School of Architecture faculty member Dr. Chantal El Hayek will present the lecture “Marcel Poëte and the Creative Evolution of Cities” at the Symposium of Urban Design History and Theory on Friday, September 19, 2025. The talk examines Poëte’s role as a pioneering theorist of urbanisme in the interwar period. Drawing on Henri Bergson’s philosophy, Poëte emphasized an intuitive understanding of cities, highlighting their evolving nature beyond physical form. The talk explores Poëte’s theorization of urbanism through Bergson’s anti-positivist theory of time and examines how his approach to tracing the evolution and morphological genealogies of cities shaped post-WWII urban planning debates.
SoA Faculty Dr. Chantal El Hayek Presents Lecture at the Symposium of Urban Design History and Theory
“The Rocket of Life,” from Paris, son évolution créatrice (1938) by Marcel Poëte.
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