The Living Architecture Systems Group (LASG) is celebrating the halfway mark of its multi-year SSHRC Partnership Grant with a Symposium from March 1-3, 2019 at OCAD University (OCAD U) in Toronto. Approximately 60 LASG researchers from Canada, USA, Europe, Australia and New Zealand will gather with friends, collaborators and students to share their works in progress.
On Friday, March 1, LASG researchers and graduate students will give presentations, hold poster sessions and engage in discussions. That evening, eminent interaction theorist and designer Paul Pangaro, Professor of the Practice in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, will deliver a keynote address on interaction design that includes iconic works by Gordon Pask.
Presentations will continue through Saturday, March 2, including a noon keynote presentation by Katy Börner, Distinguished Professor of Engineering & Information Science at Indiana University. An evening dinner reception at the LASG studio will feature a demonstration of an immersive sound, light and motion environment, accompanied by multiple prototypes in progress by the Amsterdam 4DSOUND collective.
On Sunday, March 3, Toolbox Dialogue Initiative of Michigan State University will conduct “Capacity Building Through Structured Dialogue,” a workshop that focuses on demarcating concepts relating to living architecture and collaboration and communication methods. Carole Collet of Central Saint Martins UAL will lead a workshop called “Scoping the Future of Design, Architecture and Living Systems,” that positions the current state of research in design, architecture and living systems.
On view throughout the symposium in OCAD U’s George Reid Room is Resurgence of Organicism, an exhibition curated by Sarah Bonnemaison of FILUM LTD and Dalhousie University. The exhibition explores principles of Organicism in architectural theory and design, past and present.
Three publications by Riverside Architectural Press will be launched at the Symposium. Current work in progress and interviews by LASG researchers will be consolidated in White Papers 2019, and symposium presentation abstracts will be published in a volume of Symposium Proceedings. The Resurgence of Organicism exhibition catalogue, edited by Sarah Bonnemaison, will be presented in partnership with Dalhousie Architectural Press. The support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), University of Waterloo, OCAD University and multiple partners is gratefully acknowledged.
The LASG is an interdisciplinary partnership of academics, artists, designers and industry partners dedicated to researching and developing next-generation architectural environments. Environments produced by this group are now showing qualities that come strikingly close to life, transforming the built world. These experimental works can move, respond, explore, learn and adapt. The LASG disseminates its work through exhibitions, publications and events.
The LASG Symposium 2019 details including schedule and program will be regularly updated on www.lasg.ca. For more information contact [email protected] or 416-766-8284.