CONSTRUCTING (unorthodox) PRACTICE

CONSTRUCTING (unorthodox) PRACTICE is the fourth edition of a day-long symposium series that traces the trajectories of emerging firms from around the globe that are critically engaged with contemporary design challenges.

This lecture will be hosted in Wood Auditorium at Columbia GSAPP and live-streamed on GSAPP’s YouTube channel.

As in previous editions in 2017, 2019, and 2024, the symposium focuses on the transition from education to professional practice and on the idea that one’s own practice can be understood as a project in itself—designed, built, and sustained—necessarily shaped by meaningful commitments in today’s contradictory and increasingly complex climate.

Organized by Professor Juan Herreros, the symposium brings together twelve international and unconventional firms across four panels to discuss key themes that shape the profession and expand our understanding of architecture today: Material Explorations, Spatial Arguments, Situated Ecologies, and Expanded Practices.

Each panel features three twenty-minute presentations in which the participating firms reflect on the contexts, ambitions, and influences that informed their founding and early development. The presentations are followed by a twenty-minute collective conversation led by a moderator crossing experiences, strategies, and approaches to practice of the participants.

The agenda this year is:

10:00am

Welcome and Introduction Presentation: Dean Andrés Jaque and Juan Herreros

10:15am

Panel 1 | Material Explorations / ** Moderator**: Marc Tsurumaky

LIMBO ACCRA. ACCRA, GHANA, Dominique Petit-Frère

11X17. TORONTO, CANADA/DENVER, USA, Mahsa Malek, Alex Yueyan Li

BC ARCHITECTS. BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, Laurens Bekemans

12:00pm PANEL 2 | SPATIAL ARGUMENTS / Moderator: Mireia Luzárraga

MBL ARCHITECTES. SAINT-OUEN-SUR-SEINE / MAYRAC, FRANCE, Sébastien Martinez Barat, Benjamin Lafore, Florian Jomain

DUA STUDIO. JAKARTA, INDONESIA, Ardy Hartono

WUNDERWERK. TBILISI, GEORGIA, Gigi Shukakidze

1:30 pm: Break

3:00pm PANEL 3 | SITUATED ECOLOGIES / Moderator: Lola Ben-Alon

YANGNAR STUDIO. CHIANG MAI, THAILAND, Dechophon Rattanasatchatham, Pongsatorn Swadchatchwan, Rungroj Tansukanun

ARB ARCHITECTS. HO CHI MINH CITY, VIETNAM, Nguyễn Hà

AYAKO. RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL, Juliana Ayako, Carlos Zebulun

4:45pm

PANEL 4 | EXPANDED PRACTICES / Moderator: Lydia Kallipoliti

SIMULAA. NAARM - MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, Anna Jankovic, André Bonnice

FORTY-FIVE DEGREES. BERLIN, GERMANY, Alkistis Thomidou, Berta Gutiérrez Casaos

COMMON ACCOUNTS. MADRID, SPAIN / TORONTO, CANADA, Igor Bragado, Miles Gertler

6:15pm Closing Comments: Juan Herreros

This event content is equivalent to 8 AIA/CES total learning credits. Please contact events@arch.columbia.edu for more information.