Design Experts Talk Contemporary Architecture
LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 12, 2010) − Local and international designers and thinkers will come together at Lexington’s Land of Tomorrow (LOT) gallery for a contemporary architecture discussion titled "3&1." The free public event, scheduled for April 13, features a lecture by David Erdman, founder of Hong Kong's davidclovers architecture firm, followed by a discussion about contemporary architecture with Jeffrey Kipnis, Marcelo Spina and Dean Michael Speaks, of University of Kentucky College of Design.
"3&1" will begin with a reception from 6 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 13. The lecture by Erdman and the discussion to follow will start at 7 p.m., at LOT. Both events are free and open to the public.
David Erdman was the principal of servo’s Los Angeles office before establishing davidclovers in 2007 with Clover Lee. In 2009, the firm moved to Hong Kong immersing the practice into an actively maturing Southeast Asian design culture. Recognized as an emerging international practice, davidclovers is committed to developing innovative work that merges its design sensibility, material and computational expertise with the intellectual and physical resources of Hong Kong, the Pearl River Delta and China. The firm's work blends urban design, architecture, interiors and product design. This is evident in its housing proposal for the greater Beijing Arts District and Lunar House, the first application of Corian exterior cladding in the U.S., designed in collaborations with DuPont China.
Erdman has lectured widely and has been published in most major architectural journals and newspapers. The firm's work has been exhibited in many cities and institutions including Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, as well as the Venice, Hong Kong, Beijing and Korean International Biennales. In 2008, the American Academy in Rome awarded Erdman the Rome Prize in Design. He has previously taught at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and is currently the Cullinan Visiting Professor at Rice University and a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong.
Architecture critic Jeffrey Kipnis' work has shaped the thinking, imagination and creative work of architects and critics for more than two decades. From seminal studies of the work of such key practitioners as Philip Johnson, Peter Eisenman, Rem Koolhaas and Daniel Libeskind, to theoretical reflections on the intellectual, cultural and political role of contemporary architecture in such essays as "Toward a New Architecture," "Twisting the Separatrix" and "Political Space I," to his award-winning film on the work of Frank Gehry, to exhibitions on architectural drawing and design, Kipnis has brought a restless, generous and provocative originality to bear on the issues that have defined contemporary architecture. He is currently a professor of architecture in the Knowlton School of Architecture at Ohio State University.
Marcelo Spina is the founder and co-principal, with Georgina Huljich, of Patterns, a design research architectural practice based in Los Angeles known for its inventive approach to architecture, fusing advanced computation techniques with an extended understanding of form, tectonics and material. Spina joined SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) in 2001, and has since taught design studios and technical courses and served as the school's Applied Studies coordinator. The architect's work has received numerous awards including the third prize in the 2003 Young Architect of the Year Award and first prize in competitions for the new SCI-Arc Cafe and the Vertical Garden at the Schindler House in West Hollywood. Spina is currently the Sutherland Visiting Professor of Landscape Design at UK College of Design.
Michael Speaks is dean of the UK College of Design and professor of architecture at the university. A former director of the Graduate Program at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, Speaks has also taught in the graphic design department at the Yale School of Art, and in the architecture schools at Harvard University, Columbia University, University of Michigan, UCLA, Art Center College of Design, and the Berlage Institute and Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. Speaks is a founding editor of the cultural journal Polygraph, and is former senior editor at Any in New York, where he also edited the book series, "Writing Architecture," published by MIT Press. In addition, Speaks served for many years on the editorial advisory board of a+u and is currently a contributing editor for Architectural Record.
For more information on "3&1" featuring David Erdman, Jeffrey Kipnis, Marcelo Spina and Michael Speaks, contact the UK College of Design at (859) 257-7617.