Please join us for a evening with K. Michael Hays, Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory, and Andrew Holder, Assistant Professor of Architecture, as they discuss their exhibition, Inscriptions: Architecture Before Speech(Druker Design Gallery, January 22 – March 11, 2018).
Curatorial statement for Inscriptions:
If recent theory has highlighted architecture’s turn to evident resemblance and signification, we argue this tendency has also produced its other: The landscape of contemporary practice is filled with work whose motivating interests are anterior to meaning and averse to thematization; they are, in a way, pre-speech. Projects in this mode are born of the original human postulate to claim a place in the world, to confirm having been there, to make and mark a difference. “Inscriptions” is a broad survey of work that problematizes, resists, and exceeds signification by appealing to other kinds of cultural engagements, agreements, and fantasies of architecture’s origins. Important projects by Harvard University Graduate School of Design faculty spanning more than 35 years of practice are interspersed as conceptual keystones among works from emerging architects across the American academy, offering a theory of the structural relationships that bind and organize even the apparent delirium of the contemporary field.
A reception for the exhibition will take place in the Druker Design Gallery immediately following the lecture.
List of Participating Practices in the Exhibition:
Ajay Manthripragada- Page House
Alexander Eisenschmidt – Firm Name: STUDIO OFFSHORE, Work: Lakeshore Hut
Alex Maymind, Work: 100 Drawings; We Cannot Know History
Ania Jaworska, Work: SET
BairBalliet, Work: Next Port of Call; Low Volume
Besler and Sons, Work: Roof Deck at MoMA PS1
Bittertang Farm. Work: Bessie: Animal as a Building Block; Buru Buru: A New ‘living’ Amphitheater for the Ragdale Foundation
Bureau Spectacular, Work: Ghosted Drawings; Lost and Found (Studies)
Central Standard Office, Work: Birdhouse (formerly “The Cat That Ate the Canary”); Pyramid Scheme; Seven Deadly Sins
Christ and Gantenbein, Work: “Athens Series”- Maniera 12; Triptych: Isle of Harris
Collective-LOK, Work: Mappa Mundi
Curtis Roth, Work: Instrument X
Design with Company, Work: A Zinery and Ziggurats; Character Buildings; Chicago Reframed
D-esk, Work: Column and Canopy; Paperweight; Training Wheels
dePaor, Work: International Pavilion 2010, Venice
EADO, Work: Inside Things
Endemic Studio- Music Hall for Golden Gate Park; Three 1 Rooms; A Project Four Domes; Ring Rooms
Ensamble Studio, Work: Big Bang Towers; Hemeroscopium House; Musical Studies Centre; Tabula Acoustica
Erin Besler, Work: Low Fidelity
EXTENTS (McClain Clutter/Master of None and Cyrus Penarroyo/Off-off)Work: House_UU; SRFC_PLAY; BLDG_DRWG_FLOOR; Hedgehog House
Farshid Moussavi Architecture, Work: La Folie Divine
Farzin Farzin, Work: Consuming Cute ™
Filip Tejchman, Work: Motivation Rock: A New Age Testament
First Office, Work: PS1 Dolmen; Ragdale Ring; Shotgun House; Table
Formless Finder, Work: Bag Pile; Load Test
Freeland Buck, Work: Mountain View House; Second House; Stack House
Gabriel Freiss- Briggs, Work: 10 Casts; Counting Bricks
Hume Coover Studio, Work: Down by the River
Howeler and Yoon, Work: Collier Memorial; Empathy Pavilion, Dubai Expo 2020
is-office, Work: Crowns
Ja-Ja, Michelle JaJa Chang Work: A, B pt. 2; Dome to Domus or Hat to Home
Jaffer Kolb,Work: Form in Form
Jesus Vassallo, Work: Aalto’s Ghost; Water Towers
Johnston Marklee, Work: Grand Traiano Art Complex; Hut House; Vault House; View House
Karamuk*Kuo, Work: Archaeological Center at Augusta Raurica; Campus Ruetli Sports Hall; Chillon Castle Visitor Center; Institute for Sports Sciences
Kiel Moe, Work: Need names
Kyle Miller, Work: Corinthian Wall; The Plan is the Generator
The LADG, Work: Pillow Babies; The Cast of Things; The Kid Gets Out of the Picture
Laida Aguirre, Work: XS to XL; Arlington Archive
LAMAS, Work: Bright Street; Over Cast; Barn and Farmhouse Studies; Film to Wit; Dancer in the Dark?
Machado Silvetti, Work: Four Public Squares
Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, Work: The Atlanta Pavilion; Kaohsiung Maritime Cultural & Popular Music Center International Competition; Laban Centre for Movement and Dance Invited Competition; Wolfsburg Science Center Invited Competition; House Above the Bug Line; Zhongkai Sheshan Villas
MALL, Work: Grilled Cheese (Best Sandwiches); Domestic Hats
Medium Office, Work: Pavillion 001; Pavillion 005; Study 013; Urbanism 004
Merideth Miller and Thom Moran, Work: Between You and Me; Fort Blanket; Plastic Sunrise
Millions, Work: Beirut Rooftop; New Massings for New Masses; Collectives II; Bust
Mira Henry, Work: The View Inside
MOS, Work: Community Center No. 3: Lali Gurans Orphanage; House No. 10: House with Courtyard; Installation No. 8: Pile; Installation No. 9: Rainbow Vomit; Mixed Use No. 3: Housing and Art Foundation; ; Rock No.1, Rock No. 3, Rock No. 4, Rock No. 5, Rock No. 6, Rock No. 7
Neme Studio, Work: New Cadavre Exquis; Museum of Lost Volumes
New Affiliates, Work: Turnbridge Winter Cabin
Norman Kelley, Work: Lincoln Log Cabin; Wrong Chairs
Office KGDVS, Work: Office 171; Office 162; Office 51; Office 49
The Open Workshop, Work: Scaffoldia; Varna Public Library and Archive
Outpost Office, Work: Computerarchitecktur No. 3; Computerarchitecktur No. 4; Computerarchitecktur No. 5; Computerarchitecktur No. 6; Primitive Shotgun; Upstate House; Villa Primitive
Paul Preissner, Work: Port of Kinmen Passenger Ferry Terminal; Beer Sheeba Daycare
Para-Project, Work: Crawford Attic Writing Room; Pioneertown House; OPEN FORT?
Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Work: Crux Pavilion; Guna House; Mine Pavilion; Nida House; Quil Building
Preston Scott Cohen Architects, Work: Cornered House; Eyebeam Atelier Museum; Head Start; House on Longboat Key; Goodman House
Productora, Work: Aalto University Campus; Pavilion on the Zocalo; Two Towers; Teopanzolco Cultural Center
Schaum / Shieh, Work: Island Irredenta; Sponge Urbanism
Sean Canty, Work: Ja House
SIFT Studio, Work: Rocks; Texture Tectonics
Small Office, Work: Don’t Mind the Rock
SPORTS, Work: Myth; Rounds; The Sweetness
Studio PM, Work: Stowaway House (from 2016 exhibition entitled “On Objecthood”)
T.E.A.M., Work: Detroit Reassembly Plant; A Range Life
Thom Moran Studio, Work: Post Rock
Toshiko Mori Architect, Work: Dialogue in Details; Ordos Villa 64; THREAD: Artists’ Residency and Cultural Center
Ultramoderne, Work: Chicago Horizon; Escape
WOJR, Work: Etudes; Non-Labyrinths; Dwelling; Hut; Dark Matter
Young and Ayata, Work: Lima/Mali/Amil/Ilam
K. Michael Hays is Eliot Noyes Professor of Architectural Theory at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, as well as Interim Chair for the Department of Architecture. Hays joined the Faculty of Design in 1988, teaching courses in architectural history and theory. Hays has played a central role in the development of the field of architectural theory and his work is internationally known. His research and scholarship have focused on the areas of European modernism and critical theory as well as on theoretical issues in contemporary architectural practice. He has published on the work of modern architects such as Hannes Meyer, Ludwig Hilberseimer, and Mies van der Rohe, as well as on contemporary figures such as Peter Eisenman, Bernard Tschumi, and the late John Hejduk. Hays was the founder of the scholarly journal Assemblage, which was a leading forum of discussion of architectural theory in North America and Europe. From 1995 to 2005 he was Chair of the PhD Committee and Director of the GSD’s Advanced Independent Study Programs. In 2000 he was appointed the first Adjunct Curator of Architecture at the Whitney Museum of American Art, a position he held until 2009. Hays received the Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1976. From MIT he received the Master of Architecture degree in Advanced Studies in 1979, and the Doctor of Philosophy in the History, Theory, and Criticism of Architecture and Art in 1990.
Andrew Holder is an educator, occasional author, and co-Principal of the The LADG. His research interests include the construction of architecture as an inanimate subject as well as novel methods of engaging historical precedent and the production of complex form in a post-digital discipline. Andrew’s recent work has been published in Young Architects 16, Log, Pidgin, and Project. He is a frequent lecturer and guest critic at institutions across the United States and has held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan, the University of Queensland, the University of California, Los Angeles, Sci-Arc, and Otis College of Art and design. His design work has received numerous awards including the 2014 League Prize from the Architectural League of New York, multiple citations from the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles Chapter, and the Boston Society of Architects Unbuilt Architecture award. Andrew is a Harry S. Truman Scholar, an Oberdick Fellow at the University of Michigan, and a Robert B. Pamplin Jr. Fellow at Lewis & Clark College. He received a Master of Architecture with distinction from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Lewis & Clark College.
