Panel session
Since its conceptualisation by Ebenezer Howard, the garden city has managed to remain popular. From its utopian origins to partial realisations, the garden city as a concept is still relevant. We will unfold this history with a visual narration by scholars from US, UK and Belgium. Shiben Banerji, researcher at UC Berkeley and author of Lineages of the Global City will give a keynote lecture.
Shiben Banerji is interested in the rhetorical and performative dimensions of architecture. His classroom teaching and historical scholarship are animated by three questions. First, how did architects in early modern Europe describe their interest in the nature of political oratory at the very moment that they began studying architectural forms that were not derived from Roman antiquity? Second, how did architects across the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia mediate new conceptions of public association in the context of nineteenth-century colonialisms, and how did concomitant experiments in old and new media present architectural and urban space as objects of artistic depiction and literary invention? Third, how did twentieth-century theorists of alternatives to liberal modernity in the ex-colonial world conceptualize the work of architectural media in altering perception and consciousness?
Shiben is the author of Lineages of the Global City(link is external) (University of Texas Press, 2025), which was supported by a Mellon fellowship in the urban humanities and a publication grant from the Graham Foundation. Explicating the conjunction of planning and occultism in the early twentieth century, the book examines the designation of planned urban space as a site for forming a global ethos—meaning both an outlook on oneself as inescapably linked to every creature and thing, as well as the obligation to choose and act with a regard for one's inexorable impact on others.
Koenraad Danneels, trained as a historian and urban planner, is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer in the theory and history of urbanism at the KULeuven. His research is positioned at the nexus of urbanism, landscape architecture, ecology, and activism. Throughout his career, he is committed to develop research in which history is used as a lens and method in urbanism and spatial planning debates, through which he builds critical perspectives and actively engages with contemporary urban questions. He specifically focuses on the twentieth century history of (ecological) urbanism and urban metabolism thinking, the creation of ‘compensation’ natures, and the development of a more-than-human urbanism, using theoretical frameworks derived from Urban Political Ecology, Ecological Urbanism, Science and Technology Studies, and Environmental History.
In his PhD research defended at the University of Antwerp and KU Leuven in 2021, he explored the complex translation of ideas from the ecological sciences to urbanism in Belgium through various case studies spanning the twentieth century, focusing on discourses, networks, and designs. In his postdoctoral research, he includes the study of grassroots movements and activists in the elaboration of different forms of ecological urban design. He is currently active as a visiting scholar at Cambridge University.
As Director of Communities and FJ Osborn Fellow Katy oversees TCPA’s work on new and renewed communities and leads on the TCPA’s campaigns and promotion of garden city principles in policy, legislation, education and the arts. This involves working at all levels of government and with a wide range of public, private and third sector organisations and individuals, at all stages of planning, design and delivery.
Katy leads the TCPA’s ongoing research on New Towns and on long-term stewardship. She is the co-author of ‘New Towns: The Rise, Fall and Rebirth’ with Hugh Ellis (RIBA Publishing, 2020) and ‘The Art of Building a Garden City: Designing New Communities for the C21st’ with Hugh Ellis and Kate Henderson (RIBA Publishing, 2017).
Katy is a Chartered Town Planner and has a background in planning, urban design and sustainability. Katy is currently a trustee for Planning Aid for London, and Vice President of the International Federation for Housing and Planning.
Tamed Nature explores the layered history of urban green space through the lens of the city of Antwerp. From the first urban parks in the 19th century to the growing climate activism in the second half of the 20th century, the transformation of Antwerp reflects global evolutions in power dynamics, spatial and social ideals and the relationship with nature and ecology.
The exhibition showcases unknown and underappreciated stories from the history of urban green space. Contemporary artistic and architectural interventions challenge conventional notions of urban nature and look ahead to a more inclusive, layered, and resilient urban future.
13.11.2025
Music Studio, DE SINGEL
Desguinlei 25
2018 Antwerp
20:00h
The event will take place in English.
The main address of the Flanders Architecture Institute is located in De Singel International Arts Campus, next to the R1. From the main entrance on the Desguinlei follow the signs to Beel Laag (± 3 minutes on foot).
There are spaces reserved for wheelchair users in all halls of DE SINGEL. Please contact us in advance at tickets@desingel.be so that we can reserve a space for you. You can use an elevator to reach the halls. Enter through the main entrance of DE SINGEL and make your way down the ramp to the left of the stairs to take the lift. Read more about the accessibility
You can store your coat, handbag or backpack in the free lockers available at DE SINGEL. These are located in two places: in the locker area under the stairs at the main entrance via Desguinlei, and at the Theatre Square in Beel Laag. Instructions on how to use the lockers can be found on the side of the locker column.
