Rethinking Materiality: Lecture by Anupama Kundoo

Please note: USC Campus requires guest registration for all visitors. RSVP is required. Upon RSVP, guests will receive parking and campus access code one week before the event. Please contact organizers at [email protected] for questions or concerns.

Rethinking Materiality: Natural resources and human resourcefulness

Lecture by Anupama Kundoo

Gin D. Wong Auditorium

USC School of Architecture

As part of Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design

Hosted by Craft Contemporary and USC School of Architecture

Our built environment is the physical stage on which all human stories are lived out. This physical stage is the historical and ongoing manifestation of human imagination operating within real (or, imaginary!) constraints. Anupama Kundoo advances the idea that architectural imagination must transcend design and enter the realms of materials science and economics where some of the bigger questions reside. She will discuss the thrust of her inquiries which have been to find practical ways to fulfill the universal human aspiration for refuge, purpose, and social engagement through extensive material research and experimentation. She will discuss 'Human Time as a Resource' in the quest for new materiality and critically examine the way the time value of money has nudged us towards code-based design and the industrialized production of building components and, sometimes, even entire buildings themselves. She will discuss materiality and consumption of finite natural resources alongside their impact on human wellbeing and human resourcefulness. The act of building produces knowledge just as the resulting knowledge produces buildings.

About Anupama Kundoo

Anupama Kundoo graduated from University of Mumbai in 1989 and received her PhD degree from TU Berlin in 2008. Her research-oriented practice started in 1990 in Auroville has generated people centric architecture based on spatial and material research for low environmental impact while being socio-economically beneficial. Her body of works was recently exhibited as a solo show 'Taking Time' at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark. She has taught Architecture and Urban Management at various international universities strengthening her expertise in rapid urbanization and climate change related development issues including at the University of Queensland at Brisbane, TU Stuttgart, and Columbia University. She is currently Professor of Architecture at T.U. Berlin, and the Norman Foster visiting Professor at Yale University.

Kundoo received the RIBA Charles Jencks award for her contribution to architectural theory, the 2021 Auguste Perret Prize for architectural technology, the 2021 Building Sense Now global award of the German Sustainable Building Council DGNB, and the Global Award for Sustainable architecture under UNESCO patronage in 2022. Her studios are based in Berlin in Germany, and Mumbai and Pondicherry in India. Kundoo’s rigorous research and experimentation in new materiality for architecture is the result of questioning basic assumptions, construction habits that humanity has adopted during the long process of industrialization. Rather than focusing on shortage, she sought abundance through investing in human resources and human resourcefulness, such as ingenuity, time, skills, care and sense of community.

MATERIAL ACTS

This lecture is organized as part of Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design, and is hosted by Craft Contemporary and USC School of Architecture as part of the regional initiative Getty PST ART: Art and Science Collide.

The exhibition Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design examines the role of nature as a starting point for material experimentation in the domains of architecture, craft, and science. While nature has often stood in as a model, metaphor, or resource for designers, the recent global upheavals in climate, ecology, and technology are driving intensive understandings of nature’s tangible and imagined substrate. The exhibition examines how contemporary design practices mobilize, confound, and generate natures, whether through simulating mechanics or growing biological matter. On view until January 5, 2024 at Craft Contemporary.

ABOUT CRAFT CONTEMPORARY

⁣Founded as a museum in 1973, Craft Contemporary reveals the potential of craft to educate, captivate, provoke, and empower. With a focus on contemporary art made from craft media and processes, Craft Contemporary presents dynamic exhibitions by established and emerging artists and designers who are often underrepresented in larger art institutions. Craft Contemporary complements these exhibitions with a creative line-up of educational programs, including hands-on workshops led by professional artists. Craft Contemporary cultivates an environment for people in Los Angeles to deepen their relationship to art, creativity, and one another.

https://www.craftcontemporary.org

ABOUT GETTY PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

Southern California’s landmark arts event, Pacific Standard Time (PST), returns in September 2024, presenting more than 50 exhibitions from organizations across the region, all exploring the intersections of art and science, both past and present. PST ART: Art & Science Collide follows Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA (September 2017–January 2018) and Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A. 1945–1980 (October 2011– March 2012). PST ART is a Getty initiative.

Generous support of Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design is provided by The Getty Foundation. Additional Support is provided by The National Endowment for the Arts, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and The Antonia and Vladimir Kulaev Cultural Heritage Fund.

Please note: USC Campus requires guest registration for all visitors. RSVP is required. Upon RSVP, guests will receive parking and campus access code one week before the event.

On Campus: Please inquire with USC Campus Security upon check in for parking directions. Guests can now purchase short-term or all-day parking using their credit card, using either Text2Park (T2P) on their mobile device or by entering their vehicle license plate in a nearby Pay-By-Plate (PBP) station.

Off Campus: Metered street parking can be found on Vermont. Please allot 15-20 minutes for parking and walk to Gin D. Auditorium. Parking is also available in various USC-area parking lots is available for $14. Here are the areas to park in for the event:

• Downey Way Parking Structure
• Royal Street Parking Structure
• Flower Street Parking Structure
• Figueroa Street Parking Structure
• USC Shrine Structure

From Union Station:
Take the Metro Red Line or Purple Line to 7th Street/Metro Center Station, then transfer to the Metro Expo Line and exit Expo Park/USC Station.

From Santa Monica, West L.A., Culver City, Downtown L.A.:
Take the Metro Expo Line to Expo Park/USC Station.

From Hollywood, Universal City, Mid-City:
Take the Metro Red Line to 7th Street/Metro Center Station, then transfer to the Metro Expo Line and exit Expo Park/USC Station.

From Mid-City/Wilshire Corridor area:
Take the Metro Purple Line to 7th Street/Metro Center Station, then transfer to the Metro Expo Line and exit Expo Park/USC Station

From East L.A./Pasadena:
Take the Metro Gold Line to Union Station, then transfer to the Metro Purple Line or Red Line and exit at the 7th Street/Metro Center Station. Transfer to the Metro Expo Line and exit at the Expo Park/USC Station.

From Long Beach:
Take the Metro Blue Line to Pico Station, then transfer to the Metro Expo Line heading towards Culver City and exit Expo/Park USC Station.

Downtown L.A. DASH “F” Line
Downtown residents are encouraged to take advantage of the DASH “F” line to reach the USC campus. The DASH “F” line will operate on both days of the Festival of Books, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. DASH shuttles will pick up every 20 minutes at all “F” line stops. Fare is 50 cents. For a list of DASH “F” line stops, visit www.ladottransit.com/dash and select “Downtown F.”

Please contact organizers at [email protected] for questions or concerns.

Host or Publisher Material Acts