Architecture Lecture Series
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.
Fall 2025 Schedule
September 12 | Kay Sargent
4:30pm, Marvin Forum
Kay Sargent is a practicing, licensed and certified Interior Designer, Author, and Director of Thought Leadership, Interiors at HOK. With 40 years of experience, she has a passion for using design to transform how and where people work. Kay leads project teams that solve clients’ business and organizational challenges related to real estate business process, strategic planning, workplace strategy, change management and designing for inclusion. Kay is author of “Designing Neuroinclusive Workplaces” a book that addresses sensory processing, cognitive wellbeing and neurodiversity in the build environment and why and how we need to address it to create neuroinclusive spaces.
October 17 | Albena Yaneva
4:30pm, Wescoe 3140
*Bio forthcoming
November 14 | Francesco Carota
4:30pm, Marvin Forum
Francesco Carota, Ph.D. is an assistant professor at the University of Kansas School of Architecture & Design and cofounder and CEO of the multidisciplinary design firm Calibro Zero. He also serves as an associate member at the University of Kansas Center for East Asian Studies and affiliate researcher at the China Room Research Group at Politecnico di Torino. A licensed architect and writer, his work has appeared in d+a, Domus, Vogue, and many other publications. He is author of the books China Goes Urban. The City to Come (Skira 2021) and New Silk Road: the Architecture of the Belt and Road Initiative (Birkhauser 2025), the latter of which is currently featured at the 2025 Venice Biennale international architecture exhibition.