Pop Study
If New York’s design issue piqued your interest in urban innovation, join the American Institute of Architects this Thursday for “Shadow City(s),” an event concerning satellite communities of major urban centers in the global south. The conversation will center on Mumbai, Nairobi, Bhopal, and Rio de Janeiro, four of the world’s most densely populated cities, and examine how their development patterns can inform cities of the future. William Menking and Molly Heitz from Architect’s Newspaper will introduce and moderate the event, joined by Elliot Sclar, Clara Irazabal, Jeffrey Yuen, and Geeta Mehta of Columbia University and the University of Sydney’s Anna Rubbo (536 La Guardia Pl., nr. W. 3rd St.; 6-8 p.m.; 212-683-0023; cfa.aiany.org).
Space Talk
The New Museum’s triennial exhibition “The Ungovernables” continues its event series with this Saturday’s launch of Art Spaces Directory, a guide to over 400 art spaces in 96 countries around the world. A two-part symposium in honor of the guide’s debut includes one panel on the benefits and challenges of working and maintaining art spaces with panelists from New York, Seoul, and Miami, and another on the benefits and hurdles of working with no space at all according to experts from New York, Mexico City, and Cairo (235 Bowery, at Prince St.; 212-219-1222; newmuseum.org; noon; $8, free to members).
Tagging a Classic
Restoration Hardware built its business on putting an urbane twist on traditional designs. Through the end of May, though, it’s taking a more directly contemporary approach: The furniture and hardware company’s Flatiron Gallery will display a 12-by-24-foot installation of Japanese-inspired graffiti script by artists CMENTONE and GE-OLOGY. The inscriptions, “Endless Reflection” and “Fearless and Hopeless,” are based on the company’s philosophy on design as expressed by co-CEO Gary Friedman (Flatiron Building, 935 Broadway, at 22nd St.; 212-260-9479; restorationhardware.com).
Light Spot
New to MoMA’s architecture-and-design department is a small but bright exhibit on electric light and how it inspired graphic designers in the early-twentieth century. A poster of a pulsating incandescent bulb by Frenchman Jacques Nathan-Garamond from 1938 anchors the exhibition, which includes designs by Lester Beall for the Rural Electrification Administration, a New Deal program (11 W. 53rd St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-708-9400; moma.org; through 9/30).