Architecture Dept. Lectures

Spring architecture lectures examine da Vinci,
Piranesi, gap between architects and engineers

The Texas A&M University Department of Architecture Lecture Series continues this spring with distinguished speakers discussing subjects ranging from the gap between architects and engineers to the world's most famous Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci.

All lectures are scheduled 5 - 7 p.m. in the Preston Geren Auditorium in Building B of the Langford Architecture Center on the Texas A&M campus.

Feb. 11 - Gregor Kalas
"Peeling Away Piranesi"
On Monday, Feb. 11, Gregor Kalas, an assistant professor in the School of Architecture at the University of Tennessee, will discuss 18th century artist Giovanni Battista Piranesi in a lecture called "Peeling Away Piranesi."

Kalas is an architectural historian with a specialization in the architecture of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages. His interests include the adaptation, preservation, and reuse of ancient buildings during the post-classical period. His research also concerns urbanism and public art in late antique Rome with a specific focus on the early medieval Roman Forum.

Piranesi was an Italian artist famous for his etchings of Rome and of fictitious and atmospheric subterranean vaults with mighty machines.

Feb. 25 - Manuel Báez
"Up and Down the Vortex with Leonardo"
On Monday, Feb. 25, Manuel Báez, associate professor at the School of Architecture in Carleton University in Ottawa, will present "Up and Down the Vortex with Leonardo." In 2005, Báez received a Carleton University Research Achievement for a project titled "The Generative Dynamics of Form, Structure, and Process." The project explored how complex forms and structures are generated from simple, flexible connections arranged together to form basic cellular units and assemblies.

Báez's research involves the fundamental integrative principles of form, structure and generative processes. He is also interested in the development of construction systems, processes and educational methods derived from research; architectural design; form, structure, and process in nature and engineering; morphology; developmental biology; complexity theory; cellular automata; emergence; and natural systems theory.

Leonardo da Vinci, considered by some as the most talented person who ever lived, continues to fascinate students and scholars almost 500 years after his death.

April 21- Roger Ridsdill-Smith
"Bridging the Gap Between Architecture and Engineering"
On Monday, April 21, Roger Ridsdill-Smith, an architect with Arup and Partners in London, will present "Bridging the Gap Between Architecture and Engineering."

Ridsdill-Smith was the project director for London's Millennium Bridge, the first pedestrian river crossing over the Thames River in central London in more than a century. He played a lead role in the conceptual team project and ran the construction contract. The project team of more than 200 people at Arup collaborated to research, test, develop and realize the bridge with engineers, architects and sculptors working hand in hand

Prior to joining Arup, Ridsdill-Smith worked for four years in Paris. He was joint winner of the Institution of Structural Engineers 1994 Design Competition for Young Engineers, and nominated as one of Building Magazine's "Forty under Forty" most promising construction professionals in July 2000. He has worked on a range of high profile structures involving complex geometry, non-linear and dynamic analysis methods.

April 28 - Malcolm Quantrill
"Materiality and Otherness: Architecture as a Vision Beyond Seeing"
On Monday, April 28, the final presentation in the spring 2008 Department of Architecture Lecture Series will feature Malcolm Quantrill, distinguished professor of architecture at Texas A&M and director of the Center for the Advancement of Studies in Architecture (CASA). Quantrill will speak on "Materiality and Otherness: Architecture as a Vision Beyond Seeing."

Quantrill was recently appointed as International Representative for the Luis Barragan Chair at the Monterrey Institute of Technology in Queretaro, Mexico.

For additional information on these lectures, contact the Department of Architecture at 979.845.1015.