Contemporary Architecture Lecture Series 2022: From Material to Abstraction
Curator: Arian Khalighi
Perhaps the most prominent feature of contemporary architecture is its multitude of streams. This unprecedented diversity has led to a phenomenon often referred to as “disciplinary confusion.” In an environment where no single dominant trend prevails, many seek to escape this confusion and better understand the contemporary scene by categorizing existing trends with various labels. However, these categorizations can sometimes result in reductionism, where the complexities and interwoven forces in architecture are overlooked.
One way out of this confusion might be to study the current state based on timeless architectural elements such as form and materials on one hand, and contextually relevant elements like cultural, social, economic, and environmental conditions on the other.
The series “Contemporary Architecture Lectures: From Material to Abstraction” aims to introduce contemporary architectural offices from different parts of the world that have been influential in shaping the architectural landscape. These offices are significant not merely for the scale or number of their works but for their impact on current architectural trends.
These lectures are held online approximately once a month, with each session featuring an architect presenting the work of their office. The goal of this program is to gain a deeper understanding of today’s influential voices and to better comprehend the contemporary architectural scene.
In this session, Arian Khalighi, the curator of this series of events, discussed the introductory topics related to the subject and goals of the event.
Speaker: Arian Khalighi
Date: January 15, 2022
Time: 19:00
Director: Aryan Khalighi
Jennifer Bonner is a professor of architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. She founded her architecture firm, MALL, in 2009. Born in Alabama, Bonner has received several prestigious awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers, the AIA Emerging Voices award, the Progressive Architecture (P/A) award, and the Next Progressives award from Architect Magazine. Bonner was the first recipient of the annual teaching fellowship at Woodbury University in Los Angeles and has been selected as the distinguished studio professor at TVSDesign at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Previously, she taught design studios and seminars at Auburn University, the Architectural Association in London, and Lund University. Bonner has also worked at the architecture firms Foster + Partners and David Chipperfield Architects.
Speaker: Jennifer Bonner
Host: Arien Khalighi
Date: February 4,2022
Time: 19:30
Director: Arian Khalighi
Moon Hoon was born in 1968. He is the child of a geologist and an English teacher and spent his childhood in Sangdong-eup, Gangwon Province, and his teenage years on the island of Tasmania, Australia. He graduated from the Department of Architecture at Inha University in South Korea and the School of Architecture and Planning at MIT in Massachusetts. He founded the office Moonbalsoo in 2001 and has been an active and prolific architect since then. His significant works include Rock It Suda, Lollipop House, Panorama House, Ongdalsam, K-Pop Curve, and the Sang Sang Museum, which received the Korean Institute of Architects Award in 2005.
Moon Hoon transcends the limitations of known styles through various methods of expression and representation, including hand drawings, installations, and experimental creative performances. In 2009, he was selected by architecture professors as one of the top twelve architects in Korea. In 2014, he was invited to the Venice Biennale, where he exhibited some of his drawings. Some of his paintings are in the collections of the Tchoban Foundation in Berlin, Germany.
Speaker: Moon Hoon
Host: Arian Khalighi
Date: 8th Esfand 1400 (February 27, 2022)
Time: 16:00
Director: Arian Khalighi
Eduardo Mediero is an architect and lecturer at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. He has previously taught at Pennsylvania State University, the Polytechnic University of Madrid, and in the summer program at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
Eduardo holds a Master’s degree in Architecture with high distinction from the Polytechnic University of Madrid and a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design. His work has been exhibited at the 14th Spanish Architecture and Urbanism Biennial, the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale, and the Colegio de Arquitectos de Madrid. He has received the inaugural 2019-20 Fishman Fellowship at the University of Michigan, the 2018 KPF Fellowship, the RCC Fellowship at Harvard University, and the Arthur Lehman Fund.
Speaker: Eduardo Mediero HANGHA
Host: Arian Khalighi
Date: 10th Ordibehesht 1401 (April 30, 2022)
Time: 19:30
Director: Arian Khalighi
William (Liam) O’Brien is the founder and director of WOJR and a professor of architecture at MIT. He is also a founding member of Collective-LOK. Liam pursued his graduate studies at Harvard University GSD, where he received the Faculty Design Award from the Department of Architecture. Since 2019, he has served as the Director of Design for the Samara project at Airbnb. He was awarded the Rome Prize in Architecture for 2012-2013 by the American Academy in Rome. In 2011, he received the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers.
He has previously taught at the University of California and Ohio State University. Before joining MIT, he was an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught advanced theory seminars and design studios in the graduate curriculum. At MIT, O’Brien currently holds the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Chair and teaches design studios in both the graduate and undergraduate programs.
Speaker: William (Liam) O’Brien (WOJR)
Host: Arian Khalighi
Date: 28th Khordad 1401 (June 18, 2022)
Time: 19:00
Director: Arian Khalighi
Thomas Doxiadis, ASLA, is an international architect and landscape architect. He received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1992 and subsequently pursued graduate studies in architecture and landscape architecture at Harvard, graduating in 1998. His undergraduate thesis focused on the historic Tsakonian village of Kastanitsa, while his graduate thesis, “Design for Democracy,” explored the relationship between spatial form and political function.
Doxiadis was a teaching assistant at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design and has received several academic awards, including the Harvard College Fellowship, the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize, the Rudolf Arnheim Award, and the Penny White Prize. In 1999, he returned to Greece and served as the Director of the Olympic Committee’s Athens Organizing Section (1999-2003), overseeing urban landscape and design. Simultaneously, he was an advisor to the Athens Planning Organization (1999-2001). He then taught at the University of Patras and currently serves as the Chair of the Hellenic Association for the Natural and Cultural Environment.
In 1999, Thomas founded the architectural and landscape architecture office +doxiadis, which focuses on designs based on ecological and environmental landscape principles. The office, consisting of architects and landscape architects, engages in extensive international collaborations. Its projects include development designs, parks, recreational areas, resorts, urban interventions, landscape restoration, and policy-making. The office has received accolades such as the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Awards (2010, Commendation) and the first prize for urban space design in front of the New Acropolis Museum.
Speaker: Thomas Doxiadis (Doxiadisplus)
Host: Arian Khalighi
Date: 11th Tir 1401 (July 2, 2022)
Time: 19:00
Director: Arian Khalighi
Amin Taha was born in Berlin and has lived in the UK since 1974. He established his independent studio in 2003 and founded GROUPWORK as a shared ownership practice, of which he is currently the principal. In addition to designing and detailing projects, Amin has taught and lectured on architecture, served on the jury for national and international RIBA awards, and contributed to research groups and funds related to ownership issues.
GROUPWORK has received numerous international awards for its built work, including multiple RIBA awards. The practice was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize and nominated for the EU Mies Award in 2019. The office’s projects have been featured globally in publications such as Architectural Review, Architecture Today, I Focus, AIT Magazine, L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, Blueprint, Wallpaper, The Guardian, and the Financial Times.
Speaker: Amin Taha
Host: Arian Khalighi
Date: 8th Mordad 1401 (July 30, 2022)
Time: 19:00
Director: Arian Khalighi