Architecture for Humanity Director Eric Cesal Presents Lecture on Oct. 6

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Eric Cesal, who serves as the executive director of Architecture for Humanity, will present a lecture Oct. 6 in Vol Walker Hall. The temporary housing shown here, created after a natural disaster, is an example of what not to do. (Image courtesy Eric Cesal)

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Eric Cesal will present a lecture titled “Architecture and Universal Truth: Part One” at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 6 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 lecture series.

Cesal is an analyst, writer, designer, builder and humanitarian. He serves as the executive director of Architecture for Humanity, a global humanitarian design non-profit organization with chapters in 59 cities. Based in San Francisco, Cesal joined the group as a volunteer in 2006 to work on reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina.

Cesal, who grew up in Washington D.C., holds an undergraduate degree in Architectural Studies from Brown University, as well as a Master of Architecture, Master of Construction Management and Master of Business Administration, all from Washington University in St. Louis.

His memoir/manifesto Down Detour Road: An Architect in Search of Practice was published in 2010. The book is widely known as a roadmap for 21st century architecture. At the time of the book’s release, Cesal already had left the country to join Architecture for Humanity full time in Port au Prince, Haiti.

Over the course of two and a half years, Cesal established, led and grew Architecture for Humanity’s Haiti Rebuilding Center to have a staff of 30 architects, developers and planners. He relocated to San Francisco in 2012 to serve as the Reconstruction and Resiliency Studio Director, in which he led post-disaster operations of every type and scale across the world for Architecture for Humanity.

Cesal frequently publishes work, often internationally, on the intersections between humanitarianism and design. While he enjoys writing, he prefers spending his time working and serving.

Cesal’s lecture is the second installment of an ongoing lecture series. He will be discussing the relationship of architecture to contemporary global issues, such as climate change and mass urbanization, as seen through a lens of responsibility of civic responsibility and innovation.

The different strategies of innovation will be examined and celebrated in contemporary architectural discourse, as well as the relationship between the strategies and different waves of innovation in the 20th century. As the world presents new challenges, he considers whether architects will be part of the necessary solutions or just part of the problem.

This is the Mort Karp Memorial Lecture, sponsored by Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects.

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