Lecture

Andy Ruff is the Research Director at Gray Organschi Architecture and the Timber City Research Initiative, where he focuses on developing a comprehensive approach for incorporating timber construction into cities, an approach which simultaneously addresses regional material flows, economies of carbon generation and sequestration, the development of new industrial processes, and the complex spatial, architectural, legal, and logistical challenges of constructing timber buildings in dense urban centers.

Architects do not make buildings, and they certainly do not make materials; they specify. The “out of stock” sign, often considered as a hiccup in procurement, is in fact a threshold where the ethical reach of architecture becomes visible, yet remains perpetually at risk of collapse.What if architecture is never fully available? What happens when specifying itself no longer leads directly to the production of a building? Drawing on 11 x 17’s recent projects, this lecture explores a material politics of “unavailability” and speculates on new modes of architectural practice that consider how form, material, and labor entangle to produce an architecture of resourcefulness. 

Reflections on Open Space: Metastable, precarious, resilient

This talk will outline a conceptual approach to current architecture offering precarious instruments that can indicate possible emerging realities.  A tough and resilient optimism can be expressed within new kinds of form-language that are delicate, and open. What is coming in our future? How can we speak of the future when the world seems almost unspeakably insecure?    

Guest lecture: Lina Lahiri, Sauerbruch Hutton

GVSA Summer Lecture

Megan Torza: Placemaking for an evolving Culture and Climate

Water, Relationality and Design: A Conversation on Climate and Indigenous Science

David Fortin, Professor, University of Waterloo School of Architecture
Kelsey Leonard, Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Waters, Climate and Sustainability, University of Waterloo

Thursday, February 27, 2025
6:00 pm, Cummings Lecture Theatre

The Elder's Lodge, Winter 2025 teaching series:

January 14 - The Haldimand Tract
January 21 - Creation
January 28 - The Great Law of Peace
February 4 - Clanology
February 11 - History of Six Nations of the Grand River
February 25 - Thanksgiving
March 4 - Condolence
March 11 - Frank Lloyd Wright: Native Soul
March 18 - The Grand River
March 25 - Midwinter
April 1 - Cycle of the Longhouse Ceremonies
April 8 - The Cosmology of the Longhouse

All teachings take place in the Musagetes Library Seminar Space from 12:30 - 1:30 PM.

Beyond the Build podcast hosts a special live taping of an episode profiling several Waterloo Architecture alumni in the Cummings Lecture Theatre on March 26, 2025.

Stephanie is a senior researcher at the Life Cycle Lab at the University of Washington. Her work investigates the interaction between the natural and constructed environment, including embodied carbon, life cycle assessment (LCA), urban ecology, landscape performance and supply chains and toxicity of building materials. Combining a background in environmental science and architectural design, she builds bridges between research and practice, bringing data-driven analysis and topical research to complex design problems.

Gena Wirth, RLA, is Design Principal and Partner at SCAPE. She works with cities, community advocates and landowners to reveal the immense ecological and cultural potential of public landscapes.