princeton NEW JERSEY

Firmitas, Utilitas, Venustas. Firmness, Commodity, Delight. Infamous words written by Vitruvius regarding the essential elements of architecture. There is a clear hierarchy to these three elements, priority is given to firmness, then commodity, with delight mentioned last. What would happen if we were to flip the order? What happens when delight is given priority?

symposium: “F̶i̶r̶m̶n̶e̶s̶s̶,̶ ̶C̶o̶m̶m̶o̶d̶i̶t̶y̶,̶ & Delight,” with BROUGHTON, GAGE, KOVACS, LAI, & LOVERICH.
Saturday, 11/15
12.00 p.m. / Betts Auditorium
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544

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syracuse NEW YORK

The School of Architecture at Syracuse University hosts a discussion about collective production and dissemination of experimental architectural design and art.

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stockholm SWEDEN

Jimenez Lai is an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and Leader of Bureau Spectacular.

lecture: Jimenez LAI, “Cartoonish Worlds” with respondent Daniel NORELL.
Draw Point Talk lecture series.
Thursday, 10/24
6.00 p.m. / The KTH School of Architecture
Östermalmsgatan 26
114 26 Stockholm, Sweden

* photo © Jimenez LAI.

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new york NEW YORK

Third annual symposium hosted by the Critical, Curatorial, & Conceptual Practices in Architecture class of 2014, GSAPP, Columbia University. The symposium will take the form of a series of roundtable seminars with invited guests from varied backgrounds. In each roundtable, panelists will briefly present a provocation, statement, or paragraph responding to the day’s thematic concerns, oscillating between architecture, writing, and exhibition-making.

symposium: “Interpretations: Discerning Fictions” with EASTERLING, LAI, MARTÍNEZ, NIERMANN, de OSTOS, VON SCHLEGELL, SCOTT, WASIUTA, & WIGLEY
Saturday, 04/20
12.30 pm / Studio-X NYC
180 Varick St.
New York, NY 10014

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columbus OHIO

The Possible Mediums Conference, which took place at The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture from February 07-10, 2013, brought together 18 designers, 120 students (from the four co-host schools: The Ohio State University Knowlton School of Architecture, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture + Urban Planning and University of Kentucky College of Design), and special guests John McMorrough and Jeffrey Kipnis, to participate in design workshops and formal discussions surrounding the question of mediums in contemporary architecture.

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buffalo NEW YORK

An error can be many things. In its most common display, however, it is something we are taught to avoid. It is often characterized by mannerisms that were once trends but are now condemned or qualified by a lack of command over formal logic, material tolerances, construction techniques, & space planning, to name but a few. 12 practitioners, theorists, & curators from the Midwest & East Coast will convene to examine the value of error, mistake-making, or wrongness, when architecture is at stake. The symposium is organized by UB Banham Fellow & UIC Visiting Asst. Professor Thomas Kelley.

“On Error,” w/ BAIR, FRANCH, KHAN, LAI, LALLY, LÓPEZ-PIÑEIRO, McMORROUGH, PREISSNER, & more
Wednesday, 01/23
2.00–7.00 pm / Greatbatch Pavilion
Darwin Martin House
125 Jewett Parkway, Buffalo, NY 14214

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los angeles CALIFORNIA

Jimenez Lai is an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and leader of Bureau Spectacular. Previously, Lai has lived and worked in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout on the piers of Rotterdam. In the past years, he has built numerous installations and his work was widely exhibited and published around the world. His first manifesto, Citizens of No Place, was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. The second draft of this book has been archived at the New Museum as part of the show “Younger than Jesus.”
www.bureau-spectacular.net

jimenez LAI, “BS”
intro. by herman diaz ALONSO
Wednesday, 11/07
7.00 pm / W.M. Keck Lecture Hall
SCI-Arc
960 East 3rd Street
Los Angeles, California 90013

lexington KENTUCKY

On Friday, September 28, Jimenez Lai of Bureau Spectacular, will give a lecture titled “BS” in which he will discuss the relationship between fiction, theory, representation, installation, and buildings. Jimenez Lai is an Assistant Professor at University of Illinois at Chicago and Leader of Bureau Spectacular. BUREAU SPECTACULAR imagines other worlds and engages the design of architecture through telling stories. Beautiful stories about character development, relationships, curiosities and attitudes; absurd stories about fake realities that invite enticing possibilities. . . .

jimenez LAI, “BS”
Friday, 09/28
5.00 pm / 209 Pence Hall
University of Kentucky
College of Design
Lexington, KY 40506

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chicago ILLINOIS

suckerPUNCH: Describe your project.

jimenez LAI: The White Elephant is roughly 10’x10’x10’. It has three basic premises:
A building inside a building, somewhere between a super-furniture and a small house.
An object that tumbles to attain multiple orientations to blur the qualification plans and sections.
An object that is hard on the outside, soft on the inside.

What is a building that can tumble freely without gravity or fixed orientations, hard on the outside but soft on the inside, and obstructs the continuity of interior spaces like an elephant in a room? This installation is a freestanding micro building / macro furniture that questions projection, inside/outside, rigidity/fluidity and size/scale.

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brooklyn NEW YORK

superhero: a pop-up exhibit with jimenez LAI

6pm - 8pm superfront presents superhero: a pop-up exhibit with jimenez LAI, curated by assistant curator jackie KOENIG, with additional installation coordination by maryana GRINSHPUN and seth LAUCKS.

the exhibit will open with a reception on april 10th at 6pm - 8pm immediately following the third mixtape workshop of the series presented at SUPERFRONT BK. artist talk facilitated by mitch MCEWEN at 6:30pm.

superhero will be on view from april 10 to may 9, 2010.