Events

Night School 2: What Shapes Our Cities?

Have you ever pondered the logistics of millions of people in a modern city all eating lunch within an hour of each other? The impact that food has on an urban environment is both enormous and fascinating, and lucky you: it's the topic of Board & Vellum's upcoming (and open to the public) Night School.

Have you ever considered what shapes our cities? Do you shape your city? Did you ever ponder the logistics of every person in a modern city of millions eating lunch within an hour of everyone else in that city?

These are topics Carolyn Steel, food urbanist, thinks about constantly. Her talk, “How Food Shapes Our Cities,” sheds light on the relationship between food networks and the development of cities. This question of “what shapes our cities” has never been more important to discuss. More people now live in urban areas than rural, and as a result, phenomena as seemingly simple as everyone eating lunch are really not so simple. Seattle, in particular, has a long history of being shaped by industries and other forces. Consider the timber industry, port activity, the regrade, Bertha, and Amazon. Our city continues to respond to these events and institutions.

As a follow-up to our successful inaugural Night School event, we are opening up our next event to anyone curious to discuss the forces shaping our cities. The format for this event centers around a video of Ms. Steel’s talk, followed by an informed and intimate discussion. All are welcome to participate and contribute. We will convene in the Programming Room at Ada’s Technical Books & Cafe in Capitol Hill at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, November 18th. Delicious light food and beverage samplings from the kitchen at Ada’s will be provided.

As a reminder, Night School is a departure from our daily work at Board & Vellum to debate, discuss, and analyze broader topics that impact what we do. At our first Night School, we discussed the role of architects in society and our responsibility to the community at large in parallel with watching Citizen Architect, a film about Sam Mockbee and the Rural Studio. The format has been left intentionally somewhat ambiguous in the hope that over the course of future evenings the event itself will develop and respond to the guests and topics. We are very excited to continue this series and hope to see you there.