Monday, October 10 from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM Friends Center, 15th and Cherry Streets Registration : $20 Proceeds benefit the Community Design Collaborative. RSVP
Join us for a talk and public reception at the Friends Center, when Teddy Cruz comes to Philly as the keynote for Design in Action 2011. The Guatemalan-born architect is a tireless advocate, designer, and urban theorist whose work urges us all to think beyond traditional borders. Inspired by his San Diego office situated nearby the busiest border crossing on the globe, Cruz will share insights on the public engagement strategies and research that fuels his firm’s work, and how we can all respond creatively to an increasingly interconnected world.Co-Founder of the Center for Urban Ecologies and Professor of Culture and Urbanism at University of California San Diego, Cruz was among twelve extraordinary leaders to receive a Ford Foundation Visionary Award this year.
http://vimeo.com/24727586
Internationally renowned for his urban research on the Tijuana-San Diego border, his work focuses on traditionally overlooked poor, minority and immigrant communities and spaces, and has transformed border neighborhoods in California and communities in New York by creating affordable, quality housing and public infrastructure.
In the video from the Ford Foundation above, Cruz predicts that, “The best ideas in the next decades will not emerge from sites of abundance and privilege but will, in fact, emerge from sites of scarcity. The kinds of conditions… that immigrants have set into motion can point to a future that is a lot more sustainable. Behind the façade of poverty there is an amazing creative process.”
Design in Action 2011 is a national conference for design activists from around the US. Meet them at the reception before the talk. The Collaborative will also be launching its new publication, LEVERAGE: Strengthening Neighborhoods through Design, at the event.
