The New Enlightenment: Shaping Sustainability of Tomorrow. Future Thinking for Regions, Cities, Architecture and AI for Physical Environments
Image: ESA
May 21, 2026 | 6.30 PM
TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE
Join us for “The New Enlightenment: Shaping Sustainability of Tomorrow”, a panel discussion that explores the evolving relationship between culture and sustainability in the Intelligent Age. Bringing together leading voices from architecture, climate, culture, and artificial intelligence, the event revisits sustainability not merely as a technical challenge, but as a deeply cultural and place-based practice.
About the Event
Sustainability, while inherently multidimensional, has increasingly drifted from its cultural and ecological foundations. Historically embedded in local knowledge, place-making, and environmental conditions, sustainable practices once reflected a close integration of culture and nature. As technological advancement reshaped societies, this relationship became more diffuse. This panel proposes a renewed inquiry into sustainability as a cultural project. Drawing on Bernard Rudofsky’s seminal Architecture Without Architects (1964) and contemporary research such as HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Climate, the discussion reconsiders how vernacular knowledge and environmental intelligence can inform present and future design practices. A central focus of the conversation is the role of Artificial Intelligence in shaping physical environments. The panel will critically examine whether AI can operate across scales, while fostering more integrated, ecological, and culturally grounded approaches. Can AI reconnect fragmented systems? Can it amplify, rather than erase, cultural specificity?
Bringing together perspectives from Austria and the United States, the event opens a transdisciplinary dialogue on new paradigms of ecological living—where environmental intelligence, social equity, and spatial imagination converge. The New Enlightenment ultimately invites a redefinition of sustainability as a generative cultural force shaping how we inhabit the world.
About the Speakers
Dr. Sandra Piesik (Moderator) is an award-winning architect, author, and scientist working at the intersection of sustainability, design, and technology. A former Visiting Professor at Pratt Institute and the New York Institute of Technology, she is the founder of 3 Ideas and Hybrid Habitats LLC. Her work engages global frameworks such as the New European Bauhaus and UN-HABITAT, and she is the General Editor of HABITAT: Vernacular Architecture for a Changing Climate. Image: Courtesy of the Speaker
Dr. Barry Bergdoll is Meyer Schapiro Professor of Art History at Columbia University and a leading specialist in modern architectural history. He previously served as Chief Curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, where he curated major exhibitions including Bauhaus 1919–1933: Workshops for Modernity and Frank Lloyd Wright at 150. He has authored and edited numerous publications on European and modern architecture and serves on the jury of the Pritzker Prize. Image: Ferrante Ferranti
Gernot Riether is Associate Professor and Chair at the School of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), and serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium for Sustainable Urbanization (CSU), a non-profit affiliated with the United Nations in New York. His research focuses on public space, information technology, and sustainable building construction, explored in his book Urban Machines: Public Space for a Digital Culture. Current projects include a Cultural Center for the Jersey City Theater Center and a grant-funded initiative connecting New Jersey communities to the Soccer World Cup. He has taught architecture for over two decades at institutions including Columbia University, Georgia Tech, and ENSA Paris La Villette, and practiced in Europe and the United States. He holds degrees from HTL Innsbruck, the Technical University of Innsbruck, and Columbia University. Image: Courtesy of the Speaker.
Zerina Džubur is CEO and Chief of Program at Haus der Architektur Graz. She will present the project YOSTAR – Young Styrian Architecture, highlighting sustainable approaches emerging from younger architectural practices in Styria and Slovenia. Image: The Schubidu Quartet