Francis Kéré delivers keynote at ACSA 111th Annual Meeting

WashU’s Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts will serve as the host school and conference partner for the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) 111th Annual Meeting in downtown St. Louis March 30–April 1, 2023. Celebrated architect Francis Kéré, the 2022 Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate, will give a closing keynote April 1. He will also be honored with the Tau Sigma Delta Honor Society’s Gold Medal, recognizing his pioneering career, commitment to community, and inspiring vision. 

The ACSA plays a leading role in the architecture community, dedicated to leading education and research in the field, as well as preparing future architects, designers, and change agents. Their membership includes all accredited professional architecture degree programs in the US and Canada, representing 7,000 faculty educating more than 40,000 students.  

WashU’s Petra Kempf, assistant professor of architecture, has served on the steering committee for this year’s conference. “We are thrilled to partner with the ACSA for their annual meeting, IN COMMONS, here in St. Louis, said Kempf. “The theme of the conference couldn’t be timelier, as the design fields are at an exhilarating crossroads pertaining to the changing perception and reimagination of the cultural, political, economic, and environmental landscape unfolding right in front of us.”   

Several WashU faculty are involved in the conference, giving presentations, participating in panel discussions, and offering tours of community organizations and the Mississippi River watershed. Senior Lecturer Michael Allen, whose scholarly work seeks to reveal the ways in which the built environment encodes hegemonic and oppositional power relationships, economic histories, and granular imposition of statecraft, will take part in the opening keynote. 

WashU’s Sam Fox School is a leader in architecture, art, and design education. The school encompasses four academic units—the College of Architecture, Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, College of Art, and Graduate School of Art—and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, each of which has its own unique history. The Sam Fox School offers 15 unique degree programs for both graduate and undergraduate students, supplemented by a number of creative research centers, including Island Press and the Office for Socially Engaged Practice.  

For more information about WashU faculty presentations and activities, visit samfoxschool.wustl.edu.

To attend the conference and join us in St. Louis, please register at acsa-arch.org.