Spring 2025 lectures

Architects Rahul Mehrotra and Eric Höweler are among the internationally renowned architects, designers, and artists who will discuss their work for the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis this spring.

Uniting WashU’s academic units in art, architecture and design with its acclaimed Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, the Sam Fox School emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary issues and challenges, from climate change and sustainable design to the importance of local communities.

Many of the spring Public Lecture Series presenters will highlight themes relating to housing, climate resilience and social and environmental justice.

Events began January 24 with Miroslava Brooks and Daniel Markiewicz, founding partners of Forma in New York. Balancing architectural clarity with looseness and energy, the award-winning firm has developed an array of single- and multi-family homes as well as institutional, cultural and educational projects.

Alfonso Garduño, founder of G3 Arquitectos in Querétaro, Mexico, and the Sam Fox School’s spring Ruth & Norman Moore Visiting Professor, discussed his work January 27. 

On February 3, the Sam Fox School welcomed landscape architect and researcher Jane Hutton. Author of “Reciprocal Landscapes: Stories of Material Movements,” Hutton traces the flow and environmental impact of building materials, from production and transportation to construction, disposal and potential reuse.

Next, on February 14, was architect Eric Höweler, co-founder and partner of Höweler+Yoon. The award-winning Boston-based firm is known for projects that are at once socially engaged, conceptually rigorous and formally and technologically innovative.

Janette Kim, founding principal of All of the Above and co-director of the Urban Works Agency at the California College of the Arts, will speak February 24. Her practice—which ranges from buildings, books and board games to community and municipal partnerships—highlights the intersections of ecology, social equity and the built environment.

Concluding the series, on April 14, will be Rahul Mehrotra, founding principal of RMA Architects in Mumbai and Boston. A professor of urban design and planning at Harvard, Mehrotra has led dozens of projects across India, from urban land recycling to housing, boutiques, factories, social institutes and commercial buildings. Recent highlights include an artists’ retreat near Mumbai, a housing project for elephants and their caretakers in Jaipur and the JSW School of Public Policy in Ahmedabad.

Additionally, the series features lectures from artists such as Beatriz Cortez, Carson Ellis, EJ Hauser, Blas Isasi, and a panel discussion with Juan William Chávez, Carolina Caycedo, Ellie Irons and Anne Percoco. 

All events are free and open to the public and begin at 5:30pm Central time in the Sam Fox School’s Steinberg Hall unless otherwise noted. For more information, call T +1 314 935 9300 or visit samfoxschool.washu.edu.