Islands and Paradigms: on unorthodox ways to read the city

The city can be defined as an 'island' if we consider the island in relation to the nature of its edges, as a mutable space that constantly negotiates relationships. Space and edge at once, the island is an unstable figure. Its threshold is a space that embraces change and allows for the construction of different identities in time. Rather than a condition of physical delimitation and finished-ness, the island can be defined by its increments of concentration and density; it tolerates, or even imposes, proximity and coexistence.

Drawing from Teresa's recent book Paradigm Islands: Manhattan and Venice, this talk argues that the city and its processes are intellectually understood not only by reference to the urban cultural context but also by drawing categories from other disciplines. An open reading of the city that traverses art theory and history, architectural manifestoes and theory, but also land surveying, cartography, philosophy and cultural studies, can identify a series of 'figures' that are ambiguously placed between the representation, the construction and the experience of space in the city.

Visiting Professor of Architecture History and Theory at UTS, Teresa Stoppani (MArch IUAV Venice, DrRes A&UD Florence) has taught at the Institute of Architecture of the University of Venice (IUAV) and at the Architectural Association in London, and is Reader in Architecture at the University of Greenwich (London) where she is coordinator of postgraduate Architecture History and Theory.