The official trajectory of this talk, in which architect Sheila Kennedy presents recent projects of KVA Matx, will be hijacked by the introduction of a stealth agenda that reflects on the predicament(s) of contemporary material culture in the practice of architecture.
Mix, Mix, Max, Min explores a set of provisional, overlapping material strategies. These include the hybridization of old/new and static/active materials in works of architecture, the architectural cross breeding of natural, virtual and constructed ‘categories’ of matter, and design that maximizes the density of material experience and eliminates it.
Questions of materiality in architecture have been largely transparent in practice, in that we tend to think more (or first) about other issues than choices of material. The materials that make up our environment are assumed to be neutral, inert and available for us to assemble and organize as the given “stuff” out of which the built environment is designed and constructed.
Sheila Kennedy, FAIA
Professor of the Practice, MIT Architecture and a Principal of Kennedy & Violich Architecture Ltd. (KVA)
Sheila Kennedy is Professor of the Practice of Architecture at MIT, and was Associate Professor at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design, acting as Director of the M Arch II Program from 1991-1995. As a Principal of Kennedy & Violich Architecture Ltd. (KVA), over 15 years Sheila Kennedy has established an internationally recognized design practice that explores architecture, digital technology and emerging public needs. Designated as one of Fast Company’s Masters of Design, Kennedy is described as an “insightful and original thinker who is designing new ways of working, learning, leading and innovating”.
