Virgil Abloh, the artistic director for Louis Vuitton's menswear collection who has positioned himself as quite the polymath, has been announced as the keynote speaker for the 2020 American Institute of Architects (AIA) Conference on Architecture. On May 14th, Abloh will sit for an interview with keynote host Roman Mars of 99% Invisible to discuss "democratic design and intellectualizing the mundane" at the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Abloh has earned degrees in both architecture and engineering. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2002 and a Master of Architecture from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 2006. During the designer's meteoric rise to prominence he has made a name for himself in the fashion world, first collaborating with Kanye West, then launching his Off-White fashion level, and eventually moving to his current post with Louis Vuitton.
More recently, Abloh released MARKERAD, an exclusive collection developed with IKEA, in a showcase of his design chops outside of fashion. Moreover, he has given talks at notable design schools around the world including Columbia GSAPP, Harvard GSD, RISD, and the Architectural Association School in London.
If you'll be attending the Conference this year, be sure to check out Abloh's keynote.
2 Comments
The whole AIA keynote celebrity-speaker selection process confuses me. Last year you had David Adjaye... Great choice. Love his work and always thought he was overlooked by the profession and academia alike.
But before that... Kevin Spacey in 2016, Michelle Obama 2017, and now Virgil Abloh?! I'm really not sure what they actually have to say for the profession of architecture other than being a novelty as an outsider. Virgil at least studied architecture and is the new Tinker Hatfield, so fine, you can keep him.
... but shit, if you want a celebrity with some clue, David Byrne has an excellent TED Talk that articulates how architecture influenced the development and performance of certain music styles. To me this suggests the possibility of more interdisciplinary work within the field and others like live music—performance spaces, events, and festivals are increasingly ripe territory for architects and designers to create experimental and experiential work. Virgil's pop-ups, storefronts, art installations, and runway shows occupy this territory, so in a way he meets that criteria, but give me a break... this is one for the kids that don't want to do architecture and want to do something "cool".
IMO the AIA must have way too much money and don't know what to do with it if they're booking the likes of Michelle Obama, Kevin Spacey, and Virgil Abloh to be keynote speakers.
They want celebrities, not experts.
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