Lance Hosey to Discuss 'How Beauty Could Save the Planet' in Feb. 20 Lecture

Photo Submitted

“Eco Loo,” a self-sustaining ecosystem of public convenience stations for New York City. Image courtesy of Lance Hosey.

Lance Hosey will present a lecture titled “How Beauty Could Save the Planet” at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 20 in Hembree Auditorium, in the Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences Building (Room 107E) at the University of Arkansas. Hosey is president and chief executive officer of GreenBlue, a nonprofit dedicated to sustainable innovation in design and production, in Charlottesville, Va.

An architect and designer, Hosey is a former director with William McDonough + Partners and a former columnist with Architect magazine. With Kira Gould, he is co-author of Women in Green: Voices of Sustainable Design (2007), the first book in the design industry to study the connections between diversity, innovation and the environment. His forthcoming book, The Shape of Green: Aesthetics, Ecology, and Design, demonstrates how form and image can enhance conservation and community at every scale of design, from products to cities.

Great design is a marriage of art and science, but so far green design has focused on science and neglected art. The Shape of Green examines how form and image can enhance conservation and comfort at every scale of design, including products, furniture, interiors, architecture, landscape and communities. Taking the principles of ecology to their inevitable conclusion could spark a revolution in aesthetics as well as ethics. Aesthetic attraction isn’t a superficial concern; it’s an environmental imperative. Beauty could save the planet.

This is the Polk Stanley Wilcox Sustainability Lecture in the 2011-12 Fay Jones School of Architecture lecture series.

Admission is free admission, with limited seating. For more information, contact 479-575-4704 or architecture.uark.edu.