The Arts & Education Council is partnering with the American Institute of Architects to bring Gary Hustwit’s film Urbanized to Chattanooga. It will be presented at green|spaces on East Main Street on Friday.
AEC will provide catering from Big River Grille for the reception that begins at 6 p.m. before the film screening from 6:30-8 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person and include the reception, film and the program.
Urbanized is a feature-length documentary about the design of cities, which looks at the issue and strategies behind urban design and features some of the world’s foremost architects, planners, policymakers, builders, and call a city home by 2050. But while some cities are experiencing explosive growth, others are shrinking. The challenges of balancing housing, mobility, public space, civic engagement, economic development, and environmental policy are fast becoming universal concerns. Yet much of the dialogue on these issues is disconnected from the public domain.
Who is allowed to shape our cities, and how do they do it? Unlike many other fields of design, cities are not created by any one specialist or expert. There are many contributors to urban change, including ordinary citizens who can have a great impact improving the cities in which they live. By exploring a diverse range of urban design projects around the world, Urbanized frames a global discussion on the future of cities.
Eric Meyers, the president of AIA Chattanooga, said that within the next 10 years, more of the world’s population will live in urban areas than in rural villages and farms.
“Every passing year more of the earth’s seven billion people choose to live in cities and so it is important that we begin to discuss, plan, design and build our cities better,” he said. “We need to begin planning and investing in people that inhabit density populated urban centers. This film highlights how a myriad of cities around the world are grappling with the rise of population and density. It illustrates the complexity of cities and the challenges of balancing all of the needs of the citizens.”
Urbanized is the third part of Hustwit’s design film trilogy. It joins Helvetica and Objectified.
For more information or to purchase a ticket call AEC at 267-1218 or visit either
artsedcouncil.org or
backrowfilms.com.