes, Labour Nomadism, and Marginal Settlements
Isabelle Anguelovski, Dani Guillem and Albert Arias
Oriol Nel·lo, Helena Cruz, Jorge Dioni and Antoni Ribas
Suburbian Catalonia
A house with a garden and pool are part of a well consolidated social aspiration in Catalonia. But suburban Catalonia is not any idealised version of the safe, comfortable home but a true reflection of social atomisation in the territory. Speakers in this session will discuss the foundational ...
Housing Market, Household Formation, and Reinforcement of the Suburban Movement
Antonio López Gay, Sergio Porcel and Clara Blanchar
Deficits, Challenges and Trends of a Consolidated Urban Planning Model
Joan Lopez Redondo, Lorena Perona and Josep Báguena
Serielizados, Robin Green, Ainhoa Marzol, Enric Albero
The American Dream: a Trip accross TV Series
From family sitcoms set in houses on tree-lined streets to high school series and intimate dramas set in domestic spaces, the suburban landscape is one of the most common settings in television. In this round table, we delve into series in search of the stereotypes and images from American ...
Philipp Engel: “The suburban landscape is so iconic that it sparks a fascination from which we cannot break free”
Inside the exhibition "Suburbia"
The curator of the exhibition Philipp Engel examines the origin and vast expansion of residential neighbourhoods in the United States, an urban model centred on constructing large swathes of single-family homes on the outskirts of cities. Engel reflects on the allure that suburban landscapes ...
The Home of All of US
Juan Insua
We take a look at the different meanings of the word “home” and the considerations they open up about our present and our future.