Productive Dystopia

Urban thinktank Tomorrow's Thoughts Today will moderate a panel discussion of emerging and seasoned urbanists as part of the TINAG Festival of Urbanism. The round table discussion will explore the issue of alternative urban practice that has its basis in dystopian fantasies and speculations where things go wrong, in perverse opposition to the current trend for naive optimism in urban regeneration which is as much powered by having to sell to clients as much as it is to win votes.  But rather than simply offer cynicism as a response, can we describe an alternative practice where current power structures of patronage and regulation are channeled, subverted or engaged in new ways? What is the power of a critical urbanism within the practice of design? And how might dystopian visions paradoxically offer a productive way of approaching the urban question? Panellists include: Darryl Chen and Liam Young (Tomorrow'sThoughtsToday); Austin Williams (Future Cities Project); Tomas Klassnik (Klassnik Corporation); Karl Sharro (ManTowNHuman); Elena Pascolo (Urban Projects Bureau, Architectural Association); and Finn Williams (Common Office, RCA). For more information, contact: [email protected] or visit http://thisisnotagateway.squarespace.com