A new year is upon us here at the University of Miami School of Architecture, and to start things off, Patrik Schumacher is the first on the list for this year's UMSoA Currents lecture series.   UMSoA Currents is a forum for the diversity of voices and interests in the field. Previous guests have included architects, critics and real estate developers, including those involved in the transformation of Miami into a world-class metropolis. Lectures in the Currents series are regularly scheduled onMondays in Glasgow Hall at 6:30 p.m.

Schumacher is a company director and senior designer at Zaha Hadid Architects, which is designing the 1000 Museum residences in Miami.  His lecture is titled The Rationality of Parametricism.  His lecture will deal with the arguement that parametricism is architecture’s answer to post-Fordism, the only contemporary style that addresses the challenges and utilizes the opportunities of our computationally empowered civilization.  In 2008, he coined the phrase “Parametricism,” and has since published a series of manifestos promoting Parametricism as the new epochal style for the 21st century. In 2010 and 2012 he published his two-volume theoretical opus magnum, “The Autopoiesis of Architecture”. His writings are available on his website: www.patrikschumacher.com

The school is also concentrating on a year long focus titled "Miami and The Tropical World", which will be addressed curriculum wide in electives and studio topics as well as in the main Technoglass Lecture Series. The topic will delve into issues such as climate effect on cities, sustainability, the phenomena of transformation on global economies,  among others.