Farshid Moussavi, “Architecture As an Instruction-Based Art”
Construction coordination drawing of the National Taichung Theater, Toyo Ito.
Event Description
In Fall 2024, the Druker Design Gallery will host an exhibition of drawings used to coordinate the construction process, that is, drawings that reflect the nature of architecture as an “instruction-based” art.
Construction coordination drawings differ from the sketches, perspectives, diagrams, maquettes, and other images that architects use to convey their ideas for a building. Unlike the painter or the sculptor, the architect’s final act results not in a completed work of art but in a set of instructions that enable the work of art to be realized. In this sense, an architect’s work is closer to that of a conceptual artist.
These instructions are then implemented on a site that is usually exposed to the elements and to the dynamics of often several years that it takes for the many specialist builders, roofers, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, and decorators to complete the building. Meanwhile, the architect remains both legally and morally accountable for all that follows from or is attached to his or her instructions.
This event, moderated by Farshid Moussavi, will feature presentations by several practices whose drawings appear in the exhibition. In brief remarks, the designers will reflect on the drawings and the complex processes they represent.
A reception will follow in the Druker Design Gallery.
Curator
Farshid Moussavi is Professor in Practice in the Department of Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design, and principal of Farshid Moussavi Architecture (FMA). In 2015, she was elected a Royal Academician. She trained at Harvard GSD, the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College London, and Dundee University. She was previously co-founder and co-principal of the London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA), recognized as one of the world’s most creative design firms, integrating architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture in a wide range of projects internationally. Prior to this, she worked with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Genoa and the Office for Metropolitan Architecture in Rotterdam. Recognized as an outstanding and committed teacher who brings intellectual rigor to the discourse on architecture, she has been a visiting professor at UCLA, Columbia, Princeton, and several architecture schools in Europe; she was also the Kenzo Tange Visiting Design Critic at the GSD in Spring 2005. She taught for eight years at the Architectural Association in London and was the head of the Institute of Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, where she taught from 2002 until 2005.
Moussavi is a columnist for The Architectural Review and author of The Function of Ornament (2006), The Function of Form (2009), and The Function of Style (2015), the latter of which is based on her research and teaching at Harvard.
Presenters
Angela Pang, PangArchitect, is an Assistant Professor in Practice of Architecture at the GSD and the founder of PangArchitect. The firm’s recent work includes several university libraries in Hong Kong. PangArchitect has received numerous design awards including the Architect’s Newspaper Award for Best Library Design, the Green Building Award from the Hong Kong Green Building Council, and multiple recognitions from Dezeen Design Award, the World Architecture Festival Award, and the Hong Kong Institute of Architects.
Sean Canty, Studio Sean Canty, is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design and the founder of Studio Sean Canty (SSC), an architecture practice based in Cambridge, MA. Canty is a founding principal of Office III (OIII), an experimental architectural collective. Selected as a finalist for the 2016 MoMA PS1 Young Architects competition, OIII has completed a Welcome Center for Governors Island and exhibited work at MoMA in New York.
Philip Schmerbeck, Herzog de Meuron, is the Studio Director overseeing the operations of Herzog & de Meuron’s studios in the US. He was the project manager in charge of Parrish Art Museum. He oversees the Powerhouse Arts project, a contemporary arts fabrication center recently completed in Brooklyn, and the Memphis Art Museum, which is currently under construction. He has gained specific knowledge working on a range of residential, cultural, and adaptive reuse projects.
Mack Scogin and Merrill Elam, Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects The two principals of Mack Scogin Merrill Elam Architects, have worked together in architecture for over forty years. The firm was founded in 1984 as Parker and Scogin. The principals have extensive experience in forming and leading multi-disciplined project teams. It is this experience combined with an unyielding commitment to meet clients’ needs with an architecture that is of the present-day that most distinguishes the firm’s work.
Harvard University welcomes individuals with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you would like to request accommodations or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected] in advance of your participation or visit. Requests for American Sign Language interpreters and/or CART providers should be made at least two weeks in advance. Please note that the University will make every effort to secure services, but that services are subject to availability.
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