The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), the downtown Los Angeles-based architecture school known for its progressive thinking and innovative design, is pleased to announce the fall 2009 schedule for lectures, talks and exhibitions. SCI-Arc hosts renowned architects and other practitioners in the fields of Architecture and Design from around the globe to discuss current theory and practice.
Guests include architects Toshiko Mori, Preston Scott Cohen, and Alejandro Zaera-Polo, landscape architect Laurie Olin, graphic designer April Greiman, and writer and theorist Eugene Thacker, among other notable figures. Exhibitions include deegan day design: Blow x Blow, investigating cinematic projection and architecture as installation, and Jean-Pierre Hébert: Drawings as Thoughts, conceptual digital drawings based on computer-driven language.
See the complete list of lectures and exhibitions, after the break.
SCI-Arc Wednesday Lecture Lectures are free and begin at 7pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall and are also broadcast live on the internet at www.sciarc.edu/live.
Wednesday, September 23, 7pm Eugene Thacker: After Life Eugene Thacker is an Associate Professor in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture at Georgia Institute of Technology. His areas of research include continental and post-continental philosophy, science fiction and horror, media and science studies.
Wednesday, September 30, 7pm Alejandro Zaera Polo: Envelopes Alejandro Zaera-Polo is co-founder of Foreign Office Architects in London. Zaera-Polo’s architectural theories and architecture practice are based on the building volume – the envelope. He describes the envelope as the most relevant element of architecture because it best expresses the link between technology, representation and politics.
Wednesday, October 7, 7pm Marcelo Spina: Wholes, Holes, and All the Other Stuff in Between Marcelo Spina is the founder and co-principal, along with Georgina Huljich, of P-A-T-T-E-R-N-S, a design research architectural practice based in Los Angeles. His work has gained international recognition for its innovative approach to design and architecture that fuses advanced computation techniques with an extensive understanding of form, tectonics and materials. Since 2001, Spina has been on the Design Faculty at SCI-Arc, where he is also the coordinator of the Applied Studies program.
Wednesday, October 14, 7pm Laurie Olin: It’s Called Landscape Architecture, Not Landscape Gardening for a Reason Laurie Olin is a distinguished teacher, author, and one of the most renowned landscape architects today. His firm has worked on projects including the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Gap Headquarters in San Francisco, and the United States embassy in Berlin. Olin is an honorary member of the American Institute of Architects.
Wednesday, October 28, 7pm Yung Ho Chang: The Other Project One of China’s most accomplished contemporary architects and the founding head of the Graduate Center of Architecture at Peking University, Yung Ho Chang is Head of the Department of Architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received his Masters of Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley and taught in the U.S. for 15 years before returning to Beijing to establish one of the first independent practices in China, Atelier FCJZ.
Wednesday, November 4, 7pm Toshiko Mori: Works and Projects Toshiko Mori is the principal of Toshiko Mori Architect, which she established in 1981 in New York City. She was the Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design from 2002 to 2008 and is currently the Robert P. Hubbard Professor in the Practice of Architecture. Mori has been recognized for her strong research based approach to design. She is currently preparing her next publication: Textile Tectonic in Architecture.
Wednesday, November 11, 7pm Preston Scott Cohen: Discretized Curves and Tectonic Language: Preston Scott Cohen, principal Preston Scott Cohen, Inc., is the Gerald M. McCue Professor in Architecture and Chair of the Department of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His work is known for its synthesis of architectural typologies, descriptive geometry, and digital media. Preston Scott Cohen, Inc. encompasses projects ranging in scale from residences to educational and cultural institutions.
Wednesday, November 18, 7pm Mack Scogin: The Anxiety of Difference Mack Scogin is Kajima Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Principal, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects in Atlanta. Scogin is known for architectural designs featuring the unconventional use of materials and for subtle, often unexpected narrative associations to place and program.
Wednesday, December 2, 7pm Andrew Holder: Drop It Like It’s Fake: Architecture and the Necessity of Faux Science Andrew Holder has been principal at the Los Angeles Design Group in Hollywood California since 2007. Prior to working in the field of architecture, he spent several years in the real estate finance and business development fields. Holder also maintains an active career in academia and has recently taught at UCLA, SCI-Arc and Otis College of Art and Design. Holder received his Master of Architecture degree with distinction from UCLA. He is the recipient of a Truman Fellowship, the Barbara Hirschi-Neely Fellowship, and the AIA certificate.
SCI-Arc Friday Talks Talks are free and begin at 1pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall and are also broadcast live on the internet at www.sciarc.edu/live
Friday, October 2, 1pm Volkan Alkanoglu: On Distortion Architect, Germany, UK and USA Friday, October 9, 1pm Todd Gannon: Recent Work Architect, Doctoral Candidate, UCLA
Friday, November 13, 1pm April Greiman: Think About What You Think About Graphic designer and principal of the Los Angeles design firm Made in Space
Friday, November 20, 1pm Raymond Richard Neutra: The Richard and Dion Neutra VDL Research House- 1932, 1940 and 1966: Significance and Survival Chief Emeritus, Division of Environmental and Occupational Disease Control, California Department of Public Health
2009 Fall Exhibitions SCI-Arc is open to the public daily from 10am-6pm
September 12-13, 2009 Graduate Thesis Presentations On view throughout SCI-Arc, the Graduate Thesis presentations offer examples of work by some of the best emerging architects and designers in the country.
September 25-October 4, 2009 Selected Thesis Exhibition SCI-Arc Gallery September 25, 7-9 pm: Opening reception A juried exhibition of exceptional thesis projects by SCI-Arc 2009 graduate students
October 23-December 13, 2009 deegan day design: Blow x Blow SCI-Arc Gallery October 23, 7-9pm: Opening reception November 6, 7pm: Exhibition discussion with Joe Day and Eric Owen Moss
October 23-December 13, 2009 Jean-Pierre Hébert: Drawings as Thoughts SCI-Arc Library October 23, 1pm: Exhibition discussion with Jean-Pierre Hébert October 23, 7-9pm: Opening reception