This lecture will be presented in conjunction with the exhibition Exercises of Claustrophobia, currently on view in the School of Architecture and online.

Franco Purini (1941) is an Italian architect, writer, and Emeritus Professor of Architectural and Urban Composition at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Rome Sapienza. He has lectured and participated in seminars and workshops in Europe, the United States, South America, China, and Japan. He is a member of the National Academy of San Luca and the Academy of Arts and Design in Florence. He has participated in numerous national and international design competitions for which he has received several prizes and awards.

This event will be screened for Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff in room 315F. The general public may participate by registering here.

This lecture presents work from the newly-released book Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021), which examines the rise of finance capitalism and its effect on architecture. From the cav­ernous underground “iceberg” homes of the superrich in London to Paris’s owned-but-empty “zombie” housing to the ultra-thin luxury “pencil towers” sprouting in Manhattan, the book demonstrates how investment imperatives shape what and how we build on a global scale.

Matthew Soules is an associate professor of architecture at the University of British Columbia and a graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design (GSD). Soules has been visiting faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, a visiting associate professor at the GSD, and a guest critic at institutions throughout Canada and the United States. He is the founder and director of Matthew Soules Architecture and the author of Icebergs, Zombies, and the Ultra Thin: Architecture and Capitalism in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton Architectural Press, 2021).

The presentation will be followed by a conversation with Peggy Deamer and Jack Self moderated by Anna Bokov.

This event will be screened for Cooper Union students, faculty, and staff in room 315F. The general public may participate by registering here.

These lectures will be online only. You may register here.

This online exhibition presents, in digital form, Franco Purini: Exercises of Claustrophobia, an exhibition celebrating the work of the Italian architect Franco Purini and his generous gift of drawings to The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture Archive. Though COVID-19 restrictions currently limit entry to the physical exhibition, this digital presentation affords broad public access to Purini’s remarkable work.

In 2017, The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture first exhibited Purini's drawings in conjunction with the exhibition Geostories: Another Architecture for the Environment, which highlighted the work of Rania Ghosn and El Hadi Jazairy. These concurrent presentations were united by Architectural Tropes Across Scales and Geographies, a dialogue between Purini, Ghosn, and Jazairy. A year later, as a gesture of thanks to the School of Architecture, Purini created a suite of fifteen drawings titled Exercises of Claustrophobia. These works, which Purini refers to as a small visual poem, address the tension between freedom and constraint, which from Purini’s perspective has always existed within the discipline of architecture.

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture is pleased to announce that Toshiko Mori AR’76 will receive the prestigious 2021 Isamu Noguchi Award, conferred annually by the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum. Mori, as well as the ceramics artist Shio Kusaka, will receive the award at the Museum’s annual benefit celebration on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. 

The Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture is pleased to announce that its upcoming exhibition Vkhutemas: Laboratory of the Avant-Garde, 1920–1930 has received generous support from both the New York State Council on the Arts and the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. 

Curated by Anna Bokov, Assistant Professor Adjunct, and Steven Hillyer, Director of the Architecture Archive, the exhibition integrates Bokov’s scholarship for her recent publication Avant-Garde as Method: Vkhutemas and the Pedagogy of Space, 1920–1930 (Park Books, 2020) and her teaching at The Cooper Union. 

2018 Cooper Union architecture graduates Gabriel Munnich and Yaoyi Fan recently founded Design with FRANK, a start-up based on the premise that good design shouldn’t be a luxury. To that end, their company has developed a digital tool that embeds architectural intelligence in a user-friendly way, allowing anyone to make well-designed homes that fit their exact needs. Munnich and Fan believe that, as architects, it is their responsibility to create the next generation of design tools that serve everyone’s needs while creating a better-built environment for all. 

Recently featured in designboom, Design with FRANK streamlines the traditional design process into a simple, intuitive, game-like experience that allows users to make a house by manipulating and connecting 3D blocks. Once satisfied with their design, users can interchange roof types and exterior materials to suit different climates. The software also provides a sophisticated map system via satellite imagery and vector world data that visualize the user's dream house in their chosen physical site. 

The League’s (virtual) Student Program returns on Saturday, September 25th, 2021! This program offers an inside look at the architectural profession, highlighting the varied and creative career paths open to graduates of architecture school. The day opens with a virtual panel discussion featuring: Delma Palma, Deputy Director of Architecture and Urban Planning at the New York City Housing Authority; Todd Palmer, Director of the Diversity in Design Collaborative; and Bo Liu and Andreas Kostopoulous, Associates at Diller Scofidio + Renfro. In the afternoon, each student will choose one of the following studios to tour virtually: Adjaye Associates, Body Lawson Associates (BLA), MODU, Marvel, Practice for Architecture and Urbanism (PAU), sageandcoombearchitects, and Stephen Yablon Architecture. Advanced registration is required; please register through this form by Sunday, September 19th.

The School of Architecture records, archives and publishes videos of public programs to open access and accommodate asynchronous learning and research for audiences in different time zones. You may visit our Vimeo channel for access to all our video content.

If you recently missed a lecture or event you wanted to see, make sure to check out the Fall 2020 and the Spring 2021 Lecture and Events Lists. Links to earlier semester event lists are found at the bottom of their respective event pages.

For campus-wide COVID-19 updates and resources, please visit The Cooper Union's website.