LITTLE ROCK – Gabriel Diaz Montemayor will present a lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 5, at the Arkansas Arts Center, 501 E. Ninth St., in Little Rock. The lecture will follow a 5:30 p.m. reception.

This lecture is part of the Architecture and Design Network's 2018-2019 June Freeman Lecture Series.

Diaz Montemayor, ASLA, is an assistant professor of landscape architecture in the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin and co-founder of LABOR Studio in Chihuahua, Mexico. During the spring 2019 semester, he is also the Verna C. Garvan Distinguished Visiting Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas.

This lecture dives into the discipline and profession of landscape architecture by analyzing a double context: first, the larger context of the Latin American continent, and second, Mexico as a specific context. Diaz Montemayor will present these findings with his lecture, titled "Landscape Architecture Now! Case Studies in Mexico and Latin America." 

The discipline and profession of landscape architecture is not the same in Latin America as in the United States, and it should not be the same. A brief historic chronology will be traced to explain the different origins and meaning of public space in this continent while addressing the need to identify the unique national and regional differences, avoiding common generalizations. Recent project case studies will be synthesized to portray the current condition of the discipline in the Latin American context.

The contemporary condition of public space in Mexico will be explained as one of the unique conditions assembling the Latin American mosaic. The country has recently gone through dramatic changes in public life, society, culture and politics. A set of case studies in landscape architecture and public space, in which Diaz Montemayor has been involved in different capacities, will be used to explain the challenges and opportunities for landscape architecture in Mexico.

The Mexican projects include applied academic studios trying to fill the void between the planning and the implementation of public infrastructure projects needing landscape architectural methods and matter. These will also include professional public space commissions based on community reconstruction, engagement and participation. Both applied studios and professional projects operate in a third context, northern Mexico. This will lead to a final proposition reflecting on a potential future for the border region between the United States and Mexico, one in which societies are reconciled with their common ground.

Diaz Montemayor is an architect educated at the School of the Desert: The Superior Institute of Architecture and Design (ISAD) at Chihuahua, Mexico. He holds an architect degree from the Autonomous University of Chihuahua, Mexico, and received his Master of Landscape Architecture from Auburn University in 2007. Diaz Montemayor co-founded LABOR Studio, an architecture, urban design and landscape architecture practice based in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 2002. The studio has engaged in a variety of private and public commissions.

The 2018-18 June Freeman Lecture Series is sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network with support from the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Arkansas section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and community members.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and no reservations are needed.

For more information, contact Laura Hendrix at 501-840-6171 or lhendrix@polkstanleywilcox.com.