David Erdman

The future is not as far away as it might seem. What seemed a problem of the next generation now has become a problem of tomorrow. We are accelerating towards a future that is evermore present, guided by political and economic forces that seem unintelligible. Is this quick-paced intangible progression, the role of the architect is at stake. How can architecture keep up with society? Can it adapt quickly enough to frame it? And is so, what should that frame look like? These are some of the questions embedded in the premise of the three advanced studios presented in this book conducted by the three of Yale School of Architecture's Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professors in 2016 and 2017. Michael Young investigates the past from the future in "Aesthetics of Accelerationism: The Icelandic Infrastructure 2036-2056." Kersten Keers analyzes visions for agricultural ensembles for communal living in "Architecture Without Consent 19: Almost Classicism." And David Erdman looks to the potential of building on top of housing estates in Hong Kong in "Objects and Qualities." The book features interviews with the professors and essays on their specific studio topics.

Pratt Sessions presents a series of conversations between notable practitioners and thinkers. It is a distributed symposium that is curated and yet open-ended. Based on an ongoing lecture series at Pratt Institute's Graduate Architecture and Urban Design programme, each session brings together two participants as a means of instigating discourse and dissolving and/or reinforcing the artifice of geographically-based discourse networks. Participants are carefully paired together based on the content of their work and the region in which they reside and/or practice. Participants frame their work around a disciplinary provocation in short, non-standard lecture presentations, and engage in an in-depth dialogue. Pratt Sessions is intended as a book series, each volume featuring six conversations, which originally took place over the course of two academic semesters. The six sessions are divided in two areas of focus, exploring and examining how new mediums and new contexts can be defined, redefined, and understood within the realm of architectural design.

Introducing—a collection of eighteen short essays developed by designer and educator David Erdman — suggests that short-form writing might serve as the proper vehicle for architectural discourse to flourish in the 21st century. Speculating that concise pieces of information attributed to the blogging and tweeting generation of architects is the contemporary format for the delivery of critical discourse, Erdman uses his essays to illustrate how an iterative approach to short-form writing might be the most efficient way for architecture to open new critical dialogues. This book further suggests that discourse is no longer (and will not be in the near future) delivered in extended, holistic polemical packages. Instead, Erdman posits that precise, undiluted snippets of discourse, which can be formed into broader strains of thinking by the user, or audience, that simulate an "open source" information platform that is adept to the contemporary subject and architectural discipline, would be more suitable.

Pratt Sessions presents a series of conversations between notable practitioners and thinkers. It is a distributed symposium that is curated and yet open-ended. Based on an ongoing lecture series at Pratt Institute's Graduate Architecture and Urban Design program, each Session brings together two participants as a means of instigating discourse and dissolving and/or reinforcing the artifice of geographically-based discourse networks. Participants are carefully paired together based on the content of their work and the region in which they reside and/or practice. Participants frame their work around a disciplinary provocation in short, non-standard lecture presentations, and engage in an in-depth dialogue. Pratt Sessions is intended as a book series, each volume featuring six conversations, which originally took place over the course of two academic semesters. The six sessions are divided in two areas of focus, exploring and examining how new mediums and new contexts can be defined, redefined, and understood within the realm of architectural design.