Fall 2026 Lecture Series
Rensselaer Architecture is pleased to announce its lecture series for fall 2026. All lectures will begin at 5:00pm. All Lectures will be at EMPAC Theater, with the exception of Bernard Tschumi, which will be held at EMPAC Concert Hall. Admission is free.
Cecilia Puga / Paula Velasco Arquitectura
Some Character in Search for an Author
Mosaic Associates Architects Lecture
Wednesday, September 16
Cecilia Puga is co-director and co-founder of Cecilia Puga – Paula Velasco Arquitectura, a practice that connects independent professionals from various disciplines and specialties. Through international competitions, the studio has been in charge of the new headquarters of Chile’s Ministry of Cultures and Heritage, the infrastructure design project for Queulat National Park, and the master plan and preliminary project for Punta Arenas’ International Passenger Terminal. Recently, they obtained first place in a public competition to design The National Archive Building in Valparaiso, Chile.
Puga has developed her professional practice in Santiago since 1995, where she has carried out design projects at different scales and programs, from single-family homes—most notably the House in Bahia Azul, to collective housing, educational and industrial equipment, and urban design such as the renovation of public spaces in Cerro Toro. She has developed her academic activity at Universidad Católica de Santiago, ETH Zurich’s School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, Harvard GSD, and Barcelona Institute of Architecture. Her work has been featured in several national and international specialized publications, including the 53rd issue of journal 2G which was dedicated to her work. Her office was one of the 100 offices around the world selected by Herzog & De Meuron to design a villa in Inner Mongolia, within the context of the Ordos 100 project, led by artist Ai Wei Wei.
Jesse Reiser + Nanako Umemoto / RUR Architecture
Anaesthetic Architecture
Frank Pitts ’75 Lecture
Wednesday, October 07
RUR is cosmopolitan, design-obsessed architecture office and atelier, comprising the collective knowledge of four generations of architects and designers from a diverse array of cultures and expertise. Their singular mission is to create bespoke works of architecture which resonate beyond clients’ needs—regardless of scale, site, or program—and to develop projects which advance the people, cultures, and ecologies around them.
RUR’s architecture is an art of optimism, demanding a forward-looking attitude and the nerve to stand out of sync with present norms. They believe the significant work of reconciling past traumas and addressing contemporary discord requires an architecture that posits a more ideal world. Doing so is a naturally enriching process, as they collectively seek to expand definitions of possibility toward the betterment of clients, their institutions, and the cultures of which we are all part. As we live in an increasingly divided society, there is a tendency to address this division by counterproductively retreating into provincial understandings of identity. In contrast to current provincialisms, the vocation of modern architecture was, is, and should be cosmopolitan, committed to enhancing the lives of all people everywhere.
A recently completed success is the 755,000 square foot Taipei Music Center, a work that is insistingly a real thing in the world. It is also a steep material investment for all concerned, necessitating that it not be squandered by shortsighted thinking. That an architecture be sustainable is a minimal requirement, and alone not enough to justify its concomitant efforts and cost. No doubt the final measure of an architecture—as with sustainability—lies not in quantities but in the myriad qualities it exhibits and affords over time, bettering the lives of all.
To posit and construct both a more livable world and a world worth living in: such is RUR’s shared motivation.
https://www.reiser-umemoto.com/
Mauricio Cortés Sierra / Bascilica Sagrada Familia
Sagrada Família: The Dream of a Genius, A Collective Endeavour Across Generations
Steven Ehrlich ’69 Architecture Lecture
Wednesday, October 14
Mauricio Cortés Sierra studied National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in the 1990s. He belongs to a generation marked by the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, which created an atmosphere of obsession with structure, safety, and innovation in the classrooms. At UNAM he developed an interest in structural geometry and lightweight roofs, themes that would later naturally connect with the work of Antoni Gaudí.
After graduating, Cortés moved to Barcelona to pursue a doctorate in architectural design at the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB), the same institution where Gaudí studied in the 19th century. This move would ultimately shape his professional career. In 2006 he began collaborating with the Sagrada Familia Construction Board, where he was involved in the development of some of the cathedral’s most complex elements. Cortés is currently the lead architect of the Sagrada Familia.
Cortés’ career at Sagrada Familia began on its ground floor, where he worked on extending the neo-gothic cloisters around the Nativity facade, the only section Gaudí lived to see completed. These elements feature highly organic shapes with very free forms, in contrast to the more geometrised, parametric spires, such as the Tower of Jesus Christ, which was inaugurated by Pope Leo XIV on the centenary of Gaudí’s death. Completion of the central towers – The Four Towers of the Evangelists, The Tower of the Virgin Mary and the massive centrepiece, The Tower of Jesus Christ – on which Cortés led the design and construction team, was a huge milestone in the cathedral’s construction. Completing the towers was a herculean effort, requiring the adoption of new technologies as well as meticulous studies of drawings, models, written sources and photographs. Cortés lists completion of the cathedral’s main elevation, the Glory Facade, as a primary future challenge for the project.
Working on the Sagrada Familia is not like participating in any other architectural project. Its a process that combines history, precision, and an enormous cultural responsibility. Every intervention must respect the structural and aesthetic logic defined by Antoni Gaudí, but also adapt to the technical and construction advancements of the present. It is within this balance between past and future that Cortés’ work unfolds. One of the most complex aspects of the project is that Antoni Gaudí did not leave all the final plans for the basilica. Much of his vision was transmitted through scale models, experimental geometries, and three-dimensional models that are still studied today by architects and engineers. If anything defines the modern era of construction, it is the combination of tradition and technology. The organic forms conceived by Antoni Gaudí are now developed with advanced digital tools, parametric modeling, and high-precision manufacturing processes.
Philip Beesley / Philip Beesley Studio Inc.
Metastable Aether: Systems for Living Architecture
Lee Harris Pomeroy ’55 Lecture
Monday, October 19
Philip Beesley Studio is an interdisciplinary design company located in Toronto, Canada. PB specializes in architectural design of public buildings, public art and experimental installations. The group is closely associated with the multi-partner Living Architecture Systems Group, the School of Architecture and Faculty of Engineering at the University of Waterloo, and Riverside Architectural Press. Sculptural work in the past two decades has focused on immersive textile environments, landscape installations and intricate geometric structures. The most recent generations of these works feature interactive sound, light and kinetic mechanisms with distributed control systems. Studio research focuses on aesthetics, technology and craft of responsive envelope systems including digital fabrication of extremely light-weight, flexible component arrays containing embedded sensors and actuators.
Projects are developed at widely varying scales from urban design to personal couture, using cycles of multidisciplinary experimentation and implementation. The studio’s design methods combine the durable crafts of heavy machining and building with advanced digital visualization, industrial design, digital prototyping, electronics and mechanical engineering.
A notable recent project from Beesley’s studio is Aria: Sentient Constellation, installed at TU Delft Science Center. This multi-year project frames a permanent installation of public art on the campus of TU Delft, presented in cooperation with the municipality of Delft, TodaysArt, numerous artists from the Netherlands and Canada, and educators in STEAM. This project is working in close collaboration with TU Delft’s Architecture and Engineering departments and multiple Canadian research contributions. A new LASG sculpture and testbed will be installed at the entry of the new Science Centre facility. The project will act as a public beacon that gathers the public, expressing a sustainable, inclusive vision of future design. This building provides a public face to the University, located at the boundary of the Delft Campus with the city. This site provides strategic connections to the campus and city. The location also relates to a large cluster of experimental architectural structures featuring next-generation construction, alternate energy sources and sustainable material systems. The prominent central location will present views to the exterior that reach out and along the green lawn that connects the Science Centre to the main circulation spine of the University and areas of the city of Delft. To the interior, the installation will lead to areas for evolving student design explorations and additional workshop-based activities.
https://www.philipbeesleystudioinc.com/
Billie Tsien / Studio Tsien
Begin Again
Mike Wacholder Memorial Lecture
Wednesday, October 28
Billie Tsien, AIA, is an architect and co-founder of Studio Tsien. Tsien was formerly founding partner with Tod Williams of the New York City-based studio Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects | Partners (TWBTA). The firm’s work exhibited a commitment to reflecting the values of non-profit, cultural, and academic institutions through an architecture that is serene and enduring. Prominent examples include academic building projects at Princeton University, the University of Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Haverford College, Bennington College, and the University of California, Berkeley. Some of TWBTA’s public and institutional projects include the Phoenix Art Museum, the Hood Museum of Art in Hanover, New Hampshire, the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and the Lefrak Center at Lakeside in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. TWBTA collaborated with artists as part of their practice, including the exhibit designers for “Martin Puryear: Liberty/Libertà” representing the U.S. Pavilion of the 58th Venice Biennale in 2019. The firm’s work includes the renovation of the David Geffen Hall at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York, the U.S. Embassy Complex in Mexico City, and the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.
Tsien holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Yale University and a Master of Architecture degree from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently the Charles Gwathmey Professor in Practice at Yale University and contributes to a range of cultural institutions such as the Architectural League of New York, the National Academy of Design, the American Philosophical Society, the American Academy in Rome and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, where she serves as president. Her work has been recognized with the Thomas Jefferson Medal Award in Architecture and the Architecture Firm Award of the American Institute of Architects, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize, and the National Medal of Arts. Tsien is steadfast in her mission to create a better world through architecture and to contribute to supporting a broader and more diverse cultural landscape.
Bernard Tschumi / Bernard Tschumi Architects
Abstract
Kenneth L. Warriner Memorial Lecture
Monday, November 02
Bernard Tschumi is widely recognized as one of today’s foremost architects. First known as a theorist, he drew attention to his innovative architectural practice in 1983 when he won the prestigious competition for the Parc de la Villette, a 125-acre cultural park based on activities as much as nature. The intertwining concepts of “event” and “movement” in architecture are supported by Tschumi’s belief that architecture is the most important innovation of our time. Tschumi often references other disciplines in his work, such as literature and film, proving that architecture must participate in culture’s polemics and question its foundations.
Since then, he has made a reputation for groundbreaking designs that include the new Acropolis Museum; Le Fresnoy National Studio for the Contemporary Arts; the Vacheron-Constantin Headquarters; the Richard E. Lindner Athletics Center at the University of Cincinnati; two concert halls in Rouen and Limoges, and architecture schools in Marne-la-Vallée, France and Miami, Florida, as well as the Alésia Archaeological Center and Museum among other projects. The office’s versatility extends to infrastructure projects and master plans. Major urban design projects under Tschumi’s leadership include master plans in Beijing, Shenzhen, New York, Montreal, Chartres, Lausanne, and Santo Domingo. Recently completed are the Hague Passage and Hotel in the Netherlands, a Philharmonic Hall for Institut Le Rosey, an expansion of the headquarters for Vacheron Constantin, a renovation and redesign of the Paris Zoo, and the Binhai Science Museum in Tianjin, China. The 75,000 m2 (800,000 sf) Biology-Pharmacy-Chemistry Center for the University of Paris-Saclay opened in 2022, while a Center for Sciences and Entrepreneurship is currently under construction near Geneva, to open in 2025.
Tschumi was awarded France’s Grand Prix National d’Architecture in 1996 as well as numerous awards from the American Institute of Architects and the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a member of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects and an international fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in England. He has also been the recipient of distinguished honors from the Collège International de Philosophie and the Académie d’Architecture in France that include the rank of Officer in both the Légion d’Honneur and the Order des Arts et des Lettres. In 2024, the Académie des Beaux-Arts awarded Tschumi the Grand Prix d’Architecture (Charles Abella Prize).
A graduate of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Tschumi has taught architecture at a range of institutions including the Architectural Association in London, Princeton University, and the Cooper Union in New York. He is a Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation where he was Dean from 1988 to 2003. Tschumi is a permanent resident of the United States and has French and Swiss citizenship.
Tschumi’s work has been widely exhibited, including at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Venice Biennale, the Netherlands Architecture Institute in Rotterdam, the Pompidou Center in Paris, as well as art galleries in the United States and Europe. A major retrospective exhibition of Tschumi’s work, first exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, has traveled internationally to the Swiss Architecture Museum in Basel, and to the Power Station of Art in Shanghai.