CAAD Forum: Liang Wang
Used to describe a typology found in large-scale urban developments from Raymond Unwin’s Town Planning in Practice (1909), to the housing blocks in the New Frankfurt and Red Vienna, to the mid-twentieth-century Soviet Mikrorayon and Brazilian Superquadra, and to the multiplicity of mega-developments that have sprung up all over China since the 1980s, superblock is a term that is familiar, useful, and wonderfully imprecise. Indeed, despite its widespread use among architects, historians, and theorists, the concept of the term remains largely undefined. Why should we be interested in the superblock? What does it entail in the understanding of modern and contemporary urbanism? What might be its relevance to some of the imminent issues facing the environment and (re)production of space in the future? In this presentation, Liang Wang will probe the idea of the superblock in relation to three notes drawn from its history and discourse: on urban form, on modernity, and on commons, each attempting to construct a specific reading of the superblock across key concepts, precedents, writings, and design speculations. This presentation is partially derived from Liang’s ongoing research projects and is intended to engage new perspectives and reflections on the subject matter and beyond through open dialogues.
Liang Wang is an architect, urban designer, and educator. He is an Assistant Professor at The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture. Prior to joining UT Austin, Liang has taught at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Syracuse University School of Architecture. His scholarship and teaching concern history and theory of urban form and design, space and politics of the superblock, architecture and urbanism in East Asia, as well as urban housing and collective living. Liang holds a doctor of design degree from Harvard University. Previously, he received his master of architecture in urban design degree with distinction from the Harvard GSD and a master of architecture degree from Rice University.
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The CAAD Forum series is hosted by the Center for American Architecture and Design to bring faculty, staff, and students together for informal and inquisitive discussions about ideas relating to architecture and its history, theory, practice, and future. Presentations are followed by time for Q&A, with recordings posted to the Texas Architecture YouTube channel following the event.