Watch Wednesday's Keynote conversation between the Director of the Arts Council in New Orleans, Bryan Lee Jr., the Hip Hop Architect Michael Ford, and Forbes Senior Editor, Zack Greenburg. — Keynote Conversation: Designing a Just City - Hip Hop Architecture.
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Hip Hop Architecure Featured at SXSWEco
Michael Ford, Assoc. AIA, is a finalist (and a recently added keynote speaker) and will be showcasing how hip-hop can be a catalyst to engage underrepresented groups in the field of architecture.
“I will be sharing my concept for the Universal Hip Hop Museum mobile experience," he says, "which was developed alongside hip-hop pioneers. We plan on touring in various cities with the mission to showcase hip-hop culture while also collecting regional specific, undocumented hip-hop histories and their relationship to the built environment.”
Read MoreHow Bad Urban Planning Led to The Birth Of A Billion Doallar Genre
"Life in the so-called inner city has always been a major theme in hip-hop. From the desolate state of the Bronx Projects described in Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” to the poor conditions in parts of Brooklyn and Queens recounted by artists like Jay Z, Biggie, and Nas, rappers have used their music to offer a glimpse into urban spaces across the United States. For decades, they’ve used verses and hooks to allude to the relationship between hip-hop and architecture — overcrowded, dilapidated towers have been the backdrop of the genre since its inception. But that relationship is more significant than it appears to be, says designer Mike Ford, whose pioneering research in the field of hip-hop-inspired architecture has earned him a fitting sobriquet: The Hip-Hop Architect. "
Read MoreSXSW Eco Session Highlight: Hip Hop Architecture + the Just City
This session will discuss the cultural and colloquial implications of architecture in the built environment through the lens of Hip Hop and Design Justice. Focusing on the intersection of theory and practice, we will explore hip hop as a revolutionary approach to understanding, conceiving, and generating architecture for a just city. Showing these processes in action, we will share the unique, cross disciplinary design process for the Universal Hip Hop Museum.
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