Architect Jenni Reuter to Present 'Equality Quality' Lecture on Oct. 3

Helena Sandman

Women's Centre in Rufisque, Senegal.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Jenni Reuter will present a lecture at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 3, in Ken and Linda Sue Shollmier Hall, Room 250 of Vol Walker Hall, on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, as part of the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design lecture series.

Reuter is a principal with Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects in Helsinki, Finland, a firm that emphasizes building with time. When there is involvement of a community, the time between conception and delivery of a building is the time for gaining trust and letting the roots grow deep, for the building to be able to stand for a long time and have a long-term impact.

In her lecture, titled "Equality Quality," Reuter will discuss three public buildings in three different countries in Africa, each showing different aspects of architecture from the front.

The first project presented will be the firm's first building, the Women's Centre in Senegal, from 2001. Reuter will show the life of the building after it was finished, and how it has been used and changed. The second project discussed will be a Learning Centre for the Zabbaleen, the garbage collectors and masters of recycling of Cairo. The construction was interrupted by the revolution and has remained at a standstill. The third project is the Shelter for Victims of Domestic Violence in Moshi, Tanzania, the first phase of which was finished last year.

As Reuter presents each project, she will let the users tell their own stories of that building and how it has affected - or, in one case, would affect - their lives. Through all of this, Reuter will show that architecture can have an empowering impact.

Reuter is an associate professor in architectural principles and theory at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. She is a practicing architect both in her own office and working together with Saija Hollmén and Helena Sandman at Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects. They began their collaboration in 1995, with the Women's Centre project in Senegal.

Today, their activities span from exhibition design to urban planning. They work in Finland as well as with several underprivileged communities around the world. The group believes in innovation by investigation, where landscape, sensitivity toward materials and site-specific interventions are the means for a new architecture.

In 2007, they founded Ukumbi NGO, whose mission is to offer architectural services to communities in need. Their works have been honored with both national and international awards and have been published and exhibited widely. An exhibition of their firm's three projects mentioned above is currently part of the 2016 Venice Biennale, as the only Finnish participant.

This is the 2016 Dean's Lecture in Nordic Architecture, in promotion of the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

The public is invited to attend. Admission is free, with limited seating.

For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or visit fayjones.uark.edu.