In this next episode of ON CITIES, host Carie Penabad
engages in a lively conversation with renowned educator and architecture
Mohsen Mostafavi. Together, they delve into the rich tapestry of Japan's
social and physical environments, exploring their historical underpinnings,
current practices and future possibilities. Throughout its history, the
Japanese city ahs served as a complex canvas for a multitude of
influences and aspirations. Our discussion will explore how these forces
have left their marks on the urban landscape, and what the future of the
Japanese city may look like.

 Mohsen Mostafavi is currently the Alexander and Victoria Wiley
Professor of Design and Harvard University Distinguished Service
Professor. He also served as Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of
Design from 2008-2019. His work focuses on modes and processes of
urbanization and on the interface between technology and aesthetics.
He was formerly the Gale and Ira Drukier Dean of the College of
Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University where he was also the
Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture.
Previously, he was the Chairman of the Architectural Association School
of Architecture in London. He studied architecture at the AA, and
undertook research on counter-reformation urban history at the
Universities of Essex and Cambridge.
Mostafavi is a Trustee of Smith College, an Honorary Trustee of the
Norman Foster Foundation, and served on the Board of the Van Alen
Institute as well as the Steering Committee and the Jury of the Aga Khan
Award for Architecture.
His research and design projects have been published in numerous
journals, and he has authored or co-authored more than a dozen books
including Landscape Urbanism: A Manual for the Machinic Landscape
(2004); Ecological Urbanism (co-edited with Gareth Doherty) and which
was recently translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish); In the
Life of Cities (2012); Ethics of the Urban: The City and the Spaces of the
Political (2017); Sharing Tokyo: Artifice and the Social World and his
forthcoming book: Reinventing Japan.