September 10, 2019
Fall 2019 Lecture Series
Fall 2019 Lecture Series

Rice Architecture and Rice Design Alliance announce the Fall 2019 Lecture Series. The series includes a selection of evening lectures and noon talks from a diverse group of thinkers, practitioners, curators, and researchers looking at several threads in architectural and design thinking today.

Jeannette Kuo, founding partner at Zurich-based Karamuk Kuo Architects and architect for Rice Architecture’s new William T. Cannady Hall for Architecture, will kick off the series on September 19 to talk about her recent projects and future plans for the extension of Rice Architecture’s presence on the Rice University campus.

Following on the thematic thread of architectural obsolescence discussed during Rice Design Alliance’s Civic Forum 2019, a selection of national and international practitioners will discuss the ways in which creative adaptive reuse is a critical tactic in their current practice.

Kristian Koreman, principal at ZUS [Zones Urbaines Sensibles] in Rotterdam, will discuss the use of temporality in the construct of urban fabric and the ways in which unconventional temporal strategies can lead to permanence.

Alan Maskin and Blair Payson, principals at Olson Kundig in Seattle, will talk about their recent restoration of the Seattle Needle in the context of notions of usefulness in the life cycle of our cities’ buildings.

Maria Lisogorskaya, founding director at Assemble, London, will discuss both past adaptive projects that Assemble has worked on such as Granby Four Street or Goldsmith’s CCA, as well as current urban strategies in New Orleans.

Frank Escher and Ravi GuneWardena, principals at Escher GuneWardena Architecture, have worked on some of the most iconic examples of 20th century architecture, including the Eames House restoration in Los Angeles, which they will discuss in the context of the publication of the monograph of the firm’s work, Clocks and Clouds (2017).

Neeraj Bhatiaassociate professor at the California College of the Arts and founding principal of The Open Workshop, will discuss his recently published book New Investigations in Collective Form, which presents a group of design experiments by his firm that test how architecture can empower the diverse voices that make up the public realm and the environments in which they exist.

This year, a selection of faculty members at Rice Architecture including Professor Carlos Jiménez, Associate Professor Reto Geiser, and Associate Professor Dawn Finley, will deliver the Noon Talks, providing further insight into each of their practices and the ways in which their academic thinking is weaved into their professional projects. They will be joined in the Noon Talks by Rice Architecture colleagues and studio guests Brett Schneider (senior associate, Guy Nordenson and Associates) and Farès el-Dahdah (professor of the Humanities and director of the Humanities Research Center at Rice University). 

The Fall 2019 Lecture Series will draw to a close on November 14 with a lecture by Barry Bergdoll, Meyer Shapiro Professor of Art History and Archaeology and director of Undergraduate Studies, Columbia University, on architect Jean-Jacques Lequeu, on the occasion of the upcoming exhibition Jean-Jacques Lequeu: Visionary Architect, Drawings from the Bibliothèque nationale de France to open at the Menil Drawing Institute on October 2019. Co-organized by the Petit Palais, Paris, and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the exhibition in Houston is co-curated by the Menil Drawing Institute’s Edouard Kopp, Chief Curator, and Kelly Montana, Assistant Curator. This lecture is organized by the Menil Collection in partnership with Rice University’s Humanities Research center, Rice Architecture, and Rice Design Alliance.

All lectures are free and open to the public. Registration is encouraged. For more information on all lectures, to register, and to view past lectures online visit arch.rice.edu or ricedesignalliance.org.

The Fall 2019 Lecture Series is made possible through the generous support of the Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund, and by grants from the City of Houston through the Texas Commission for the Arts.

Rice Design Alliance is an AIA/CES Registered Provider of quality educational programs. For each evening lecture and Brett Schneider's Noon Talk, attendees earn one Learning Unit.