CREAte Open Lecture: Professor Barbara Penner, ‘Cuddlefication’

The first CREAte Open Lecture will be given by Professor Barbara Penner, ‘Cuddleficition’ on Tuesday 22 January at 6PM in Marlowe Lecture Theatre 1.

‘Cuddlefication’ refers to a pervasive new phenomenon in the design of public spaces. Public spaces, including libraries and museums, are softening under the influence of free wifi: users are being encouraged to spend time in, linger in and even recline in public – a lopsided arrangement in which it feels normal to lie down on the floor of a national institution to work or nap or both. This talk suggests that cuddlefication is one result of the way digital technologies are being grafted onto our analogue lives, a process that changes bodies, work patterns, spaces and the protocols that govern their use. The new city is not only smart; it is soft.

Barbara Penner is Professor in Architectural Humanities at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. She is author of Bathroom (2013), awarded the 2014 RIBA President’s Award for Outstanding University-Located Research. She is co-editor of Sexuality and Gender at Home (2017) and Gender Space Architecture (Routledge, 2000). She is a regular contributor to the architectural journals Places and Architectural Review.