Elisapeta Heta (Ngātiwai, Waikato Tainui, Sāmoa from Aotearoa New Zealand) and Chris Cornelius (citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, North America) will discuss their experiences as Indigenous designers, comparing and expanding upon their practice and the methods by which they’re seeking to change the built environment and embed a stronger relationship to place through their Indigenous worldviews. Heta and Cornelius will share case studies to present an overview of each studio’s philosophy and material propositions, and explain how their philosophies are translated across different tectonic terrains and environments.

Following their presentations, Heta and Cornelius will engage in a conversation moderated by emerging practitioner Zoë Toledo (Diné Navajo), that compares and expands on their experience and aspirations for the future. Following this initial moderated conversation, the event will be opened for Audience Q & A .

This program brings together over a dozen architects practicing across Latin America, from Mexico to Argentina. Conceived as a complement to CAMPUS AULA: Educational Architecture in Latin America, currently on view at the Center for Architecture, "Latitudes" will highlight Latin American architects, focusing on projects beyond the educational typology. This will be a hybrid program, with a live audience and keynote by Enrique Norten and several participants presenting via Zoom from their home countries. The architects include established firms as well as emerging talents, each of whom will focus their presentations on regional social and cultural issues and how they are using design to address them. A Q&A discussion will follow the presentations.

During this evening event, Zhu Pei will present recent work by Beijing-based Studio Zhu Pei, including the Imperial Kiln Museum, the Majiayao Ruins Museum Observatory, and the Zibo Art Center. The featured projects will guide attendees through an overview of the studio’s philosophy and material propositions, explaining how this philosophy is translated across different tectonic terrains with material integrity. The lecture will be followed by a conversation with Martino Stierli, MoMA's Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, on the significance of the architectural and tectonic experiments presented. Copies of the book Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Museum (The Images Publishing Group, 2023) will be available for sale after the event.

Join us for an hour-long discussion between educator and design critic Nicolai Ouroussoff and Sarah Whiting, Dean and Josep Lluís Sert Professor of Architecture at Harvard University Graduate School of Design. The discussion will explore topics of globalism and its ramifications for and influences on a broad spectrum of the design practices, from landscape to urban planning. These topics are presented in the recently published Today’s Global, Harvard Design Magazines 50 for which Whiting was a guest editor and Ouroussoff was a contributor.

A select group of emerging professionals from New York City and Hong Kong will discuss their architectural practices. The practices all share in common that they actively seek to redefine the role of the architect within the public realm and find innovative ways to design for communities and (non-commercial) stakeholders, engage broader audiences, and raise awareness of pressing topics in their respective cities. The projects to be presented demonstrate varying models of engaging a range of constituents, creatively establishing alliances with both commercial and non-commercial partners, and help build institutions with a wide public purpose. The event will be simultaneously hosted by AIANY and the Chapter of AIA in Hong Kong and will be moderated by Grace Liao of KPF in New York and Nicolas Medrano of SOM in Hong Kong.

Li Hu and Huang Wenjing will present recent public and cultural projects by the New York City- and Beijing-based design practice OPEN Architecture, including those included in the new book Reinventing Cultural Architecture: A Radical Vision by OPEN (Rizzoli, 2022). Besides the unique struggles and breakthroughs associated with each project, Li and Huang will share how they see architecture as the means to connect—with different people, with nature and, ultimately, with ourselves.

The lecture will be followed by a conversation with Martino Stierli, MoMA's Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture and Design, where the speakers will share their respective views on cultural architecture today with an eye on the future.

The post-Independence project of nation-building in South Asia (the countries that are now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka) after 1947 was marked by architecture that was often influenced by the International Style led by architects patronized by the newly-formed sovereign states. The current exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The Project of Independence: Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947–1985, notes that while the predominant mode of design was defined by the principles of high modernism, there existed parallel design movements by architects who sought to utilize local materials, knowledge of indigenous craftsmanship, and motifs from pre-colonial culture.

Global cities face a series of challenges that require evermore innovative design solutions from the designers working within them. From Mexico City to Mumbai and New York to Nanjing, cosmopolitan metropolises are confronted by climate change, shortage of quality affordable housing, and the need to create more meaningful and inclusive public spaces. Furthermore, cities are experiencing increases in immigration, the ongoing transformations from industrial to technological economies, and a need to continue to foster cultural, technological, and social innovation often against backdrops of rising populism and nationalism. Design is pulled between dual poles of the hyper-local and the super-global—solutions that are site-specific and emblematic of emerging paradigms. Global cities, global designers, global challenges—in 2019, the AIANY Global Dialogues Committee travels abroad, city by city, to explore how design is helping cities evolve.