The notion of learning, like our comprehension of cities, is undergoing a massive transition; we need to REread and REform the process of sharing and acquiring information. RE:Learning The City is conceived of as a spatial and co-creational knowledge exchange, where professionals|citizens, foreigners|locals, lecturers|students, and craftsmen|researchers crash together in a free flowing information exchange – creating a multi-layered learning and doing process across disciplines, for all.
Jason Hilgefort is an urbanist | architect who studied at the University of British Columbia and the University of Cincinnati. His work experience ranges from New York to Mumbai and include working with Peter Calthorpe, Rahul Mehrotra, and Maxwan A+U. Jason is currently the co-director of the Shenzhen Architecture Biennale’s educational program – the Aformal.Academy: RE:learning the City. He is also a regular contributor to uncube magazine - for architecture and beyond.
Merve Bedir is an architect/researcher. She is a PhD candidate at TU Delft. She has worked with the Netherlands Architecture Institute, INTI International University, Studio X Istanbul, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, ARCHIS, African Centre for Cities, and has written for Volume, MONU, Interartive, Funambulist, and Zivot among other publications. She curated One Architecture Week – UnCommon River, Vocabulary of Hospitality and produced the documentary film Agoraphobia. She currently is involved in the production of Bostan: A Refugee Garden+Community Kitchen in Gaziantep, Turkey.
Jason and Merve are both currently the co-directors of the Shenzhen Architecture Biennale’s educational program – the Aformal.Academy: RE:learning the City. They are partners at Land+Civilization Compositions, a Rotterdam | Istanbul | Shenzhen based studio exploring issues at the ever expanding edge of urbanism that views city creation as an art forum.
