Osher Lifelong Learning Institute
Architects Who Changed the World
Speaker
Diane Kane, PhD
Coordinator
Steve Clarey
As Western Architectural Modernism evolves and expands globally, changing the world has become both easier and harder. Social networking, international media, computerized technology, AI and expansive supply chains have linked far flung areas like never before; but as competition has increased, attention has shrunk. Can 21st century architects still change the world? Join us for a series of four richly illustrated lectures that examine how today’s architects prevail amid increasing digital cacophony. Various strategies include innovative design, breakthrough technology, experimental materials, and problem solving through team collaboration.
July 8: Experimental Materials and Material Experimentation
Spanish architect, engineer, and sculptor Santiago Calatrava’s flowing, skeletal forms evoke both motion and emotion via integration of engineering with sculpture in bridges, transportation hubs, and cultural buildings. Australian Glenn Murcutt experiments with traditional materials and building techniques in his environmentally sensitive and sustainable buildings. Both have changed the world with innovative materials, structures, and thoughtful design.
July 22: Provocation and Meditation
As a modernist provocateur, Dutch architect Rem Koolhas has spent a career challenging design assumptions with unusual, edgy, and surprising creations. With an expert team of collaborators, he has invoked controversy across the planet. With limited, small scale, contemplative designs, Swiss sole practitioner Peter Zumthor invites calm and meditation. How have these opposing philosophical and creative strategies changed the design world?
August 5: Collaboration
While Modernists idolized the heroic individual, many contemporary designers rely on collaboration for innovative design solutions. Meet Japanese husband-wife team Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa. In exploring continuous space, lightness, and materiality, they create a subtle synthesis of logic, purpose, and beauty. The multi-disciplinary Norwegian firm Snøhetta’s blend of both digital technology and handicraft has resulted in an impressive international output of highly synthesized large scale designs uniting site, structure, and art.
August 19: Geometry, Technology, and Memory
American architectural theorist Daniel Liebeskind gained international notoriety for his tortured Holocaust Museum in Berlin and reconstruction of the Twin Towers site in New York. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma prioritizes natural, locally sourced materials using traditional Japanese joinery techniques to create light, airy, complex spaces. Although using radically different materials, both employ complicated geometries possible through contemporary technology, challenging our perception of the possible.
July 8: Experimental Materials and Material Experimentation
Spanish architect, engineer, and sculptor Santiago Calatrava’s flowing, skeletal forms evoke both motion and emotion via integration of engineering with sculpture in bridges, transportation hubs, and cultural buildings. Australian Glenn Murcutt experiments with traditional materials and building techniques in his environmentally sensitive and sustainable buildings. Both have changed the world with innovative materials, structures, and thoughtful design.
July 22: Provocation and Meditation
As a modernist provocateur, Dutch architect Rem Koolhas has spent a career challenging design assumptions with unusual, edgy, and surprising creations. With an expert team of collaborators, he has invoked controversy across the planet. With limited, small scale, contemplative designs, Swiss sole practitioner Peter Zumthor invites calm and meditation. How have these opposing philosophical and creative strategies changed the design world?
August 5: Collaboration
While Modernists idolized the heroic individual, many contemporary designers rely on collaboration for innovative design solutions. Meet Japanese husband-wife team Kazuyo Sejima & Ryue Nishizawa. In exploring continuous space, lightness, and materiality, they create a subtle synthesis of logic, purpose, and beauty. The multi-disciplinary Norwegian firm Snøhetta’s blend of both digital technology and handicraft has resulted in an impressive international output of highly synthesized large scale designs uniting site, structure, and art.
August 19: Geometry, Technology, and Memory
American architectural theorist Daniel Liebeskind gained international notoriety for his tortured Holocaust Museum in Berlin and reconstruction of the Twin Towers site in New York. Japanese architect Kengo Kuma prioritizes natural, locally sourced materials using traditional Japanese joinery techniques to create light, airy, complex spaces. Although using radically different materials, both employ complicated geometries possible through contemporary technology, challenging our perception of the possible.
Speaker Bio
Presenter: Diane Kane, an architectural historian, is a retired senior planner for the City of San Diego. She was previously the heritage resources coordinator for Caltrans in Los Angeles. A popular lecturer at Osher, she has taught architectural history and planning at several southland universities. She received her PhD in architectural history from UC Santa Barbara.
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