Thom Mayne of Morphosis during the Keynote Lecture at the RIBA
AIA UK typically has a packed calendar of events, and the start of 2024 has been no exception. The chapter kicked off the year with the 2024 Annual General Meeting on 17 January, hosted by AIA UK sponsor Herman Miller, to celebrate the year just gone by and to look to the year ahead.
Next up, the AIA UK/ RIBA Keynote Lecture featuring Thom Mayne of Morphosis was held on 30 January. The event was held at the RIBA headquarters in London to a full house plus an online audience.
Thom Mayne’s presentation was a spellbinding overview of his practice and thinking, using projects as talking points rather than exploring individual buildings in depth. The talk was loosely configured around the themes of Early, Middle, and Current. Early projects included several California projects such as the Crawford Residence (1990) and the Diamond Ranch High School (2001). The final portion of his presentation included several unbuilt competition projects such as Performing Art Centers for Rensselaer University and for Taipei, a Beijing Cultural Park, and Unicorn Island in China.
Other recent events have included the ever popular Movie Nights, where we screened Tim Slade's The Destruction of Memory, and Precise Poetry: Lina Bo Bardi’s Architecture. Online audiences have also been able to enjoy our Sustainability Series, with thought-provoking lunchtime talks such as David Coley asking why architects struggle to design refugee shelters and Illya Azaroff, FAIA calling on us to understand the architect’s role in the age of climate action.
For more news from AIA UK, visit https://www.aiauk.org/blog.
