It’s that time of year again: the leaves are changing colors while universities eagerly roll out extravagant lecture series posters. As in year’s past AN editors have rounded up fall 2023 programming at architecture and design schools across the country. These in-person and online lectures include presentations from architects on portfolio making, approach to practice, conversations on new books, the relationship between architecture and larger societal issues, as well as a few exhibitions worth checking out.

AN will update this page as more schools release details on fall lectures.

Yale School of Architecture

Guest lecturers at Yale this fall include Maria Tabassum, Mark Lamster, and Paolo Tombesi. Each will discuss a variety of topics ranging from their own work and practice, why all architecture looks the same, and the 50th anniversary of the Sydney Opera House.

University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design 

UPenn has a full calendar of lectures and symposia this fall that begins on September 13 with a talk from architect Eric Owen Moss. Later in the semester, tune in to hear from Marlon Blackwell, Preservation Futures, and the design teams behind Africatown.

University of Arkansas Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design

Coming to Arkansas this fall is blockbuster list of architects, authors, and designers. Kicking off the fall semester are Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa of Brooks + Scarpa. Other speakers include mass timber expert Lindsey Wikstrom; Yvonne Farrell of Grafton Architects, the Pritzker Prize–winning architect that’s designing the firm’s first North American building at the University; and David Gissen, author of  The Architecture of Disability.

Harvard Graduate School of Design

At Harvard programming kicks off on September 12 with a talk from Sean Canty, Zeina Koreitem, and John May on Harvard Design Magazine #51: Multihyphenate and its coinciding exhibition of the same name. Later in the semester hear from the 2024 Loeb fellows, partake in a conference Black in Design 2023, listen to Irma Boom and Rem Koolhaas debrief on the lessons and research from their spring 2023 course on bookmaking, and attend a lecture from architect Lina Ghotmeh, the designer behind this year’s Serpentine Pavilion.

The University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture

In Texas this fall a number of leading architects, interior designers, theorists, researchers are set to speak. Among them are UT alums and cofounders of Snøhetta Craig Dykers and Elaine Molinar who will speak on the geological, ecological and cultural elements of a building site; Mexico City–based Héctor Esrawe will touch on his own creative process; and later in the semester Pennsylvania State University’s Felecia Davis will give a talk titled “Soft Systems: Crafting an Architecture.

In addition to lectures the school will also stage two exhibitions throughout the fall semester, American A-Frame curated by Barkow Leibinger (September 18–October 30), and Radical Middle Grounds, curated by assistant professor Martin Haettasch (November 10–17), complemented by a housing symposium.

Pratt School of Architecture

Scheduled to speak at Pratt this fall are several names and topics AN readers may be familiar with, among them are WORKac, Sekou Cooke, and John McAslan. In October, in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York, the school will also host a talk on Africatown.

The Bernard & Anne Spitzer School of Architecture, City College of New York (CCNY)

At CCNY, the fall 2023 Sciame Lecture Series is titled Crosscurrents: Architecture, Landscape, and Spatial Practices in Southwest Asia and North Africa. It will bring to campus designers, researchers, and activists to speak on design, landscape, and architecture in these regions, especially how they relate to themes of gender, history, and belonging. Hear from Pamela Karimi, Tazeen M. Ali, Sheila Crane, and others.

Cornell Architecture, Art, Planning

This fall at Cornell listen to Adam Frampton and Karolina Czeczek talk about the architecture firm Only If and discuss their portfolio of built and research-based works. Also scheduled to speak are Rosalyne Shieh and Troy Schaum of the practice SCHAUM/SHIEH, another firm whose work focuses on a variety of scales. For those more research-inclined, architect Simone Sfriso will speak on how architecture can address marginalization and exclusion. Alizé Carrère, a Ph.D. candidate at University of Miami, will speak about her work researching what she calls “climatopias.”

SCI-Arc

Among the topics covered in lectures this fall at SCI-Arc are the creation of Disney’s theme parks and attractions and the intersection of architecture and consumption. Other highlights include a talk from architect and founding principal of Morphosis Thom Mayne who will speak on the firm’s portfolio of built work and research.

Washington University Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts

The fall lecture series kicks off with a Q&A with artist Adam Pendleton. Later in the semester Marion Weiss and Michael Manfredi, of Weiss/Manfredi, will give a talk titled “Drifting Symmetries.”

Rice School of Architecture

At Rice the lineup of speakers includes Chris Leong of New York–based firm Leong Leong; a conversation with architect Jesús Vassallo-Fernandez on his new book Nueva Vivienda: New Housing Paradigms in Mexico; and a talk with architects Alberto Veiga and Fabrizio Barozzi on the work of their firm Barozzi Veiga.

Princeton University Media + Modernity

Princeton’s Media + Modernity lecture series is at the intersection of culture and technology. Its first speaker Mara Mills will discuss “disability as method” followed by Rania Ghosn on climate; Sylvia Lavin, Tom Levin, Maria Loh, Gavin Steingo; Catherine Ingraham; Seb Franklin; David Joselit; Gerard & Kelly; Jonathan Crary; and WAI Think Tank on reparations.

Loudreaders Trade School: From Landgrab to Landback

Iowa State University, the University of Puerto Rico at Rio Piedras’ Women and Gender Studies department, and the Graduate School of Architecture at University of Johannesburg will convene a transdisciplinary symposium between September 25–30. The speakers will discuss questions related to land, water, extraction, sovereignty, violence, and resistance through material and speculative works across a wide panorama of media approaches. Speakers will include Dima Srouji, Samiha Meem, Nadia Huggins, Jason Mena, Killian O’ Dochartaigh, Edward Lawrenson, Sikowis Nobiss/Great Plains Action Society, Jason Fitzroy Jeffers, Pete Goche, Roque Raquel Salas Rivera, Post-Novis/Hilary Wiese, Rose Florian, Christopher Rey Perez, Luis Othoniel Rosa, Coco Allred, and WAI Think Tank.

Columbia GSAPP

Last but not least, the speaker series at Avery Hall invites orators to discuss topics at the “intersection of unavoidable urgencies, crises, and potentials.” This fall, GSAPP unveils AFFIRMATIONS: an “eight-month series of discussions with designers, researchers, planners, preservationists, and activists to affirm and interrogate how to think and redesign the built environment at the intersection of climate, ecological, societal, bodily, and technological crises and defiance.”