Germane Barnes
Structuring Blackness in Rome

While Blackness in America carries a particular connotation, there is a woeful absence of consideration as to how Roman and Italian architecture may be understood through the lens of nonwhite constructors. Germane Barnes will explain his professional trajectory within architecture and how Blackness has shaped his experiences in the built environment.

Germane Barnes is the Rome Prize Fellow in Architecture and an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Miami.

Valerio Morabito
Between Image and Imagination of American Cities

The talk presents a series of drawings realized at AAR regarding American Cities. The presentation is divided into two parts. The first part is dedicated to drawings representing existing American Cities, even if imagined and transformed in shapes and significance. Cities like New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, and more (Rome as an antagonist) have uncommon geometries and perspectives. They show inner attitudes and belongings, coming from the accumulation of memories, traces, and notes. In the second part, the narrative switches to abstract cities between image and imagination. Paraphrasing the famous Italo Calvino’s book Six Memos for the Next Millennium, the aim is to visualize and describe American Cities that evolve free from real contexts: Other Cities for Now. These drawings envision Cities that struggle to understand what they will be in the next millennium or, better and less pretentious, for this near future.

Valerio Morabito is the Enel Foundation Italian Fellow in Architecture, Urban Design, and Landscape Architecture, an architect, and a professor at the Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria and the University of Pennsylvania.

The shoptalks will be held in English.

Notice

Space in the Lecture Room is limited, and seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. If you plan to attend an event with a group of over six guests or students, please inform events [at] aarome.org (events[at]aarome[dot]org) with at least 48 hours prior notice so that special arrangements can be made.

Guests will be asked to comply with Covid-19 safety protocols for events:

• Access to the Academy requires the presentation of a valid photo ID and a Super Green Pass
• FFP2 masks are required when indoors, and temperature will be checked before entry
• Visitor contact information may be shared for contact tracing

Please contact events [at] aarome.org (events[at]aarome[dot]org) with any questions.

Backpacks and luggage with dimensions larger than 40 x 35 x 15 cm (16 x 14 x 6 in.) are not permitted on the property. There are no locker facilities available.