How Designing Peace Can Make a Change

Event Date: Monday October 6, 2014
Time: 12:00 - 1:30 PM
Location: Heller School at Brandeis University

The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School and

the Masters of Arts in Conflict and Coexistence Program, Heller School, Brandeis University

are pleased to present

How Designing Peace Can Make a Change

An exhibition tour and talk by
Architect Karen Lee Bar-Sinai
Former PON Research Fellow & co-founder of SAYA/Design for Change

Monday, October 6

12:00 – 12:20 PM – Architactics exhibition tour

 3rd Floor, Goldfarb Library, Brandeis University

12:30 – 1:30 PM – Lecture and discussion

Rapaport Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library, Brandeis University

 Presenter: Arch. Karen Lee Bar-Sinai, former PON Research Fellow, and co-founder, SAYA/Design for Change

Moderator: Professor Alain Lempereur; Program Director for the Masters in Conflict and Coexistence Degree at the Heller School, and member of the Executive Committee of the Program on Negotiation

About the event:  Architect Karen Lee Bar-Sinai will give a guided tour of the exhibit, Architactics: The Role and Responsibility of Architects in Conflict Resolution, followed by a talk and discussion on “How Designing Peace Can Make  a Change.”

The Architactics exhibition  illustrates the influence that creative architectural design can have  in peace making. SAYA’s pioneering approach termed by its founders as “Resolution Planning” was developed a decade ago to reclaim the architectural responsibility in designing peace. Its goal is to redefine the role and responsibility of architects in conflict resolution, to re-include the city, the people and their joint future space back into the picture.

Many international conflicts are of territorial nature. They take place in physical space and are aggravated and complicated by spatial and physical actions. Their resolution is ultimately achieved through a realignment of space, a role more often than not played by lawyers, politicians and security experts often with little or no expertise in dealing with the built environment. Architects, whose domain is the understanding of physical space, are rarely actively involved in the resolution of territorial conflicts and the promotion of peaceful settlements.

From envisioning peace and what it should look like, through creating tools for peace making, to influencing the “backstage” of peace processes – SAYA’s work demonstrates that architects can influence not only through building and buildings, but also by shaping decisions regarding space and by encouraging decision makers to think as architects. It is our hope that this exhibition will also inspire more architects to think as decision makers and help politicians transcend the boundaries of what they believe is possible to agree upon.


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