The Syracuse University School of Architecture invites New York City alumni and friends to join us for the third installation of the Mark Robbins Lecture presented by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing, founding partners of Beijing-based OPEN Architecture.
When
Friday, February 8, 2019
5:30 pm: Reception
6:30 pm: Lecture beings
Space is limited and we are expecting a capacity crowd.
Where
Syracuse University Fisher Center
19 East 31st Street
New York, NY 10016
RSVP
Online at http://cc.syr.edu/robbins19
Synopsis
The ever-changing realities of contemporary urban life, and the challenges they pose for humanity and the environment, call for an urgent rethinking of architectural precedent. To create spaces suited to the kind of architectural complexity and urbanity present in cities today, particularly those in China, architecture must explore and embrace new opportunities for spatial reinvention.
Architects Li Hu and Huang Wenjing, founding partners of OPEN Architecture, will share with the audience observations drawn from more than a decade of architectural practice in Beijing. Through a series of questions—the starting points for some of OPEN’s latest projects on culture and education—Li and Huang will present their thoughts on how architecture can offer hope for the future by reacting to the challenges of today.
About OPEN
OPEN was founded by Li Hu and Huang Wenjing in New York City and established its Beijing office in 2008. The firm’s team of designers collaborates across different disciplines to practice urban design, landscape design, architectural design, and interior design, as well as the research and production of design strategies in the context of new challenges.
OPEN has been widely recognized for its innovative work. Recent awards the firm received include the 2018 AIA Education Facility Design Award of Excellence (USA), 2018 Civic Trust Awards (UK), 2017 Iconic Awards Best of Best (Germany), 2016 Interior Design’s Best of Year (USA), 2015 AIANY Design Award (USA), 2015 London Design Museum’s Design of the Year Nomination (UK), and the Winning Prize of the WA Awards for Chinese Architecture, among many others. The firm has also been invited to participate in many important international exhibitions, such as the 2018 CHINA HOUSE VISION, the “Soul of the City” in Verona Italy in 2017, the inaugural Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015, and the Chinese pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2014.
Recently, Li and Huang completed the new Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Dune Art Museum—a cave-like museum carved into a sand dune along China’s Gold Coast. The new 10,000-square foot facility featuring galleries, studios, and a café tucked inside an all-white, unassuming structure by the sea. According to the architects, the museum’s hidden form was inspired by the way in which children dig into the sand.
Other built and ongoing projects by OPEN include: the Gehua Youth and Cultural Center, Garden School/Beijing No.4 High School Fangshan Campus, Tsinghua Ocean Center, Pingshan Performing Arts Center, Tank Shanghai, Chapel of Sound, and Qingpu Pinghe International School.
The Mark Robbins Lecture Fund was created in 2014 by Richard Gluckman ’71 of Gluckman Tang Architects. Gluckman, a Syracuse Architecture alumnus and former School Advisory Board Chair, established this fund in honor of Mark Robbins MArch ’82, dean of the School of Architecture from 2004 to 2012. The fund supports an annual lecture in New York City by nationally and internationally known architects, scholars, curators, theorists, and critics who are important contributors to the design disciplines.
