Viscous space North Sea Conference

N.R. Couling (Organiser)
Hein, C. (Organiser)

History, Form & Aesthetics

Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference

Description

Convenors of the Viscous Space Conference, TU Delft.
Interdisciplinary three-day conference addressing the ongoing transformation of the North Sea form a spatial perspective and in comparison to further international case-studies.

Period	20 Jun 2018 → 22 Jun 2018
Event type	Conference
Location	Delft, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Keywords

Ocean urbaisation
North Sea
Infrstructure
History
Theory
Ecology

Documents & Links

Urbanization processes coupled with shifting oceanic cycles have dramatically changed cities and landscapes in and around the North Sea over the centuries. However spatial pressure within the interpenetrating urban and ecological North Sea systems has reached unprecedented levels. How can the spatial disciplines address this condition? The conference gathers North Sea specialists from different disciplines and locations, as well as scholars who position their case-study within a wider historical, geographical or sociocultural context. We argue that it is vitally important to examine the spatial realm of the sea as a cultivated artefact in order to understand its past and therefore to imagine its (sustainable) future. Such an examination requires a combined cross-disciplinary effort to re-conceptualize the sea as the essential founding space of the region and an agent of urban development. Interactions within this space are both tangible and intangible, solid and liquid. Historical legacies of the sea are legible in the built environment, but also concealed at underwater and coastal heritage sites. Port cities have traditionally been the sites of land-sea exchange in both material and non-material ways. Unfamiliar, mobile or temporary urban formats not only inhabit offshore space, but are also delivered back to land, steering spatial development and frequently in juxtaposition to the historical urban fabric of the greater North Sea Region. How have historical processes of ocean urbanization reshaped our regional economic, social, cultural, and human environments both at sea and on land? In particular regarding; - physical conditions; ecology, infrastructure and artifacts - legal and theoretical constructions - narratives, representations and projections - heritage debates The three-day programme foresees morning presentations and chaired thematic workshops in the afternoon, during which a more intensive exchange can take place between presenters, junior researcher and the audience. The offshore perspective on the North Sea compliments ongoing research at the Centre for Global Heritage and Development and the Chair of History of Architecture and Urban Planning, in particular port cities, the global petroleumscape and ocean urbanisation.