Conférence "Architecture and Hospitality" de Klaus Benesch

Dans le cadre de sa résidence de recherche à Lyon cette année, Klaus Benesch (LMU-Université de Münich) donnera une conférence le mardi 5 mars 2024 à 17h (salle D2-002 du campus Descartes, 15 parvis René-Descartes, 69007 Lyon) intitulée 

"Architecture and Hospitality" 

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As both an aesthetic and a fundamentally social space modern architecture foregrounds contemporary notions of building, dwelling, and thinking. Insofar as it lends material form to the promises but also the challenges of the modern world, architecture frequently finds itself at the forefront of cultural and social debates. Among the many writers and critics who turned to architecture to forge alternative social concepts are the American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau and the German sociologist Theodor W. Adorno. Both pondered the social consequences of capitalist building practices, and both came to favor a more humane and hospitable form of design. As I argue, Thoreau's unpretentious wooden cabin that withers away and eventually erases the traces of its own making, and Adorno's famous metaphor of an alienated modern life ("kein richtiges Leben im falschen"), which he illustrates by way of the corrupted design of a modern apartment building, bear witness to the crucial role of architecture for both critical theory and modern cultural critique at large.

Contact : francois.specq@ens-lyon.fr