X-TALK #24 BY PETRA KEMPF

X-Talk #24 by Petra Kempf

Catch It If You Can: The Art of Mapping Urban Change Through Storytelling

Cities are an everyday invention informed and imaged by many people at a time. The urban construct is thus composed of an evolving field of changing configurations, expressed in the movements and encounters of people engaging with the city. One of the great challenges, however, is the communication and documentation of that experience. This lecture explores our engagement with cities through the act of mapping by employing storytelling as a means to record the constantly changing urban construct.

Petra Kempf is practicing Architect and Urban Designer based in New York City. Apart from her engagement in the public and private sector, she has held several teaching appointments in Europe and the United States, currently teaching Urban Design at Columbia University in New York City. She is the founder of urbantransits, an interdisciplinary research initiative focusing on the transient nature of cities and the impact this dynamic condition has on the urban construct, it’s cultures, and the perception of place. She has lectured throughout The United States, Europe, and Latin America and her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and institutions in the United States and Europe. She is the author of You are the City (2009) and (K)ein Ort Nirgends — Der Transitraum im urbanen Netzwerk (2010).