Talking Heads Lecture 6.0

Coy Howard is the principal of Coy Howard & Company. He holds a B.Arch. from the University of Texas and an M.Arch. from UCLA. His work has been published widely, and his awards include Progressive Architecture (PA) citations 1977, 1980; Architecture magazine Record House 1988; Woodworkers Institute of America Award 1986; Western Art Directors Club 1980. In 1999 his work was part of an exhibition at the Galleri Rom in Oslo. His Palevsky Residence and Ashley Residence, as well as designs for furniture, were published in Coy Howard: Enough About Me (1995).

Coy Howard served as the Chair for Environmental Arts at Otis College and as the Director of the Undergraduate Program at SCI-Arc (Southern California Institute of Architecture) where he continues to teach. He is renowned as being one of the leading teachers in the U.S. over the past thirty years, and his mentorship has produced a body of designers whose success has been established worldwide.

Talking Heads Lecture 3.0

MAP office is an open platform conceived by Laurent Gutierrez (1966, Casablanca) and Valérie Portefaix (1969, Saint-Etienne) to reform our daily practices and to reconstruct our life-world. Based in Hong Kong since 1996, both architects epitomize a new breed of architects who are rethinking the socio-political agencies of architecture. Their projects involve critical analyses of spatial and temporal anomalies and documentation of the ways in which human beings subvert and appropriate spaces for their own uses. A sense of play exists in much of their collaborative work, through a practice that includes text, drawing, photography, video and the creation of new platforms of communication. Running counter to the local architectural circle, MAP office’s mission is to bring forward a set of fresh alternatives to a region mainly preoccupied with “just-in-time” industrial production and efficiency.

Laurent Gutierrez is an Associate Professor, leading the Master in Design Strategies and the Environment and Interior Department, in the School of Design, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Valérie Portefaix is the principal of MAP office, and teaches in the Master in Design program, in the School of Design, at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

For more visit: http://www.map-office.com/

This is B.A.S.E.

Welcome to Beijing. This is B.A.S.E 2007.

B.A.S.E. has reopened its doors to students of Architecture and Planning under the thin shed roof of the 12 meter high, 625 meter space in the Urban Village of Cao Chang Di. Across the street from the artist (and now “architect”) Ai Weiwei, and amongst the fresh and substantive new Arts District, B.A.S.E. is situated in the epicenter of new creative thinking in Asia. The space is currently being subtly refreshed, “wired” wirelessly, equipped, and ready for early 21st century studio work. Within the space, under the curved ceiling will be- give or take - 30 participants.

Additionally, in the Spring of 2007, ACE Gallery www.acegallery.net, (Los Angeles, Beverly Hills, New York) will launch its Beijing Gallery in cooperation with B.A.S.E. in the space next door. ACE currently exhibits artists such as Robert Wilson, Tim Hawkinson, Charles Fine, Tara Donovan, Dennis Hopper, and Keith Sonnier, and has collaborated with the Guggenheim and the Whitney in curating exhibitions.
A set of courses will be laid on the table ready for action - courses of action leading to dis-course, recourse,“of course”, and other futures yet unknown. Interjections in the course of this ongoing work will take the form of events, performances, forums, exhibitions, happenings, parleys, pow wows, visitors, and treks out and back to the B.A.S.E..