Architecture Lecture Series


Architecture Lecture Series Graphic spring 2024 depicting dates: 02.19, 03.22 and 04.12

The Architecture Lecture Series welcomes architectural and experiential design leaders from around the country to the University of Kansas to illuminate new ideas and inspire purpose-driven design practice. Lecturers bring a wide range of expertise in areas such as sustainable building, digital environments, public interest design, historic preservation, health and wellness design, and more. 


Spring 2024 Schedule

 

February 19 | Health + Wellness Symposium keynote by Phil Bernstein

Designing Healthy Environments through Artificial Intelligence
5:00 PM, Jayhawk Welcome Center

VIDEO: Watch the Lecture

Phil Bernstein, FAIA, is an architect and technologist who has taught at the Yale School of Architecture since 1988. From 2000-2016, Bernstein led BIM technology strategy and industry vision at Autodesk. Prior to Autodesk, Bernstein was a principal at Pelli Clarke & Partners Architects where he managed many of the firm’s most complex commissions including projects for the Mayo Clinic, Goldman Sachs, and Reagan Washington National Airport. He lectures, writes, and consults extensively on design practice, technology, and project delivery in the building industry. Bernstein is the author of Machine Learning: Architecture in the Age of Artificial Intelligence (2022), Architecture | Design | Data – Practice Competency in the Era of Computation (2018), and co-editor of Building (In) The Future: Recasting Labor in Architecture (2010 with Peggy Deamer). 

More info about the 2024 KU Health + Wellness Design Symposium 

March 22 | Jennifer Siegal

Architecture is Modularity
4:30 PM, Marvin Hall Forum 

Jennifer Siegal and her firm, Office of Mobile Design (OMD), focus on “portable, demountable, and relocatable structures,” from homes to schools to stores. Utilizing industrial processes, prefabrication, and innovative material applications, OMD investigates how architecture can be more efficiently produced and nimbly deployed. Further, Siegal’s firm examines how mobile architecture can engage and adapt to the evolving realities and challenges of urban landscapes. Siegel is the editor of Mobile: the Art of Portable Architecture (2002) and More Mobile: Portable Architecture for Today (2008). She was the founder and series editor of Materials Monthly (2005-2006), published by Princeton Architectural Press. A monograph detailing her work, Jennifer Siegal, was published in 2005. 

April 12 | Herminia Machry, Nilou Vakil & Amy Van De Riet

Women in Design: Practice, Research & Community Engagement
4:30 PM, Marvin Forum 

Three KU professors will share their unique and multifaceted career trajectories, providing their perspectives and motivations to balance practice, teaching, research, and community engagement within the architecture and design profession. Herminia Machry will share insights about her gradual transition from large-scale architectural practice to teaching and research in interior design, where she promotes ways to bridge theory and practice by involving students and community partners in design simulations focused on healthcare. Nilou Vakil will introduce how her international background has informed her career – balancing an award-winning practice with an academic presence emphasizing community-based partnerships, service learning, and advocacy for women in design. Amy Van de Riet will share her professional focus on historical preservation and adaptive reuse in architecture, and how it enabled her to engage with local communities to collaborate on research advocating for historical legacy and racial equity. The panel will be facilitated by KU student Anna Dority, president of the Women in Design (WiD) committee at the School of Architecture & Design.