Experimental Constructions Lecture Series

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Architect Theo De Meyer lives and works in Ghent, Belgium. De Meyer moves between architecture, design and the arts, often reconciling the various disciplines in his projects. He plays with context and scale, interprets and transforms, creating new worlds from the act of building.

In addition to his work as an architect, De Meyer is also teaching. Collaboration plays an important role in his cross-disciplinary practice. He and Stefanie Everaert (doorzon interieur architecten) together represent the core of the modular collective Stand Van Zaken (‘State of Affairs’), who create furniture and architecture in collaboration with specialists in various fields. Driven by the shared enthusiasm of its members, Stand van Zaken supports the creation and development of objects, buildings and ideas.

Julian von der Schulenburg is an architect with his own practice in New York since 2007. His work includes residential, commercial and civic building designs and interiors while pursuing a special interest in the architectural meaning of space and light. Prior, Julian worked with Caruso St John Architects in London, Peter Zumthor in Switzerland and Rem Koolhaas’ OMA in New York. He received the Master of Architecture from the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, Switzerland mentored by Prof. Valerio Olgiati and Prof. Peter Zumthor. Concurrently to his practice, Julian has been teaching architecture design studios since 2010 at various universities including the Accademia di Architettura in Switzerland, IUAV Architecture School in Venice, Parsons The New School for Design, Syracuse University and the Rhode Island School of Design. Julian is international associate member of the American Institute of Architects and licensed member of the Federal Chamber of German Architects.​

Tuesday, February 18, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., CAP Room 490

Pedro Magnasco leads PM, an architectural practice based in Buenos Aires. Pedro studied architecture in the faculty of architecture, design and urbanism (fadu/uba) and technology, politics and culture in the center of advanced studies (cea/unc). He works independently and cooperatively in different practices and institutions producing buildings, aggregations, interiors, landscapes, installations, landscapes, texts, publications and concepts.

Tuesday, March 18, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., CAP Room 490

Charlotte von Moos is a practicing architect and researcher. Together with Florian Sauter, she is the co-founder of the architectural practice Sauter von Moos based in Basel, Switzerland, and Miami. The studio engages in work on all scales, both in theory and practice. Von Moos holds a Master’s degree from the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, where she taught with Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron at ETH Studio Basel for many years. She co-edited achtung: die Landschaft, and is the author of In Miami in the 1980s: The Vanishing Architecture of a ‘Paradise Lost’ and Some Fragments. Von Moos was a visiting professor at the Technical University of Munich, workshop leader at Porto Academy, and Design Critic at Harvard GSD. Since 2018, she is Assistant Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture.

Tuesday, April 8, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., CAP Room 490

Adam Caruso was born in Montreal and studied architecture at McGill University. He established Caruso St John Architects with Peter St John in 1990. The practice has offices in London and Zurich and has built throughout Europe, undertaking projects that range in scale from major urban developments and cultural projects to intricate interventions in complex historic settings. Caruso St John won the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2016 for the Newport Street Gallery and represented Britain at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Since 2011 Adam Caruso has been Professor of Architecture and Construction at the ETH Zurich.

Tuesday, April 29, 1:30 - 2:30 p.m., CAP Room 490

Erik “Rick” Sommerfeld is the Director of ColoradoBuildingWorkshop, the design-build program at the University of Colorado Denver. Since founding ColoradoBuildingWorkshop in 2009, Rick has worked with his students to design and build projects for not-for-profits and government agencies focused on the environment, arts, and education. These structures are often located in sensitive remote environments requiring innovative design strategies. His pedagogical vision for design build is heavily focused on integrated project delivery. This requires students to work closely with clients, engineers, and consultants at the earliest stages of design, testing their ideas against contextual and programmatic constraints.

Tuesday, September 3, 2 - 3pm, CAP Room 470

Founded in 2023 by Ran Huo and Shenghui Mao, Office Moments is a design and research architectural studio based in Shanghai, providing inter-disciplinary design services ranging from architecture design, interior design, installation design and furniture design. Office Moments grows out of TeamRH of THDL. We were selected in HUA-STAR Young Emerging Architects in 2021, and awarded Chinese Young Architecture Firm by Position in 2021 and 2022. Since founded, the practice has won many professional awards, including First Prize of Youth & Sea Xiangshan Trailscape Invitational Competition; Second Prize of Longquan City Balcony Architecture and Landscape Design Invitational Competition; Honorable mention of Architecture Master Prize (AMP).

Image Credit: Dashahe Riverside Teahouse by Office Moments

Tuesday, September 17, 2 - 3pm, CAP Room 470

Alex Spatzier is an architect based in Oakland, California, serving as the principal architect of ASA (Alex Spatzier Architects) and a partner at ALTO, where he collaborates with Tommy Haddock on larger scale projects. He taught design studios at UC Berkeley, where he also earned his M.Arch. He previously worked at First Office in SF/LA and SITU Studio in NYC. Before architecture, he did research in geology and astrophysics, and has BAs in Physics and Mathematics from Oberlin College. 

Tuesday, October 8, 2 - 3pm, CAP Room 470

Holly Deichmann is an Associate Principal at Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R). She was the Project Architect of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the Project Director for the adjoining Park Union Bridge, a curved steel structure connecting the museum campus to the adjacent America the Beautiful Park. Before joining Diller Scofidio + Renfro, Holly worked with Peter Gluck Architects (now Gluck+) as Project Manager for the Lakeside Retreat in the Adirondacks of New York. Prior to her time at Gluck+, Holly worked at OMA Rotterdam in the Netherlands and OMA Beijing in China, where she was the Project Architect of the CCTV Headquarters. Holly’s previous roles also include Project Architect at Istanbullu Architects for the City of Los Angeles Westchester-Loyola Village Branch Library.

Tuesday, October 29, 2 - 3pm, CAP Room 470

Kwong Von Glinow (KVG) is an award-winning architecture practice founded in 2017 by Lap Chi Kwong and Alison Von Glinow, both of who are visiting critics at Rice University School of Architecture. Their delivered projects range from single-family homes to multifamily residential buildings, public and cultural spaces, exhibitions, and designed objects. Their work translates forward-looking architectural concepts into playful designs with broad appeal. Taking an optimistic and explorative approach, KVG focuses on creating innovative living environments, places for cultural engagement, urban public space, and contemporary workspaces.

Tuesday, November 12, 2 - 3pm, CAP Room 470

Stephanie Davidson and Georg Rafailidis are co-founders of DAVIDSON RAFAILIDIS. The interest underlying much of their work is the friction between the original design intentions for spaces and buildings, and the much richer built reality and unpredictable lives that buildings inevitably have. In most of their work, they study existing built conditions—sometimes these studies evolve into built works and sometimes the studies take the form of documentation (drawings, photographs, writing).