Conduct. How one comports oneself…how we convey intent…on a good day, how we affect our environs. Conduct is a notion that seems simple enough. It depends on something shared, something beyond our own demeanor, something bigger than ourselves. While it can be hard to grasp what is meant by good conduct, we have typically relied on something akin to “I know it when I see it,” as put forth in Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s 1964 definition of obscenity. But what happens when we can no longer see or know good conduct? Does the obscenity of the moment – our moment – mean that codes of conduct have altogether vanished?
Architects are guided by particular codes of conduct. We don’t necessarily agree about them, but they grant us a shared rudder, a means of navigating the swirling political, financial, environmental, ethical, and professional waters in which we swim. Rather than accept that codes of conduct have vanished, we have no choice as architects but to work with them, even if it means rewriting them. Because if we don’t, architecture will vanish into the very same darkness that engulfs conduct writ large at the moment, a darkness that we can, and should, push back upon.
Zoë Ryan
John H. Bryan Chair and Curator of Architecture and Design, The Art Institute Chicago
Taking Positions: Making Exhibitions of Architecture and Design
Future of the Architectural Exhibition Lecture Series
Thursday, August 30, 6:30 p.m.
The Lois Chiles Studio Theater, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University
Mario Ballesteros
Director and chief curator at Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura, Mexico DF
Exposing the Margins: An Autoconstructed Approach to Researching and Exhibiting Design South of the Border
Future of the Architectural Exhibition Lecture Series
Thursday, September 6, 6:30 p.m.
University of Houston, College of Architecture and Design, Room 143
Kenneth Frampton
Ware Professor of Architecture at GSAPP, Columbia University, New York
The Role of Architecture in the Age of Anthropocene
Cullinan Lecture and Seminar Series
Monday, September 24, 5:30 p.m.
Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, Rice University
Martino Stierli
The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, MoMA, New York
Toward a Concrete Utopia: Yugoslav Architecture at the Crossroads of International Exchange in the Cold War
Future of the Architectural Exhibition Lecture Series
Thursday, September 27, 7:00 p.m.
Favrot Auditorium, Glassell School of Art, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Giovanna Borasi
Chief Curator, Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal
Museum Work and Museum Problems
Future of the Architectural Exhibition Lecture Series
Thursday, October 4, 6:30 p.m.
Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, Rice University
Peggy Deamer
Professor, Yale University School of Architecture
Lobbying for Architecture
PLAT & Rice Design Alliance Lecture Series: Sharing
Wednesday, October 10, 7:00 p.m.
MATCH, 3400 Main Street, Houston, TX
Ellen van Loon
Partner, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)
Was it Just a Dream? Architecture and Social Inclusion
Cullinan Lecture and Seminar Series
Monday, October 15, 5:30 p.m.
Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, Rice University
Jack Self
Director, REAL Foundation, London
Attitude as Form
PLAT & Rice Design Alliance Lecture Series: Sharing
Monday, October 22, 7:00 p.m.
MATCH, 3400 Main Street, Houston, TX
John Alschuler
Chairman, HR&A Advisors Inc., New York
Innovation Lands in Urbanism: What's Next?
PLAT & Rice Design Alliance Lecture Series: Sharing
Monday, October 29, 7:00 p.m.
Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, Rice University
Tom Emerson
Founding director, 6a Architects
Professor of Architecture at the ETH Department of Architecture, Zurich
Never Natural
Cullinan Lecture and Seminar Series
Monday, November 5, 5:30 p.m.
Farish Gallery, Anderson Hall, Rice University
The Cullinan Lecture and Seminar Series is made possible through the generous support of the Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund.
The Futures of the Architectural Exhibition Lecture Series is organized by Reto Geiser (Rice Architecture) and Michael Kubo (University of Houston). The lectures are part of a Rice University Humanities Research Center (HRC) Masterclass and are supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Rice University Arts Initiative Fund.
The Rice Design Alliance 2018 Fall Lecture Series: Sharing is organized in collaboration with PLAT Journal, with generous funding provided by the Humanities Research Center and the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies' GradStarter program. The Rice Design Alliance is the public outreach arm of Rice Architecture. PLAT is an independent architectural journal published by the students of Rice Architecture. Learn more at ricedesignalliance.org and platjournal.com.
All events are free and open to the public.