Architect David Ruy to Present 'Big Object, Small Object' Lecture on Nov. 7

Courtesy of Ruy Klein

TE-1, Bristol Bay, Alaska

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - David Ruy will present a lecture at 5 p.m. Monday, Nov. 7, 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.

Ruy is an architect, theorist and the director of Ruy Klein, a firm in Los Angeles. Encompassing a wide array of experimentation, Ruy Klein's projects study the mutual imbrications of artificial and natural regimes that are shaping an ever more synthetic world.

His lecture, titled "Big Object, Small Object," will focus on two recent projects by Ruy Klein – a big one and a small one. The big project is the firm's recent collaboration with a renewable energy company. The small project is their collaboration with synthetic biologists. Each project represents a different but related interest in what it might mean for people to intervene in the natural order through design.

It can be said that nature has always been the counterpart to architecture. Nature has been that which is beautifully framed by architecture, or that which wages battle with architecture, or that which humans need to be sheltered from with architecture. But what might it mean for nature to be modified or edited by architecture?

The two projects profiled in the lecture examine the theoretical and practical limits of architecture's collaborations with other fields of knowledge.

The work of Ruy Klein has been widely published and exhibited, and numerous awards have recognized the firm as one of the leading experimental practices in architecture today. Ruy Klein's work is in the permanent collection of the FRAC Centre in Orléans, France, and has been profiled in numerous surveys of contemporary architectural thought.

Ruy received a Master of Architecture from Columbia University and a bachelor's degree from St. John's College, where he studied philosophy and mathematics. He is currently the Chair of Postgraduate Programs at Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles.

This lecture qualifies for ASLA continuing education credits.

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

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