Renowned Architectural Theorist to Give Public Lecture
April 9, 2007
Renowned architectural theorist Alberto Péréz-Gomez, Institute for the Arts and Humanities Distinguished Visiting Fellow, will give a free public lecture, “Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics,” at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 11, in the Stuckeman Family Building on the University Park campus. This is the final lecture in the 2006–07 Architecture Lecture Series and is co-sponsored by the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
This lecture is a philosophical meditation about the connections among beauty and justice, ethics, and poetics in architecture, both in practice and education. Pérez-Goméz will try to show how the assumed opposition between a quest for beauty and that for the common good is a false presumption. This application of theory is urgent in view of our complex political environment and the prevailing obsession with digital tools at the expense of serious thinking.
Pérez-Gómez was born in Mexico City in 1949, where he studied architecture and practiced. He did postgraduate work at Cornell University, and received an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Essex (England). He has taught at universities in Mexico, Houston, Syracuse, Toronto, and at London's Architectural Association. In 1983 he became director of Carleton University's School of Architecture. He has lectured extensively around the world and is the author of numerous articles published in major periodicals and books. He is also co-editor of the series CHORA: Intervals in the Philosophy of Architecture.
In January 1987, Pérez-Gómez was appointed Bronfman Professor of Architectural History at McGill University, where he chairs the history and theory division, and is currently director of post-professional (master's and doctoral) programs.
His book, Architecture and the Crisis of Modern Science (MIT Press, 1983), won the Hitchcock Award in 1984. Later books include the erotic narrative theory Polyphilo or the Dark Forest Revisited (1992) and Architectural Representation and the Perspective Hinge (co-authored with Louise Pelletier, 1997), which traces the history and theory of modern European architectural representation.
His latest book is Built upon Love: Architectural Longing after Ethics and Aesthetics (MIT Press, 2006), in which he examines points of convergence between ethics and poetics in architectural history and philosophy, and draws important conclusions for contemporary practice. Pérez-Gómez will be signing copies of this book following the lecture. Copies will be available for sale, at a discount, before and after his presentation.
AIA/Continuing Education Units are available for this lecture.
Contact: Lisa Iulo, ldi1@psu.edu