The lecture will feature the recent work of the firm both in the United States and in Latin America. Particular attention will be placed on how context and the lessons of the vernacular have influenced a method to develop works of architecture that achieve More with Less.
Adib Cúre and Carie Penabad have insisted on the importance of architecture and the design of the city as a singular investigation where inquiry and realization, poetry and practicality, history and invention are inextricably linked. The work of the firm brings together the experience and cultures of three different countries: Colombia, where Cúre was born; Cuba where Penabad’s ancestors are from; and the United States, where the couple studied at the University of Miami and Harvard Graduate School of Design.
The Miami-based firm of Cúre and Penabad Architecture and Urban Design has received numerous awards including nearly 20 American Institute of Architects awards, state and local preservation awards, a Silver Medal prize at the Miami Biennale, and most recently the firm received the prestigious Emerging Voices award from the Architectural League of New York, a competition that recognizes individuals with a distinct design voice and a significant body of realized work.
Parallel to their design practice, Cúre and Penabad have engaged in teaching, writing and research. They are currently Professors at the University of Miami School of Architecture and have taught at Northeastern University, Boston Architectural Center, and most recently Yale University as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Assistant Professors of Architectural Design. Their publications include Marion Manley: Miami’s First Women Architect (University of Georgia Press, 2010); Call to Order: Sustaining Simplicity in Architecture (ORO Publishers, 2018) and the forthcoming book: Made in Miami/Hecho en Miami (ACTAR Publishers, 2022).
Building Identities
Construction of physical structures is inseparable from the construction of human identities. Rice Architecture aims to broaden our understanding of building construction and identity formation as two interrelated processes, seeking to close the gap between the social and the formal in the field of architecture and our world more broadly. Reflecting the pluralism of Houston as the most diverse city in the United States,
Building Identities advances the agency of architecture in a new multicultural world. We believe this is an urgent theme for our school, our community, and our field at large.
All lectures are free and open to the public. Except for virtual events, all lectures will be held in Farish Gallery, MD Anderson Hall, Rice Architecture, unless otherwise noted, with a livestream available. For more information and to access the livestream links and virtual events registration page, visit arch.rice.edu/latest/events. Each lecture is available for one AIA/CES Learning Unit.
This lecture series is made possible through the generous support of the Llewelyn-Davies Sahni Fund for the Rice School of Architecture, the Betty R. and the George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund, the William B. Coleman Jr. Colloquium Fund for Architecture, the Wm. W. Caudill Lecture Series Fund, and Rice Design Alliance (RDA), the public programs and outreach arm of Rice Architecture.
