EXPRESSION DENISE SCOTT BROWN:
BY CAROLINA VACCARO AND NOA MAILAR
LEARNING TO SEE
THIS SUMMER, T YLER SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE AT TEMPLE UNIVERSIT Y PRESENTS AN IMMERSIVE SHOW OF PHOTOGRAPHS, Learning to See: Denise Scott Brown. The show examines Denise Scott Brown’s defining views on architecture and urbanism understood through the volumes of snapshots she took of cities and landscapes throughout the 1960s and 1970s. The exhibition is open to the public through September 19, 2021.
2 Learning to See documents Denise Scott Brown’s iconographic legacy as a parallel storytelling of her thoughts and ideas on architecture and the
BIOGR APHIC AL AND EXPLOR ATORY IMAGES ARE SHOWN SIDE BY SIDE:
rural Africa and the vast veld of her youth, her
environment. THE EXHIBIT CREATES A CIRCUL AR VISION THROUGH THREE CONTINENTS
European education at the Architectural Association
AND DEMONSTR ATES HER PR AC TICE OF “LEARNING FROM WHAT’S AROUND YOU.”
in London, her encounters with the New Brutalism of
The images not only track chronological relationships but also offer a cross-reading of social,
Alison and Peter Smithson, and the Mannerist style
cultural, spatial, symbolic, and dynamic architectural concepts.
of “breaking the rules” as a relevant way of approaching the complexity of life.
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Denise Scott Brown’s LIFE IN SOUTH AFRIC A HAD A DECISIVE INFLUENCE
ON HER INTEREST IN POPUL AR AND MARGINALIZED CULTURES. The “Learning from Las
Vegas” study aimed to understand the aesthetics of urban sprawl in its purest and most extreme form, then evolve techniques to handle this “New Form of the City.”
40 FALL 2021 | context | AIA Philadelphia
PHOTOS: TYLER SCHOOL OF ART AND ARCHITECTURE
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