(L to R): Ellie Abrons; Norges Bank, Snøhetta; W57, BIG, Image by Nic Lehoux

Events at SCI-Arc are always free and open to the public 

Los Angeles, CA (August 2, 2016) ­– SCI-Arc is pleased to announce its fall 2016 series of public events. SCI-Arc public lectures this coming fall will introduce speakers from a broad cross-section of today’s most exciting practitioners, including Amale Andraos, Preston Scott Cohen and Enrique Norten, among others.

The lecture series is complemented by several exhibitions: a group show of the thesis projects from this year’s graduating class including the winner of the Gehry Prize, a site-specific SCI-Arc Gallery exhibition by Michael Sorkin in collaboration with Terreform and a series of artifacts, drawings and photographs curated by Victor Jones. Admission to SCI-Arc-hosted public events and exhibitions is always free and open to the public.

  September 9-11    Graduate Thesis Weekend & Graduation Ceremony

                      14        #SCI-Arc: Architecture in the Age of Digital Media Roundtable

                      23        Selected Thesis Exhibition Opening Reception

                      26        Sianne Ngai Lecture

                      28        Ellie Abrons & Mira Henry Duel + Duet

         October 5        Amale Andraos Lecture

                        7        Victor Jones: Infrastructural Etiquette Library Gallery Opening Reception

                      17        Preston Scott Cohen & Hernan Diaz Alonso Duel + Duet

                      21        Michael Sorkin Studio & Terreform: Metrophysics Gallery Opening Reception

                      26        Martin Gran Lecture

    November 2        Kai-Uwe Bergmann Lecture

                      11        Zachary Tate Porter Lecture

                      16        Enrique Norten Lecture

    December 2        Offramp Launch Reception

                        7        Josep Miàs Lecture

Visit https://sciarc.edu/events/ for more information about upcoming lectures. All events begin at 7pm unless otherwise noted. Lectures take place in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall and are broadcast at www.sciarc.edu/live. Gallery opening receptions are held in the SCI-Arc Gallery & Kappe Library Gallery spaces.

September 9-11, throughout campus & September 11, 5-7pm, Graduation Pavilion

SCI-Arc’s annual Graduate Thesis Weekend will take place September 9-11, 2016 on the SCI-Arc campus in downtown Los Angeles. The 3-day series of thesis reviews is followed by an all-school graduation ceremony on Sunday, September 11, 5-7pm, featuring alum Brendan MacFarlane (B.Arch ’84) as commencement speaker.

September 14, 7pm in the SCI-Arc Gallery

#SCI-Arc: Architecture in the Age of Digital Media Roundtable Discussion

Speakers include Birgit Lohmann, CEO/Editor in Chief of designboom, Devin Gharakhanian, Creative Director of SuperArchitects, Amelia Taylor-Hochberg, Managing Editor and Podcast Co-Producer at Archinect, Lucy Redoglia, Communications and Social Media at LACMA and Benjamin Bratton, Professor of Visual Arts and Director of the Center for Design and Geopolitics at UCSD. Discussion moderated by Bruno Juricic, architect, curator and emergent scholar in the field of architecture, art and technology.

The roundtable will address the speculative directions for architecture in relation to contemporary digital culture. As information becomes increasingly mobile, instantaneous and pervasive, speakers will look at the current impact of digital media and the roles online publications and social media will play in the future of architecture and design.

September 26, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Sianne Ngai: Theory of the Gimmick

Professor of English, Stanford University

Sianne Ngai is Professor of English at Stanford University. Her books are Our Aesthetic Categories: Zany, Cute, Interesting (Harvard University Press, 2012), winner of the Modern Language Association James Russell Lowell Prize; and Ugly Feelings (Harvard University Press, 2005). Sections of both books have been translated into Swedish, Italian, German, Slovenian, Portuguese, and (forthcoming) Japanese. Ngai was a Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin and has taught at the Cornell School for Criticism and Theory. In 2015 she received an honorary D. Phil in Humanities from the University of Copenhagen. Ngai’s current project explores the gimmick as a capitalist aesthetic category encoding a contradictory relation to labor and time. Extending Ngai’s previous work on the historical significance of the rise of equivocal aesthetic categories (such as the merely 'interesting') and with an eye to the special difficulties posed by the very idea of an aesthetics of production (as opposed to reception),Theory of the Gimmick explores the uneasy mix of attraction and repulsion produced by the gimmick across a range of forms specific to western capitalism. These include fictions by Mark Twain, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Villiers de L'Isle-Adam, and Helen DeWitt; twentieth-century poetic stunts; the video installations of Stan Douglas; reality television; and the novel of ideas. https://english.stanford.edu/people/sianne-ngai

September 28, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Ellie Abrons + Mira Henry: Duel + Duet: The View Inside Things

Ellie Abrons, University of Michigan / Mira Henry, SCI-Arc

Mira Henry is a designer and an educator. She holds a Bachelors in Art History from the University of Chicago and a Masters of Architecture from UCLA. She is the recipient of the Henry Adams AIA Award and Archiprix International Gold Medal for her Master's research project “Urban Upholstery”. She is faculty at Southern California Institute for Architecture (SCI-Arc). Prior to teaching she worked as a project architect for Office dA and Monica Ponce de Leon Studio in New York. Henry is principal of Henry Architecture (HA), an office based in Los Angeles committed to the double interest in text and effect, in the conceptual and the material and in the status of the architect as cultural producer and service provider. https://sciarc.edu/people/faculty/mira-henry/

Ellie Abrons is an architectural designer and educator and the principal of EADO. She is Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, where she was the A. Alfred Taubman Fellow in 2009 – 2010. Her work focuses on material experimentation and reuse, digital fabrication, and explorations of formal allusion. Abrons received her Masters of Architecture from the University of California Los Angeles, where she graduated with distinction, and her BA in art history and gender studies from New York University. Abrons is the recipient of a residency fellowship at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart, Germany and her work has been exhibited at the Venice Biennale, Storefront for Art and Architecture, A+D Gallery and the Architectural Association. An exhibition of Abrons’s work, entitled Inside Things, was recently shown at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles and she is a contributor (as part of T+E+A+M) to the US Pavilion at the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. http://ellieabrons.com/

October 5, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Amale Andraos: Lecture

Dean, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University

Amale Andraos is Dean of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (GSAPP) and co-founder of WORKac, a New-York based architectural and urban practice with international reach. In addition to Columbia, Andraos has taught at universities including Princeton University School of Architecture, Harvard Graduate School of Design, University of Pennsylvania Design School, and American University in Beirut. Her publications include Architecture and Representation: The Arab City; 49 Cities; Above the Pavement, the Farm!; and numerous essays. WORKac is focused on re-imaging architecture at the intersection of the urban, the rural, and the natural. It has achieved international recognition through institutional projects such as the Edible Schoolyards; a new conference center in Lebreville, Gabon; or the Miami Collage Garrage. In addition to other awards, WORKac was named the 2015 AIA New York State Firm of the Year. http://work.ac/

October 17, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Preston Scott Cohen + Hernan Diaz Alonso: Duel + Duet

Preston Scott Cohen, Principal, Preston Scott Cohen, Inc / Hernan Diaz Alonso, Principal, Xefirotarch, SCI-Arc Director/CEO

Preston Scott Cohen is the Chair of the Department of Architecture and the Gerald M. McCue Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. He is the author of Contested Symmetries (Princeton Architectural Press, 2001) and numerous theoretical and historical essays on architecture. His work has been widely published and exhibited and is in numerous collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles and the Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard. He lectures regularly in prestigious venues around the world. Cohen’s work has been the subject of numerous theoretical assessments by renowned critics and historians including Sylvia Lavin, Antoine Picon, Michael Hays, Nikolaus Kuhnert, Terry Riley, Robert Somol, Hashim Sarkis and Rafael Moneo. He was the Frank Gehry International Chair at the University of Toronto (2004) and the Perloff Professor at UCLA (2002). He has held faculty positions at Princeton, RISD, and Ohio State University. http://www.pscohen.com/

Hernan Diaz Alonso assumed directorship of SCI-Arc in September 2015. A faculty member at the school since 2001, he has served in several leadership roles including Coordinator of the Graduate Thesis program from 2007-2010, and Graduate Programs Chair from 2010 - 2015. He has been widely credited with spearheading the transition of SCI-Arc to digital technologies, playing a key role in shaping the school’s graduate curriculum. In parallel to his role at SCI-Arc, Diaz Alonso is Principal of the Los Angeles-based Xefirotarch, a multidisciplinary practice praised for work at the intersection of design, animation, interactive environments and radical exploration of architecture. A gifted educator, he has been acknowledged throughout the years with prestigious appointments such as Yale University’s Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professorship of Architectural Design in 2010, Visiting Design Studio Faculty at Columbia GSAPP from 2004-2010, and an ongoing appointment in the Urban Strategies Postgraduate Program at the University of Applied Arts Vienna. In spring 2015, he served as Yale University’s Eero Saarinen Professor of Architectural Design. http://www.xefirotarch.com/

October 26, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Martin Gran: People, Process & Projects

Partner and Managing Director, Snøhetta Design

Martin Gran is partner and Managing Director in Snøhetta Brand Design. Prior to this, he was Scandinavian Design Group's New Business Director and Strategic Advisor, responsible for major brands in Europe and the Nordic region. In 2006 he worked at McCann Erickson New York with clients like Master Card and Air Canada. He began his career at Leo Burnett Insight in 1998 as a Strategic Planner. From 2000 to 2003, Martin was a Director at Leo Burnett Advertising Agency. Snøhetta began as a collaborative architectural and landscape workshop, and has remained true to its trans-disciplinary way of thinking since its inception. The firm’s work strives to enhance our sense of place, identity and relationship to others and the physical spaces we inhabit, whether feral or human-made. Museums, markets, reindeer observatories, landscapes and dollhouses get the same care and attention to purpose. http://snohetta.com/

November 2, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Kai-Uwe Bergmann, AIA, RIBA: HOT TO COLD

Partner, BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group, New York

Kai-Uwe Bergmann is a partner at BIG who brings his expertise to proposals around the globe, including work in North America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Kai-Uwe heads up BIG’s business development which currently has the office working in 20 different countries as well as overseeing BIG’s Communications. Registered as an architect in the USA (eight states), and Canada (one province), Kai-Uwe most recently contributed to the resiliency plan BIG U to protect 10 miles of Manhattan’s coastline. He complements his professional work through previous teaching assignments at University of Pennsylvania, University of Florida, IE University in Madrid and his alma mater the University of Virginia. Kai-Uwe also sits on the Board of the Van Alen Institute, participates on numerous international juries and lectures globally on the works of BIG. BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group is a New York and Copenhagen based group of architects, designers, builders and thinkers operating within the fields of architecture, urbanism, research and development. The office is currently involved in a large number of projects throughout Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East. Recently completed projects include the Danish Maritime Museum (2014), Superkilen Park (2013), Gammel Hellerup Multi-Use Hall (2012), Danish Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo (2010) and The 8 House (2010). http://www.big.dk/#about

November 11, 7pm on The Steps

Zachary Tate Porter: Cuts and Fills: Constructing a Discourse on Ground

Lecturer, USC

Zachary Tate Porter is an educator, designer, and historian based in Los Angeles. His research focuses primarily on the relationship between building and ground within modern and contemporary architecture. Porter’s PhD dissertation, “Shifting Grounds of Architectural Practice: Boundary Conditions and Field Formations in the U.S. Design Professions,” analyzes the ways in which professional jurisdiction shaped conceptions of landscape and site within American architectural practice during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the 2015 - 2016 Design of Theory Fellow at SCI-Arc, Porter edited the school’s online journal, Offramp. His work has been featured in gallery exhibitions, art magazines and online publications, such as The Draftery and Better Magazine. Porter currently teaches at the School of Architecture at the University of Southern California. http://www.zacharytateporter.com/

November 16, 7pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall

Enrique Norten: Lecture

Director/Founder, TEN Arquitectos, Mexico City, New York

Enrique Norten, Hon. FAIA, was born in Mexico City where he graduated in1978 from the Universidad Iberoamericana with a degree in architecture. He obtained a master of architecture from Cornell University in 1980. In 1986, he founded TEN Arquitectos (Taller de Enrique Norten Arquitectos) in Mexico City and in 2001 he opened his second office in New York. Since 1998, Norten has been the Miller Chair at the University of Pennsylvania, and has been a professor of architecture at Yale University, UCLA, USC, Michigan, SCI-Arc, Parsons, and Pratt Institute. He has held the Lorch Professor of Architecture Chair at the University of Michigan, the O'Neal Ford Chair in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin, and has been the Eliot Noyes Visiting Design Critic at Harvard University and the Distinguished Visiting Professor at Cornell University. He is a regular member for the Holcim Foundation Awards for Sustainable Construction, the Deutsche Bank's Board of Trustees and the Zumtobel Group Award for Sustainability and Humanity in the Built Environment. Norten was the first Mies van der Rohe Award recipient for Latin American architecture in 1998. In 2005, he received the "Leonardo da Vinci" World Award of Arts by the World Cultural Council and in 2007 he obtained the "Legacy Award" from the Smithsonian Institution for his contributions to U.S. arts and culture. http://www.ten-arquitectos.com/

December 7, 7pm in the W. M. Keck Lecture Hall

Josep Miàs: Lecture

Principal, MiAS Architects, Barcelona

Josep Miàs has been principal of award-winning practice Miàs Architects in Barcelona since 2000, committed to research and experimentation, and new approaches to technology, fabrication and construction. Known worldwide for works such as Fontanals Golf Club, Banyoles City Center Urbanization, Barceloneta Market, 22@Plug-in Barcelona Building, iGuzzini Barcelona Corporate Building among others. Winner of National and International Awards highlighting International Stone Architecture Award, A+Architizer Award,  Archdaily Building of the Year Award, A+ Architecture Best Spanish Educational Facility Award, Catalonia Construction Award, City of Barcelona Architecture and Urbanism Award, Girona Architecture Award and Best Young Catalan Architect Award. Shortlisted at WAF Singapore Best Building of the Year Award. Nominated at European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture Mies Van der Rohe Award. Finalist at Plataforma Arquitectura Work of the Year Award, European Prize for Public Space, European Landscape Prize, Decade Prize, and FAD Award. Recognition for International Relevance by AIA NYC, COAC and BarcelonaTech UPC. Works published and exhibited internationally in Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich, Berlin, Kiev, London, São Paulo, Venice, Belgrade, NYC, Philadelphia and Singapore among others. Lecturer and guest critic in many international universities and Visiting Professor at Städelschule Frankfurt and Harvard Graduate School of Design in Cambridge. Currently Professor at ETSAB Barcelona, and visiting professor at UNISS Alghero and Bartlett UCL London. http://www.miasarquitectes.com/

EXHIBITIONS

September 23 – October 2, 2016 in the SCI-Arc Gallery

2016 Selected Thesis Exhibition

Opening Reception: Friday, September 23, 7pm

A juried exhibition of exceptional thesis projects by 2016 graduates, featuring the 2016 Gehry Prize winning thesis, and a selection of the best graduate thesis projects, will be on view in the SCI-Arc Gallery, September 23 – October 2.

October 7 – December 4, 2016 in the Kappe Library

Victor Jones: Infrastructural Etiquette

Opening Reception: Friday, October 7, 7pm

When the Basento Bridge opened to the public in 1976, it was greeted with mixed reaction. Praised by some for its elegant shape and innovative design, the bridge was condemned by others for being overly indulgent and unnecessarily complicated. At a time when there was virtually no substantive design conversation about infrastructure’s social value beyond utility, structural engineer Sergio Musmeci and his partner, architect Zenaide Zanini, conceived a provocative project mindful of environmental equity. Now, as design discourse turns its attention to infrastructure’s civic and social role in cities, cultural activist Victor Jones triggers a reassessment of the Basento Bridge and how its formal “imposition” - derived from soapy film and bubbles - is not only straight to the point but affirms notions of socially-minded and aesthetically-driven infrastructure. Jones’s mise-en-scène of artifacts and drawings alongside images by architectural photographer Hélène Binet capture a glimpse of the bridge’s daring ambition. 

Victor Jones is a designer, writer, and cultural activist. His creative and intellectual work stands at the intersection of architecture, community engagement, and the urban experience.  Infrastructure as a social, political, and spatial instrument is a central theme of his scholarship, design research, and teaching. Jones’s written works include "New Orleans - Ecological Urbanism" in Shaping the City: Studies in History, Theory, and Urban Design (Routledge, 2013); (IN)FORMAL L.A.: The Space of Politics (eVolo Press, 2014); and Un pont à part | A Distant Bridge (MétisPresses, 2016). In addition, Jones is design principal of Fièvre + Jones Inc. Projects include Bywater Houses (2015), Watt House Project Platform (2011), and a skate park in New Orleans (2009). Jones has taught design studios and seminars at Tulane University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California. He lives and works in Los Angeles with his partner Alain Fièvre. http://www.fievrejones.com/  

October 21—December 4, 2016 in the SCI-Arc Gallery

Michael Sorkin Studio and Terreform: Metrophysics

Opening Reception: Friday, October 21, 7pm

Architecture lives as both object and aggregation: buildings and cities. If the pursuit of an environment that is sustainable, equitable, and beautiful is common at every scale, the valence of these values varies by situation.  Metrophysics foregrounds projects with meanings rooted in the urban, including buildings and sites designed with both practical and polemical intent.  The work is from a team that operates as both a “traditional” architectural studio responding to clients, and as a research practice that formulates its own agenda of investigation and intervention.  Discoveries are passed back and forth and what Terreform has learned over the years from New York City (Steady) State – an elaborate thought experiment to determine just how autonomous our city can become – informs “official” projects Sorkin Studio has undertaken in Wuhan or Xi’an.  All, however, test the limits of physical design to abet broader human and planetary needs and desires. http://www.sorkinstudio.com/  http://www.terreform.info/