In this seminar, Sharon Haar, Associate Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago's School of Architecture, discusses how the development of a "networked public sphere" (Yochai Benkler) is producing new forms of social entrepreneurship in architecture that are reviving, extending, and transforming community-based architectural practices initiated in the 1960s. Capable of mobilizing large numbers of architects across the globe for direct action on the ground in cities as diverse as Biloxi, Mississippi and Port-au-Prince, Haiti, these networked organizations are building new linkages between architects and potential clients, designers and NGOs, human needs and community capacities. Haar explores how network-based technologies are transforming design-based movements and will outline a framework for assessing the productivity and sustainability of these practices. Haar's research and teaching focuses on urban design and theory, schools and urban development, globalization, and housing design.
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