NOW is the time for Rice School of Architecture lectures

Rice School of Architecture (RSA) and Rice Design Alliance (RDA) are preparing a spring semester series of lectures with the theme of “NOW.”

“It’s perhaps the only option that could possibly follow last semester’s ‘NEXT,’” said RSA Dean Sarah Whiting, the William Ward Watkin Professor of Architecture. “NOW means upping our engagement with that which surrounds us: Houston, the rest of the world and our contemporary moment, in terms of its politics, its economics and its thinking.”

The spring series incorporates a mini-series of four RSA/RDA talks curated by Neyran Turan, an assistant professor of architecture at Rice. “NOW” also includes two annual sponsored spring lectures: the Llewelyn-Davies Sahni Innovative Practice lecture and the Sally Walsh Lecture.

The RSA/RDA series, titled “New Commons: Between Aesthetics and Engagement,” brings together architects and scholars who redefine the capacity of architectural aesthetics in engaging with the world.

“As an alternative to the recent examples of architectural engagement that reduce the architect’s role to that of a problem solver, this series will investigate new practices within architecture that showcase the architect as not merely a respondent, but as an active agent capable of building new ideas as they relate to the city, the environment and geography,” Turan said

The RSA Public Lectures are free and will be held at Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, at 5:30 p.m. The ticketed RSA/RDA New Commons Lecture Series will be held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH). All RSA/RDA lectures begin at 7 p.m. at the MFAH’s Brown Auditorium, preceded by a reception at 6.

The Sally Walsh Lecture March 26 will be held at the MFAH’s Brown Auditorium at 7 p.m., preceded by a reception at 6.

RSA/RDA Lecture Series: New Commons

Pedro Gadanho, curator of contemporary architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, will speak Jan. 16.

Luis Callejas, principal of LCLAOFFICE, Medellin, Colombia, and Cambridge, Mass., will discuss “Unsolicited Public Space” Jan. 23.

David Gissen, an associate professor at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco, will deliver a talk titled “Recent Histories” Feb. 6.

Xaveer De Geyter, a principal with XDGA Architects, Brussels, will talk Feb. 19.

RSA Lectures and Seminar Series

Sébastien Marot, of the École D’architecture, Marne-La-Vallée, France, will discuss “The Present Environmental Predicament: Design and the Limits to Growth” Feb. 13.

Gregg Pasquarelli, a partner in SHoP Architecture, New York, will deliver the RSA Llewelyn-Davies Sahni Innovative Practice Lecture, titled “Out of Practice,” March 5.

Yoshiharu Tsukamoto and Momoyo Kaijima, partners in Atelier Bow-Wow, Tokyo, will address “Architectural Genealogy” April 4.

Jeanne Gang, a principal and founder of Studio Gang Architects, Chicago, will give the Sally Walsh Lecture, titled “Moving House,” March 26.

The Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund supports the free RSA lectures.

The RSA/RDA lecture series is supported by the office of James Burnett, CenterPoint Energy, 2Cokinos, Bosien and Young, D.E. Harvey Builders, Haynes Whaley Associates, PGAL, Satterfield and Pontikes Construction, Telios, the Tellepsen Corp., Trammel Crow, Walter P. Moore, corporate members of the Rice Design Alliance, the city of Houston through the Houston Arts Alliance, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Texas Commission on the Arts.

The Sally Walsh Lecture is sponsored by the RSA, RDA, the American Institute of Architects, Houston, and the Architecture Center Houston Foundation.

Series tickets for the RSA/RDA lectures are available for purchase at https://signup.rice.edu/Spring2013/. Tickets are $20 for RDA and MFAH members, $15 for those 65 and older, $10 for students with identification and $35 for all others. Single tickets will be sold 30 minutes prior to lectures for $7 to RDA and MFAH members, seniors and students, and $10 to others. Admission is free for RSA students and faculty.