In taking stock of the present, we ask: "What’s the matter?" in order to articulate what matters. Put another way: what are our values, beliefs, and aspirations? As architects, how do we materialize what we value? Or, how does what we build convey our values? And, how do we build what matters? And, how do we apply this to matter, to material, and to architecture? Höweler will present recent projects from Höweler + Yoon and place the work in the context of the contemporary moment to try to answer some of these questions.
Eric Höweler, AIA, LEED AP, is an architect, designer, and educator. He is currently Associate Professor in Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, where he teaches design studios and directs the Master of Architecture Thesis Program. His design work and research focuses on building technology integration and material systems.
Höweler is co-founding principal and partner of Höweler + Yoon Architecture LLP, a research-driven studio of 20+ designers. HYA has a reputation for work that is technologically and formally innovative, and deeply informed by human experience and a sensitivity to tectonics. Prior to co-founding HYA in 2005, Höweler was a senior designer at Diller Scofidio + Renfro in New York, and an Associate Principal at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates. He is the co-author of Expanded Practice (Princeton Architectural Press 2009) and Verify In Field: Projects and Conversations Höweler + Yoon (Park Books, forthcoming 2021).
Höweler received a Bachelor of Architecture from Cornell University with the AIA Henry Adams Certificate in 1994, and a Master of Architecture from Cornell University in 1996.
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.
These lectures are recorded and will be posted on the Rice Architecture YouTube channel and the Rice Design Alliance Vimeo channel within three weeks of the live event.
Live captioning will be provided during the event. Transcripts are available upon request.