Trans-Scalar Lecture: Architecture Office
Monday, March 6, 2023
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm
Register
for
the
lecture
today!
Held
in-person
in
the
UH
Architecture
Building
Theater.
Images and Stuff
Recent work of Architecture Office under the theme of the Hines College’s TRANS-SCALAR lecture series. Held in-person in the UH Architecture Building Theater.
About
Architecture
Office:
Architecture
Office
is
a
Swiss-American
practice
led
by
Nicole
McIntosh
and
Jonathan
Louie.
Their
recent
work
has
been
exhibited
at
the
Yale
Architecture
Gallery,
the
Kunsthaus
Glarus
and
the
2021
Seoul
Biennial
of
Architecture
and
Urbanism.
Their
contributions
to
design
and
research
have
been
recognized
by
the
Architectural
League
of
New
York
with
the
Young
Architect’s
Prize
(2017),
ACSA
Faculty
Design
Award
(2020),
and
Swiss
Federal
Office
of
Culture
with
the
Swiss
Art
Awards
(2022).
About
the
TRANS-SCALAR
Lecture
Series
Historically,
design
disciplines
have
been
attached
to
specific
scale
spectrums
-the
scales
of
Industrial
Design,
Interior
Architecture,
Architecture,
Urbanism,
or
Territory-
However,
the
objects
we
design
are
not
inert
assemblies
of
material
forms.
In
every
design
decision
we
make,
we
mobilize,
increase
pressure,
and
transform
the
Earth’s
system,
including
within
human
and
non-human
life
forms.
Every
design
decision
can
provoke
ecological
tension,
inequality,
and
disruptions
that
lead
the
planet
to
amplified
natural
catastrophes
for
which
no
one
can
quite
be
blamed.
Design
is
trans-scalar
if
we
realize
simple
equations:
every
pile
produces
a
whole,
and
every
material
form
has
its
equivalent
negative
somewhere
else.
How do we think and practice design ethically when acknowledging the objects we design are not innocent, but the intractability washes the responsibilities of natural catastrophe? The way of displaying the complex reality of design is by disclosing its trans-scalar powers. Objects of design are assemblages of many layers -the ecological, political, social, formal, material, technological, and environmental-combined in ethical and aesthetic forms. When these layers come together in exemplary works, they disseminate knowledge by becoming paradigms.
In this new era of ecological consciousness, design becomes an embassy, a cross-section, of all these layers representing the myriads of scales in which every design decision operates from the molecular to the cosmic scales. This program series posits the question of trans-scalar design via the social, cultural, historical, and environmental realms and how designers respond to the responsibilities of trans-scalar materiality.
- Location
- UH College of Architecture and Design Theater