Podcast S3E3: Living Architecture: the role of ceremony, ritual, and critical pedagogy in being-in-the-world.

Can the buildings that we live in come alive? Could such living buildings help us to create a healthier, more sustainable future? Could they become adaptive, resilient structures that care for the planet while empathizing, comforting and inspiring us? The Living Dialogs series brings together scholars and thinkers to collectively reflect on living architecture and its implications for our changing world.

We believe that knowledge creation, like living architecture itself, is a collaborative and living endeavour – that meaning is not simply created through the exchange of information but that ideas are formed through open and emergent conversations.

Podcast S3E3: Living Architecture: the role of ceremony, ritual, and critical pedagogy in being-in-the-world.

With Philip Beesley and David Fortin

1:03:32 — https://livingarchitecturesystems.com/podcast/s3e3

July 3, 2024

In this episode, Living Dialogs host Edgar Cardenas is joined by Métis architect David Fortin and LASG founder Philip Beesley to explore the themes of ceremony, ritual, and relationality, and their connections to the evolving field of architecture. They discuss how these elements influence pedagogy and contribute to transforming architectural practices and relationships.

Guests

- Philip Beesley
- Director, Living Architecture Systems Group
- Professor, University of Waterloo, School of Architecture
- https://www.philipbeesleystudioinc.com
- David Fortin
- Professor
- University of Waterloo, School of Architecture
- https://www.davidtfortinarchitect.com/

Supported by the Toolbox Dialogue Initiative and the University of Waterloo.

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Podcast References

In the podcast you will have heard the following references; follow the links to find out more.

08:13 – “…even the mystery of quantum entanglement…”

08:31 – abiogenesis

10:55 – pareidolia, the tendency to detect patterns and meaning where there is none

11:57 – Fortin, D. (2022). The Design Lodge: A lexical shift towards life-centred architectural pedagogy. The ARCC Journal for Architectural Research, 19(1), 47-61. DOI 10.17831/enq:arcc.v18i1.1133

12:16 – University of Laurentian Wigwam project with Art Petahtegoose

13:28 – Design is Ceremony, with Chris Cornelius, Architecture Professor at the University of New Mexico, and principal at studio:indigenous

14:30 – Primordial Black Holes, CBC Quirks and Quarks April 27, 2024

21:04 – Two Row Wampum

22:02 – The role of the Augur is described in The Ideo of a Town, by Joseph Rykwert

22:25 – Roman cardo and decumanus

23:45 – the Dominion Grid, which is the origin of contemporary quadrilateral rural and urban city planning

24:23 – burial mounds in High Park, Toronto

26:45 – David Harvey

27:10 – Philosopher Martin Heidegger’s concept of self, or Dasein, and being-in-the-world

28:46 – One example of Anglican Rogation Sunday worship booklet (note the odd page order); compare with the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address

32:51 – ARCH 5525: The Architecture of the Great Connector, Fall 2019. Canoe project with Elder Marcel Labelle

34:00 – Métis architect Douglas Cardinal; Algonquin Elder William Commanda

36:38 – Biblical reference to Matthew 7:24-27 describing the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus exhorts his followers to heed the word of God.

39:43 – Bruce Mau, Canadian designer

40:06 – Adrian Blackwell and David Fortin collaborated as part of Architects Against Housing Alienation (AAHA) on Canada’s entry to the 2023 Venice Biennale of Architecture, Not For Sale!, on the impact of the housing crisis and real-estate speculation on connection to land, people, and environment.

43:22 – critical regionalism

49:00 – Treaty 4, signed September 15, 1874, between the Cree and Saultaux peoples and the Government of the Dominion of Canada

55:02 – Living Dialogs S3E2: Collaborating with living systems: How mycelium can help us rethink architectural practice

56:32 – Eladia Smoke, principal at Smoke Architecture

59:30 – ARCH 285: Building Kinship: Land-Based Community Engagement in Design, Spring 2022. Taught by Amina Lalor, a mixed Métis architect now at Laurentian University’s McEwan School of Architecture.

Living Dialogs Team

Rob Gorbet
Executive Producer

Edgar Cardenas
Executive Producer & Podcast Host

Sascha Hastings
Producer & Editor

Olivia Deneka Kopeschny
Project Manager & Marketing Coordinator

Graeme DePiero
Project Manager & Marketing Coordinator

Episode Archive