SCI-Arc ANNOUNCES FALL 2018 PUBLIC LECTURES AND EXHIBITIONS    

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

Download Press Images  

Los Angeles, CA (August 16, 2018) ­– SCI-Arc is pleased to announce its fall 2018 series of public events. SCI-Arc public lectures this coming fall will introduce speakers from a broad cross-section of today’s most exciting architects, artists, philosophers and theorists including Gretchen Wilkins, Bruce Sterling, Winka Dubbeldam, Marrikka Trotter and Michael Meredith, among others. The SCI-Arc Cinema Series kicks off with Fight Club featuring special guest Alex McDowell.  

The lecture series is complemented by several exhibitions including the 2018 Selected Thesis Exhibition which will feature the 2018 Gehry Prize winning thesis alongside a selection of best graduate thesis projects. And Mira Henry presents Rough Coat, an installation specifically commissioned for the SCI-Arc Gallery.  

Admission to SCI-Arc-hosted public events and exhibitions is always free and open to the public.  

     September 14        Selected Thesis Exhibition Opening Reception

                      19        Alisa Andrasek Lecture 

           October 2        Fight Club (1999) with guest Alex McDowell Cinema Series 

                        3        Michael Meredith Lecture

                      10        Winka Dubbeldam Lecture

                      12        Marrikka Trotter Faculty Talk

                      16        Silvio Pietro Angori Lecture

                      19        Mira Henry: Rough Coat Exhibition Opening Reception

                        24      Gretchen Wilkins Lecture

        November 6      Mi Vida Loca (1993) with guest Allison Anders Cinema Series

                        7        Aurelie Hachez Lecture

                      14        Inderpaul Johar Lecture  

                      16        Damjan Jovanovic Faculty Talk

                      28        John Hoke Lecture 

        December 4     Lawrence of Belgravia (2011) with Lawrence Cinema Series 

                        5        Gilles Retsin 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 on SCI-Arc’s Facebook page. Gallery opening receptions are held in the SCI-Arc Gallery and Kappe Library Gallery spaces. 

LECTURES  

September 19, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Alisa Andrasek: High Resolution Fabric of Architecture  

Architecture’s “superpower” resides in the complex synthesis of a multitude of agencies, such as program, site, available technology, constraints of construction and economics. Recognizing that architecture is as fundamentally informational as it is material, this work explores new approaches for the accelerated architectural synthesis, under conditions of the rapidly expanding volumes of computation and information available. Instead of mimicking human logic, it embraces a new kind of logic entirely, with the capacity to solve problems and reveal territories that were previously unreachable to human cognition. By embracing the inhuman side of the equation, we uncover a usage of computation in design that is more natural to the processes of computation. Resultant architectures are characterized by enhanced resiliency, plasticity, and malleability of complex interrelated systems; in short, increased design-ability within complex ecologies, allowing for speculative proposals of unprecedented nature, complexity and scale, uncovering an architectural super-performance and previously unseen aesthetics.  

Architect, designer, thinker and innovator, Alisa Andrasek is Professor of Design Innovation at RMIT in Melbourne, and Professor in the Division of Philosophy, Art and Critical Thought at the EGS in Saas Fee. At the UCL Bartlett, she built an award-winning program in advanced architectural research and founded Wonderlab recognized for innovation with AI, robotics, and digital fabrication. She has previously held appointments at the AA DRL, Columbia GSAPP, Pratt, and UPenn. Andrasek is a founder of Biothing, and co-founder of Bloom Games and aiBuild. Her research and doctoral dissertation introduced the concepts of a renewed logical core of architecture, high-resolution design for complexity with applications at a myriad of scales, and hybrid (human/inhuman) cognition, emerging from the previously unseen and awe-inspiring aesthetics. Andrasek’s work won numerous awards and has been exhibited at the Centre Georges Pompidou, New Museum New York, Venice Biennale, and the FRAC Collection, amongst others.  

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

Fight Club (1999) screening with guest Alex McDowell Cinema Series

Conversation with Alex McDowell followed by film screening  

In Fight Club, an insomniac office worker and a devil-may-care soapmaker form an underground fight club that evolves into something much, much more.  

Alex McDowell is a designer and world-builder working across feature films, and immersive storytelling projects for major industries and institutions. He was the production designer for such films as Fight Club, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Man of Steel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Minority Report and now directs the USC World Building Media Lab in Los Angeles.  

October 3, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Michael Meredith: Lecture

Michael Meredith, along with his partner, Hilary Sample, is a principal of MOS, an internationally recognized architecture practice based in New York. His writing has appeared in Artforum, LOG, Perspecta, Praxis, Domus, and Harvard Design Magazine. Meredith is Associate Professor of architectural design at Princeton University School of Architecture, and has previously taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design, the University of Michigan, where he was awarded the Muschenheim Fellowship, and the University of Toronto.  

October 10, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Winka Dubbeldam: New Solids  

Winka Dubbeldam is the founder and partner of Archi-Tectonics, NYC, LLC [1994] and Professor and Chair of the Department of Architecture at PennDesign, Philadelphia. She has lectured and taught extensively at the Masters Programs of Columbia, Harvard, Cornell, and Penn. She served as juror at several design and AIA awards, and for the Prix de Rome and the Architecture Biennale in Bogota. She also served for five years as the External Examiner for the AA's [Architectural Association] RIBA review in London and was on the Board of the Institute of Urban Design, NY and the Board of Advisors of BOFFO NYC. Publications include the three Monographs, “Winka Dubbeldam, Architect” [010 Publishers, Rotterdam, 1996], AT-INdex [Princeton Press, NYC, 2006], and the Archi-Tectonics Monograph [DAAB publishers, 2010]. A new monograph is upcoming with ACTAR in 2018. Her work has also been published in a large number of International Architecture & Design Periodicals. Exhibitions include the Archi-Tectonics solo exhibit in the Kunsthal in Rotterdam [1996], the MOMA exhibits, “The Unprivate House”  (1999) and the  PS1 ‘Young Architects’ exhibit (2001), the Max Protetch Gallery [NYC] Exhibit for proposals for the WTC (2001), and two Venice Biennale exhibits [2002 & 2004]. Furthermore Archi-Tectonics curated and participated in the PAN exhibit in the Taylor Gallery [2006] and was included in Performalism, an exhibit in the Tel Aviv Museum of Modern Art [2008].  The AIANY awarded the Greenwich building, and included it in the Built by Women exhibit [NYC 2015].  Archi-Tectonics recently participated in Storefront’s Manhattanisms Exhibition [NYC 2016], the Queens Museum’s Unbuilt NYC [2017], and this year in two exhibitions, a solo exhibit on Archi-Tectonics in Milan Italy and the Q-Tower was included in the COLLAPSE: Climat, Cities and Culture [NYC 2018]  

October 10, 1pm in room 160

Marrikka Trotter: Faculty Talk  

Marrikka Trotter is an architectural historian and theorist whose research examines the historical intersections between geology, architecture, agriculture, and landscape in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She is co-editor of the contemporary architectural theory collections Architecture at the Edge of Everything Else  (The MIT Press: 2010) and Architecture is All Over (Columbia Books on Architecture and the City: 2017), and her writing has appeared in publications such as Harvard Design Magazine, Log, and AA Files. She received her PhD from Harvard University in 2017, and her work has received funding from the Paul Mellon Centre, the Graham Foundation, the Canadian Centre for Architecture, and Sir John Soane's Museum, among others. She is a full-time faculty member at SCI-Arc, where she coordinates the History + Theory curriculum.  

October 16, 1pm in W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Silvio Pietro Angori: Pininfarina: Art, Culture, Design  

Silvio Pietro Angori, CEO and Managing Director of Pininfarina S.p.A., will give a presentation on the iconic Italian brand, which combines art, design, culture and entrepreneurship. Additional presentations will be held at selected Universities and Design Schools in Southern California. Organized in collaboration with by the Italian Cultural Institute in Los Angeles, Pininfarina S.p.A. on the occasion of the Italian Day of Contemporary Art and the Week of Italian Language in the World opening in Los Angeles.  

Silvio Pietro Angori has a Master’s Degree in Theoretical Physics at La Sapienza University in Rome and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration at the Booth School of Business in Chiacago. He started as researcher at the Augusta Westland Helicopters, he worked as Senior Researcher at Centro Ricerche Fiat , now Fiat Chrysler Automotive. He then joined ArvinMeritor in Detroit holding various management roles, becoming General Manager and CEO of national branches, transnational operating units and global divisions. In 2007 he joined Pininfarina as COO. In 2008 he was coopted as Director in the Board and in 2009 was elected as CEO, position held till today. During his tenure he has led Pininfarina through a dramatic turn-around because of the crisis of 2007/2009 and successfully led to a complete relaunch of Pininfarina, today global leader of Italian design. He is a member of several top American associations and he is a “compulsive reader”: this passion has led him to deal with the Indice dei Libri del Mese, the Italian equivalent of the New York review books, where he serves as Chairman of the Board. Silvio Pietro Angori, CEO and Managing Director of Pininfarina S.p.A., will give a presentation on the iconic Italian brand, which combines art, design, culture and entrepreneurship.  

October 24, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Gretchen Wilkins: Unfinished Cities  

Gretchen Wilkins has been practicing and teaching architecture for nearly twenty years, based in Michigan, Melbourne and Ho Chi Minh City. Her work focuses on the integration of productive industries in cities, experimenting with new formal, spatial and socioeconomic patterns of density and mobility. In particular the ‘Future Factory’ project reconsiders factory buildings for high-density sites and cooperative urban programs. She is also collaborating on the FarmHD project – design research funded by the Australia-China Council to propose architectural models for high-rise, high-volume food production in super dense cities, beginning with Hong Kong and Melbourne. The latter city’s long-celebrated livability ranking also provides a framework to both critically assess the formal and informal metrics of urban livability, as well as experiment with new models of them.  

Gretchen Wilkins is Head of Architecture at Cranbrook Academy, commencing in the Fall of 2018. Prior to this she was an Associate Professor of Architecture at RMIT University, acting as Head of Design at the Vietnam campus and before that Director of the Master of Urban Design program based in Melbourne. Before arriving to Australia she taught at the University of Michigan, and has guest taught collaboratively at several universities in Europe and Asia. Her design practice includes built work, awarded competitions, international publications and funded design research. This body of work focuses on issues of density, industry and mobility in rapidly transforming cities. She earned her PhD from RMIT University and Master of Architecture from the University of Michigan.  

November 6, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Mi Vida Loca (1993) with guest Allison Anders Cinema Series

Conversation with Allison Anders followed by film screening  

In Mi Vida Loca Mousie and Sad Girl are childhood best friends in a contemporary Los Angeles poor Hispanic neighborhood. But when Sad Girl becomes pregnant by Mousie's boyfriend, a drug dealer named Ernesto, the two become bitter enemies. While their dispute escalates towards violence, the violence of the world around them soon also impacts their lives.  

Allison Anders is an American independent film director whose films include Gas Food Lodging, Mi Vida Loca and Grace of My Heart. Anders has collaborated with fellow UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television graduate Kurt Voss and has also worked as a television director. Anders' films have been shown at the Cannes International Film Festival and at the Sundance Film Festival. She has been awarded a MacArthur Genius Grant as well as a Peabody Award.  

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

Aurélie Hachez: The Way We Look at Things    

The search for inspiration deep into a spatial or social context aptly describes AHA's practice. Projects feed from a site-sensitive approach that leads the thought process to take advantage of different contexts. The lecture will show how curiosity and admiration for everyday life situations and ordinary spaces as domestic environments may in fact present qualitative opportunities when designing a project. How can we create a link between these multiple feelings, sensations and space experiments on the one hand and our imagination and designs on the other? This lecture will be illustrated by images showing the references influencing AHA's work and how they are integrated in the design processes of ongoing or completed projects.  

Aurélie Hachez (1983) graduated from ISA St. Luc and ISACF La Cambre in Brussels in 2008. In 2012, she founded AHA, her own architectural office, and since then her practice has focused on designing projects of different scales including furniture design, interior renovation or the construction of new spaces and buildings mostly in the rural and urban context of Belgium. Her attention is constantly directed toward spatial experimentation, concern for proportions, light and respect for existing materials. Her work on projects is characterized and formalized by the definition of details, objects, and combinations of materials which are worked out through relevant construction techniques. These defining choices unify each project and give them their particular character and identity. She uses a collaborative approach that leads her to work with artists, craftsmen and other architects, and to participate in international juries and competitions. AHA is currently working on a number of projects such as the renovation of a 1920 listed apartment, the construction of a student residence and of a special education school, and the competition for the design of liturgical furniture for the medieval Cathedral of Tournai (Belgium).    

November 14, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture Hall

Inderpaul Johar: Democratizing the City  

The 21st Century Challenge for Architecture and Urbanism is Democracy. Indy will explore how we as designers can and must advance the meaningful building of Democratic Cities and societies - sharing experiments and Provocations from around the world which are exploring and testing this necessary future.  

Inderpaul Johar is a trained and registered architect, Graham Willis Professor 2016-17 and over the course of the last 15 years he has co-founded and established a RIBA London Building of Year award winning architectural practice - Architecture 00, multiple social start up accelerators, multiple impact hubs in the UK along with supporting the development of multiple open source manufacturing ventures in London - from Open Desk to Wikihouse, and most recently Dark Matter Laboratories. Indy is also a Fellow of the RSA, UNDP Innovation facility advisory board member, was the member of the Mayor of London's SME Working Group and most recently is a member of Mayor of London’s Good Growth By Design panel. Indy will explore how we as designers can and must advance the meaningful building of democratic cities and societies - sharing experiments and provocations from around the world which are exploring and testing this necessary future.  

November 16, 1pm in room 160

Damjan Jovanovic: Faculty Talk  

Damjan Jovanovic is an architect, educator and software designer, based in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He currently works as a Tutor and Research Associate at Städelschule Architecture Class. He finished the post-graduate Master of Arts in Architecture degree at the Städelschule with a thesis that won the AIV Master Thesis Prize in 2014. His interests lie with investigating the cultural effects of software in architectural design through the development of non-standard design apps. In his work, computational design is merged with an artistic position of uncovering the hidden and unstated ambitions and operations of software, through the exploration of relations between the computational medium and aesthetics. Recent projects include VR/AR works centered on reinterpretation of the work by Marcel Duchamp and pedagogical software apps positioned between gaming and architectural design culture.  

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

John Hoke: Quantum Craft. Imagining the Future of Sport.  

Mr. Hoke will discuss the primary drive of Nike’s design output: To be the leader of “Modern Sport Design.” He will connect the dynamic relationship and intimate intersection between athletic ambition, amplification and augmentation. His shared vision and central thesis spark revolutionary exploration and experimentation to push the limits of sport beyond the boundaries of biology. This relentless quest underscores Nike’s ability to unlock human potential within every athlete* through passion, obsession and innovation. This unlock is spurred by new creative tools that help broaden Nike’s aesthetic ambition through game-changing methods of make. An architect by training, Mr. Hoke will connect the dots between his education, his Nike design work, and his ongoing theoretical and pragmatic approach to blur the built environment (inhabitation) with the on body environment (augmentation). These investigations propel sport forward, and also position creativity at Nike to continuously reimagine and redefine the edges of human performance.  

John Hoke currently serves as Nike Inc’s Chief Design Officer. In this role, he leads Nike’s global design team. Hoke directs over 1,000 designers charged with envisioning the future of sport through hundreds of apparel and footwear styles each year. Hoke also promotes the power and possibility of design and creativity through his writing and speaking engagements. He is a “Design Fellow” at The Pennsylvania State University; a member of Herman Miller, Inc.’s Board of Directors; an Advisor to Piaggio Fast Forward; and a Trustee at both the Oregon College of Art and Craft and Pacific Northwest College of Arts. Prior to Nike, Hoke was a designer at Michael Graves, Architect, in Princeton, NJ. His work included architectural, industrial and graphic design for a wide variety of international clientele. Hoke holds degrees from The Pennsylvania State University, BARCH; University of Pennsylvania, MARCH; and Stanford University, MBA. Outside Nike, Hoke dabbles in his sketchbook and computer, snowboarding, mountain biking, running and enjoys time spent with his wife and three adult sons.  

December 4, 7pm in the W.M. Keck Lecture 

Lawrence of Belgravia (2011) with guest Lawrence Cinema Series

Conversation with Lawrence followed by film screening  

An intimate documentary portrait of Lawrence, the musician behind cult UK bands Felt, Denim and Go-Kart Mozart. Lawrence is an English singer, songwriter and guitarist. He is known as the front-man in the British alternative rock bands Felt, Denim and Go Kart Mozart.    

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

Gilles Retsin: Bits and Pieces: Discrete Architecture  

This lecture presents a body of work and thinking that is based on a computational understanding of the discrete part or bit – pieces that are as scalable, accessible and versatile as digital data. Gilles Retsin’s work proposes that a digital form of assembly, based on parts, contains the greatest promise for a complex, open-ended, adaptable architecture. This approach capitalizes on the digital economy and automation, with the potential of the digital to democratize production and increase access. This lecture suggests that the digital not only has deep consequences for how we design and produce architecture, but also that it is first and foremost a new system of production with economic, social and political consequences that need to be understood - such as the global housing crisis and the impact of accelerated automation on labor.   

Gilles Retsin is a London based architect and designer whose work is is interested in the impact of computation on the core principles of architecture – the bones rather than the skin. His practice works internationally and has developed numerous provocative proposals for buildings on a range of scales. His work has been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and he has exhibited internationally in museums such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York among others. He is Program Director of the B.Pro Architectural Design (AD) M.Arch course at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Gilles Retsin studied in Belgium, Chile and the UK, where he obtained a masters from the Architectural Association’s in London. Prior to founding his own practice, he worked in Switzerland as an architect with Christian Kerez.  

EXHIBITIONS  

September 14 – 23 in the SCI-Arc Gallery

2018 Selected Thesis 

Friday, September 14, 7pm: Opening Reception  

A juried exhibition of exceptional thesis projects by 2018 graduates, featuring the 2018 Gehry Prize winning thesis project alongside a selection of best graduate thesis projects and outstanding models, will be on view in the SCI-Arc Gallery.  

October 19 – December 10 in the SCI-Arc Gallery

Mira Henry: Rough Coat

Friday, October 19, 7pm: Opening Reception  

This is a story of constructing a monumental blanket. Blankets, as we know, are soft, submissive and tolerant. They are inviting to use and easy to put away. The monumental, by contrast, suggests a stern grandiosity - something heroic to build and equally heroic to remove. Here is the set up: in which the relaxed quality of interior comforts are thrown against the rigorous logic of an architectural surface. After that, as is often said, one thing leads to another.   

Mira Henry is the principal of Henry Architecture (HA) and the co-principal of the collaborative project Current Interests. Henry holds a Bachelor's in Art History from the University of Chicago and a Master's of Architecture from UCLA. She is the recipient of the Henry Adams AIA Award and Archiprix International Gold Medal. Henry lives in Los Angeles and is design faculty at SCI-Arc. Prior to teaching, Henry worked as a project architect for Office dA and Monica Ponce de Leon Studio in New York.   

__

Public Programs  

Parking and admission are free. No reservations are required. Events are broadcast live online on SCI-Arc’s Facebook page.  

SCI-Arc Public Programs are subject to change beyond our control. For the most current information, please visit www.sciarc.edu/ or call 213-613-2200.  

Parking and Hours

The entrance to SCI-Arc's parking lot is at 350 Merrick Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013, between Traction Avenue and 4th Street in Los Angeles. The SCI-Arc Gallery is open daily from 10am–6pm; the Library Gallery is open daily from 12pm-6pm.  

About SCI-Arc Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in Downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to re-examine assumptions, create, explore and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 500 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture prizes. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. www.sciarc.edu/