Infrastructural Monument presents the proceedings of the first of two conferences organized by MIT's new Center for Advance Urbanism around the biennial theme of infrastructure. Held in spring, 2014, the "Infrastructural Monument" conference gathered designers, developers, policy experts, and scholars to address the potentil to leverage infrastructure design beyond the realm of transportation of goods and labor into the realm of culture, public space, architecture, and landscape form. In other words, can infrastructure transcend mere practicality and fulfill a role that is profoundly cultural? Can targeted infrastructure projects transform a city from a collection of fragments to one with a common and cohesive regional identity?

Infrastructural Monument presents the proceedings of the first of two conferences organized by MIT's new Center for Advance Urbanism around the biennial theme of infrastructure. Held in spring, 2014, the "Infrastructural Monument" conference gathered designers, developers, policy experts, and scholars to address the potentil to leverage infrastructure design beyond the realm of transportation of goods and labor into the realm of culture, public space, architecture, and landscape form. In other words, can infrastructure transcend mere practicality and fulfill a role that is profoundly cultural? Can targeted infrastructure projects transform a city from a collection of fragments to one with a common and cohesive regional identity?