This spring, the Woodbury School of Architecture in Los Angeles will once again present the Unmentionables Symposium, an experimental program made up of talks and interactive performances that aims to provide a fresh look at the current state of interior architecture.
Presented by Woodbury’s Department of Interior Architecture, the symposium hopes to go further than past years by providing a “forum for rarely mentioned ideas in spatial practice and theory” that also interrogates the conventional format of the symposium itself.
Last presented in 2017, the biennial gathering aims to bring to light some of the conveniently ignored elements of interior architecture. The 2017 symposium showcased wide-ranging lectures on the importance of curtains in architecture, for example, as well as panel discussions centered around air and atmosphere, labor issues, and gender, among other topics.
Rather than engaging in the conventional lecture- and panel discussion-focused programming for the 2019 event, symposium coordinator Maria Kobalyan explained that the organizers instead hope to embrace new discursive formats and open-ended presentations in tandem with under-sung topics. Kobalyan added, “We just don’t want people to be sitting down all day.”
This year’s symposium is set to take place at WUHO Gallery in Hollywood and will feature keynote presentations by Jane Rendell, Director of Architectural Research at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and Joel Sanders of Joel Sanders Architect. Rendell has written extensively on gendered urban spaces and on the blurred lines between art and architectural practice, among other topics, while Sanders practices architecture and has also published a book on inclusive bathroom design.
Other speakers include Los Angeles architect Lauren Amador; Los Angeles-, Richmond-, and London-based Peter Culley of Spatial Affairs Bureau; and Deborah Schneiderman of DeSc: Architecture and Pratt University.
The full list of speakers:
- Lauren Amador, Principal, Amador Architecture
- Amy Campos, Associate Professor and Chair of Interior Design, California College of the Arts
- Annie Coggan, Adjunct Associate Professor of Interior Design, Pratt Institute
- Matthew Gillis, Principal, G!LL!S; Adjunct Professor of Architecture and Interior Architecture, Woodbury University
- Parsa Rezaee, MArch 1 Candidate, Woodbury University
- Jennifer Meakins, Adjunct Faculty Adjunct Professor of Interior Architecture, Woodbury University, California Polytechnic State University Pomona
- Emily Pellicano, Assistant Professor, Marywood University School of Architecture
- Bryony Roberts, Founder, Bryony Roberts Studio; Assistant Professor, Columbia GSAPP
- Cathrine Veikos, Professor of Architecture, California College of the Arts
- Deborah Schneiderman, Principal/Founder, deSc, Professor of Interior Design, Pratt Institute
- Igor Siddiqui, Associate Professor and Program Director of Interior Design, The University of Texas at Austin
- Rossen Ventzislavov, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Woodbury University
The symposium is set to take place on April 6. See the Unmentionables Symposium website for more information.
