A view of the Largo da Oliveira in Guimarães
Photograph: EAHN

Keynote Speakers Announced for EAHN First International Meeting

On the three evenings of the EAHN First International Meeting in Guimarães in June 2010, keynote events will take three different forms: lecture, dialogue, and summary discussion.

On 17 June, the keynote lecture “Buildings Without Context: ‘Primitive’ and Non-Western in Western Architectural Historiography” will be delivered by the architectural historian Paulo Varela Gomes.  Professor Gomes teaches at the Department of Architecture of the School of Sciences and Technology (Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia) of the University of Coimbra.  He is the editor of  MURPHY: Journal of Architectural History and Theory and conducts research on the history of Portuguese and Indo-Portuguese architecture.

The next evening, on 18 June, the keynote event will take the form of a conversation between architect Denise Scott Brown and architectural historian Gülsüm Baydar.  The two speakers will discuss the complex exchanges between architecture and history and how the relationship between the two disciplines might further develop.  Denise Scott Brown is an award-winning architect, planner, and urban designer, theorist, writer and educator, whose well-known design projects and ideas have influenced architects and planners worldwide.  As principal of the firm Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates, she has engaged in a wide variety of interdisciplinary work, teaching and research.  Prof. Dr. Gülsüm Baydar is chair of the Department of Architecture at the Izmir University of Economics.  Her research lies at the intersections between architectural and other discourses including psychoanalytical, postcolonial, and feminist theory. 

To end the conference on 19 June, a session has been organized to allow all participants the opportunity to draw conclusions, raise questions, and consider the implications of the conference sessions.  A panel will discuss the various thematic strands represented by the papers and roundtable sessions.   Keynote speaker Professor Antoine Picon will present a summary overview of the conference.  Professor Picon is Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology and Co-Director of Doctoral Programs at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.  As an engineer, architect, and historian of science and art, he investigates the complementary histories of architecture and technology from the eighteenth century to the present, particularly in France.

Full biographies of the four keynote speakers can be found on the conference website:  http://www.eahn2010.org/ by clicking on the link “Keynote Speakers.”