Newsletter of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University
Peter Lang, associate professor of architecture, participated in a Nov. 24 lecture series on new urban development in the Third World at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and is also lecturing on critical and radical design Dec. 12 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Lang's Qatar lecture, "Utopia by Design," was hosted by the VCU's new MFA in Design program, in correlation with the workshop "Media Environment and Utopia" held for the MFA students at the Qatar campus. The lecture examined "contemporary research in new city development in the Third World and is a reflection on the invention of the ideal."
In Stockholm, Lang will be joined by Fiona Raby, a partner in the architecture firm Dunne Raby and a member of the Department of Design Interactions faculty at the Royal College of Art in London. Together, they will participate in "Design Pre/Occupations," as part of "DESIGN ACT," a project highlighting contemporary design practices that engage political and societal issues.
The project is sponsored by Iaspis, the Swedish Arts Grants Committee's International Program for Visual Arts, which promotes dialogue between practitioners in Sweden and the rest of the world.
Lang's and Raby's DESIGN ACT one-day workshop is intended to spark a discussion examining what is at stake for critical and radical design today and identify common concerns or critical purposes within counter-movements in design.
Lang's academic focus is postwar Italian contemporary architecture and design history. He has written extensively on the sixties' Italian Radical design movement and organized major exhibitions in his field.
This fall, he's been moderating "In Theory ," a live webcast series originating from Texas A&M's Wright Gallery and featuring hot-topic discussions by expert panelists from a mix of disciplines presented in a talk show format.
Lang, a member of Stalker/ON, an urban arts and architecture research group based in Rome, earned a Ph.D. in history and urbanism from New York University in 2000, a Master of Science from NYU in 1990 and a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Syracuse University in 1980.
- Posted: Nov. 30, 2009 -
