The 8th Megacities Lecture
Toxic Ecology
The Struggle between Nature and Culture in the Suburban Megacity
professor Lars Lerup, Rice University, Houston Texas, USA

The Eight Megacities Lecture took place 17th november 2005, at the Shell Research and Technology Centre in Amsterdam.

Report of the Lecture
by Olof Koekebakker

Lecture Files
(all files pdf)
Introduction - Steef Buijs
Megacities Lecture 2005 -
Toxic Ecology - Lars lerup
co-review
Lichenisation, On suburban ecology - Dirk Sijmons

contributions:
The urgency of maintaining The Netherlands - Joost Schrijnen
Learning from ecologists - Zef Hemel
Amsterdam and its puffballs - Edo Arnoldussen
Sugar Land: no inhabitable space without technology - Wouter Veldhuis
The case of Lerup versus Le Roy - Marijn Schenk
In search of Political Ecology - Roemer van Toorn
Softnomics of the sustainable city - Pieter Tordoir

Invitation Text

There are haunting similarities between an ocean's inundation of a city or, as in the case of The Netherlands, a country and the reckless spread of the suburban city. Both tend to annihilate the other-Nature washing away culture, and culture ursurping Nature, respectively. That Nature has little understanding of culture is not surprising, (though what may be surprising, is how desperately Nature attempts to adapt to change). Culture, however, sees Nature as an obstacle, as a burden and as an enemy that can be overcome only by increasingly aggressive technological interventions. Yet the technologically enhanced errand into the wilderness has failed Even the giant steel gates that hold back the North Sea at the Maeslantbarrier may be inadequate to the task particularly in light of the steady pressure from global warming and other side effects like "population growth"-the abstract euphemism for "the spread of the city." Nature can never be held back by technology. There will always be another storm, another earthquake, another heat wave-with a force always greater than anticipated. Nature and culture are today hopelessly intertwined-one cannot escape the other-the time has come for culture to make room for Nature.

The Megacities Lecture of 2005 uses a case study of Houston, Texas, to examine an attenuated city that in its ruthless expansion has mutilated an ancient landscape; following a development philosophy that sooner or later will have dire consequences for its citizens. Although this case study has been developed over several years and not as the result of the recent disaster in the bordering states of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, the devastating effects of hurricane Katrina make the case all the more urgent.

Program
19.00 Reception
20.00 Welcome: Siwart Kolthek, president Megacities Foundation
20.05 Introduction: Jaap Modder, evening chairman
20.15 Megacities Lecture: Professor Lars Lerup
21.00 Coffee break
21.30 Co-referrer: Dirk Sijmons, Goverment Landscape Architect
21.50 Discussion
22.30 Drinks
23.30 Closing

The Megacities Initiative originates from the awareness of the future role of cities as the dominant type of settlement for humanity. Cities will play this role not only as a matter of fact but also as a matter of necessity, as the only other way of housing the increasing world population. In an intensive rural occupation pattern this would certainly lead to an ecological disaster.

The main activity of the Megacities Foundation is to organize a yearly lecture on topics related to the megacities
In the past lectures were given by Richard Sennett, Liu Tai Ker, Richard Rogers, David Harvey, Deyan Sudjic, Saskia Sassen and Peter Hall.
See Archive for details and full text of these lectures.

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