Sara Zewde, founding principal of New York architecture practice Studio Zewde, will present a lecture titled “Aesthetics of Being” Feb. 22 at Anderson Hall.
Zewde is part of Rice Architecture’s annual lecture series, Engaging Pluralism, which explores how architects and designers can work with friction, contradiction and multiplicity to effect broader social, cultural and environmental change.
“Aesthetics of Being” will feature recent design work by Studio Zewde, which focuses on landscape architecture, urbanism and public art. Named to Architectural Digest’s AD100, which honors the top design, decor and architecture talent in the world, and recognized as an Architectural League of New York Emerging Voice, the firm is celebrated for its methods that sync culture, ecology and craft.
Zewde’s lecture will offer attendees creative departures from contemporary design practices today.
“As a native Houstonian, Sara Zewde is well-attuned to the complexities of land and landscape,” said Igor Marjanović, the William Ward Watkin Dean of Rice Architecture. “She understands both the entanglement between ideology and ecology that shapes the land that we inhabit as well as the creative potential of art, architecture and design to reshape its trajectory into the future.”
In parallel with her practice, Zewde serves as an assistant professor of practice at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, from which she earned a master’s degree in landscape architecture. She also holds a master’s degree in city planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and bachelor’s degrees in sociology and statistics from Boston University.
The lecture, free and open to the public, will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Anderson Hall’s Farish Gallery.
For more information on current events and public programs at Rice Architecture, visit https://arch.rice.edu/latest/events.