
1. Space Is the Place.
When The New York Times Magazine profiled the
artist James Turrell (ahead of a retrospective that debuted
simultaneously in three cites last summer), a few things about him
became clear. While light is the subject of his art, light would be
nothing without its artifice: custom-built rooms and modified interiors.
Just because you’ve received a MacArthur “genius” grant doesn’t mean
you can’t get sued (all those light tricks and dark rooms can be a
little disorienting and hazardous). And, most impressively, the man owns
an extinct volcano in Arizona. Does Turrell and his work personify the
architectural sublime, or is it “anti-architecture”? The Los Angeles
County Museum of Art will conclude its Turrell retrospective on April 6.
See for yourself and learn more at lacma.org.
2. Cool Spaces.
Stephen Chung, AIA, knows cool—and he’s bringing his show Cool Spaces!
to PBS and PBS affiliates on March 31, when “Performance Spaces”
explores the ins and outs of Dallas Cowboys Stadium by HKS, the Kauffman
Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., by Safdie
Architects, and Barclays Center in Brooklyn by SHoP Architects. Other
episodes next month include “Libraries” (April 7), “Art Spaces” (April
14), and “Healing Spaces” (April 21). Look for the accompanying book, Cool Spaces!: The Best New Architecture, at Barnes & Noble and other outlets in April.
Learn more at aia.org/coolspaces.
3. Pack Your Bags.
Since 2012, the Harvard Graduate School of Design’s (GSD)
$100,000 Wheelwright Prize has been available to any graduate of an
accredited school of architecture—not just the GSD. Never mind that the
designer Gia Wolff, the inaugural recipient for 2013, is a GSD alumna;
the important thing is the prize’s potential. Wolff has finished
traveling and will lecture next month at the Louisiana State University
College of Art + Design on her Wheelwright project, “Floating City: The
Community-Based Architecture of Parade Floats,” sponsored in part by AIA
Baton Rouge.
Learn more at design.lsu.edu and aiabr.com.
4. Global Practice.
If you’ve been following architecture in Europe, you’ve
come across Nasrine Seraji’s work. Her Paris firm, Atelier Seraji, has
completed apartments, mixed-use buildings, student housing, a stock
exchange addition, sports centers, and master plans in more than seven
French cities, as well as in Vienna, Tehran, and Beijing. Seraji’s work
has also been the subject of more than a dozen exhibitions. She will
discuss these and other projects as the headliner of the AIA St. Louis
Scholarship Trust Lecture at the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual
Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.
Learn more at samfoxschool.wustl.edu.
5. Healthy Debate.
What part of public health belongs to design? How can good
design principles translate into sound standards that support positive
health outcomes? How can design solutions address social equity? To
answer these and other questions, the AIA, the AIA Foundation, and ACSA
will convene “The Value of Design: Design and Health,” a
cross-disciplinary summit for architects, public health officials,
government and nongovernment organizations, universities, and members of
the private sector that will take place at AIA National Headquarters in
Washington, D.C.
Learn more at aia.org/practicing.