This term's lecture series seeks to theorize and debate local practice in relation to larger, global tendencies. The ever-expanding process of globalization has been pushing the limits of its operative domain further and further away from its epicenters, constantly shifting the focus of investment to new regions. The emerging markets in China and India, Eastern Europe and some regions of the Middle East and Central America are now the new engines of a process that is simultaneously creating powerful frictions of no less global reach, as 9/11 has shown. Some of the most crucial subjects in contemporary politics, cultural studies and, obviously, urban and architectural practices emerge from the friction between global protocols and local structures; the most extreme cases appear precisely in these frontier locations.
As part of a crucial research on the forces and stresses that shape the contemporary city and as a way of creating an alternative perspective to that usually broadcast by the leading international institutions and architects, we have selected a series of cities, in different stages of globalization, in which to explore these issues. We have identified agents – mostly architects – directly engaged in the processes of their city’s physical transformation, but simultaneously engaged in the international debate via academic practice, exhibitions, journalism or simply professional networking.

This will be a lecture series for a group of cities to speak up, and to construct a more accurate picture of the wild variations of the global city. 
 
A lecture series for a group of cities to speak up, and to construct a more accurate picture of the wild variations of the global city - more information.

21 March 2006
Croatian Coast by Sasa Randic

28 March 2006
Tirana documentary Scherp Zicht

04 April 2006
Shanghai by Qingyun Ma

11 April 2006
Moscow by Sergei Sitar

18 April 2006
Mumbai by Rahul Mehrohtra

25 April 2006
Caracas by Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner

02 May 2006
Seoul by Young Joon Kim

08 May (Monday)
Lagos by David Aradeon

16 May 2006
Tokyo by Yoshiharu Tsukamoto

23 May 2006
Istanbul by Cem Ilhan

30 May 2006
Beijing by Yung Ho Chang

6 June
Johannesburg by Lindsay Bremner

13 June
Beirut by Hashim Sarkis

20 June
Mexico City by Fernando Romero