Capturing for Care: Curating Hong Kong Modernism with Architectural Photobooks
Speaker(s): Walter Koditek (Docomomo HK), Natasza Minasiewicz (Docomomo HK)
Date: 20 July 2021
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm (via ZOOM)
Zoom Link
https://hku.zoom.us/j/99622258132?pwd=cUYzSENTMzNib2Z2NEpWODJMUzlIZz09
Meeting ID: 996 2225 8132
Password: 061272
To curate is to take care. To photograph is to capture. This session explores the idea of capturing for care through the architectural photobook. How does the curation of architecture that takes place in these edited collections of architectural images change our relationship to the city and the built environment around us? When does documentation compel us to protect and conserve particular built forms and when does it facilitate their demolition or their erasure through renewal and renovation? How will the images that are taken and disseminated now impact our future visions of the city and its histories?
Urban planner Walter Koditek and architect Natasza Minasiewicz present their respective photobooks in progress and invite discussion on the social function of architectural photography, its role in design research and its potential to transform ways of looking and remembering.
About the Speakers
Walter Koditek is an urban planner and author, currently based in Hong Kong. He worked as a chartered urban planner and Assistant Professor in Germany before working as a technical advisor in Battambang Municipality, Cambodia, and in the Ministry of Construction in Hanoi, Vietnam. Walter is the author of Battambang Heritage (Apsara Books, Hong Kong, 2018) and the Architectural Guide Phnom Penh (with Moritz Henning, DOM Publishers, Berlin, 2020).
Natasza Minasiewicz is an independent architect, interior designer and writer based in Hong Kong. Her research-based practice focuses on spatial, material, social and historical investigations in the context of future cultures and environmental equality. She is a Design Trust Grantee, writes regularly for Design Anthology and participated in ‘Redistribution: Land, People and Environment’, the Hong Kong Collateral Event for the 2021 Venice Biennale of Architecture.
The photobook project she presents for this event is part of the research supported by Design Trust Seed Grant.