And Introducing…

As architect Germane Barnes bounded to the auditorium stage at the Guggenheim Museum, he was caught off guard when a catchy, bass and drum fanfare heralded his approach to the podium. “Do they play that for everyone?” he asked. The answer was “yes”: Over the next four and a half hours, a veritable conga line of architectural thinkers and makers from across the globe—among them, Hong Kong–based duo Neri&Hu, Beijing’s Ma Yansong, and Jing Liu and Florian Idenburg of Brooklyn’s SO-IL—presented projects and provocations at The World Around Summit, all sixteen of them accompanied by the same synth-pop flourish. The fourth installment in curator Beatrice Galilee’s annual talk series, The World Around is intended (according to its founder) to pose the question, “Why does architecture matter?” To find out, invitees were asked to sacrifice the first sunny Saturday of the year to listen to designer and skateboarder Alexis Sablone discuss the joys of urban parks and Italian philosopher Emanuele Coccia speak about the virtues of home, reminding everyone of two places they might otherwise have been. The surprising thing, besides the genuine intellectual pleasure of the whole experience, was how many came and then remained to the end, with a packed crowd that included Elizabeth Diller, Morris Adjmi, and others no less illustrious than the people onstage, albeit not welcomed by their own entrance music. In closing, Galilee showed herself once again to be as gracious a hostess as she is keen an observer of the built environment. “It’s like an endurance test,” she said. “If you made it through, we’ll give you a badge.”