The last decade has seen an explosion of renewed interest in direct action toward remaking our cities. Parklets, guerrilla gardening, interim uses, provisional architectures, occupy movements, and a multitude of small-scale tactical actions are symptomatic of a renewed energy coming from those outside the traditional urban professions.

At the same time, new frameworks for practice and new territories for design agency have been opened up by pioneers who have crossed over old boundaries or erected a larger tent for all that we call urbanism.

Yet there remains a vast chasm between these two parallel worlds, and in order to close this gap we must begin to map the new landscape opened up by these pioneers and tell their stories.

This forum will take a cross section through this terrain by inviting a panel of speakers who are professionals working in some of the more promising domains of this expanded field of urbanism: green infrastructure, big data, urban entrepreneurship, global and local interdisciplinary practice.

Panelists

• Raphael Garcia, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
• Brad Leiben, Public Architecture / TraceSF
• Nancy Levinson, Design Observer
• Mark Miller, MK Think
• Eric Rodenbeck, Stamen Design
• Michel St. Pierre, EHDD

Moderators
Christopher Roach (Architecture / studio VARA)
Mona El Khafif (Architecture/URBANlab)