Professor Ann Pendleton-Jullian speaks at Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University

Knowlton School of Architecture; photo credit SAL

It 's hard to begin this post by not showing an image of the exterior of the Knowlton School of Architecture. The School hosts a Baumer Lecture Series both in the Fall & the Spring where many professionals are invited to come and offer cutting-edge lectures about their work & what is going on in the field of architecture.

Pendleton's Images of Guizhou, China

Ann Pendleton-Jullian's lecture was entitled, "new era, new frames," in which she describes what she believes to be the hot issues of our current year of existence/design both in the U.S. and in the World. In particular, I note current issues this "year" because Pendleton made an emphatic statement that the world is changing rapidly.

Pendleton's Image of a home she designed

Pendleton began by discussing the topic of "emergence," She began by describing a bit of what emergence is and then continued to state that planning for a world of emergence now is, what she calls a very "wicked problem." Wicked in the sense that every time you make an effort to solve the problem, the problem itself presents more issues/ and the problem becomes much more complicated.

Images of Pendleton's Numerous Projects

The best description of "emergence" she gave was the idea of the bird murmurings where you see flocks of birds traveling together in a complex, inter-dependent mode. Perhaps interdependency is one of the key topics Pendleton discussed. She showed a student project, that of Tom Brock, where he designed a community that had a set of "rules" that were then applied to the people who lived in the community and to those moving into the community. The most interesting aspect of his rules was that your personal home may or would need to change when your neighbors moved into the vicinity. A radical concept.

Pendleton's Image of Tom Brook's Project Regarding Regional Design & Carbon Capture

When Pendleton talked about emergence, she also noted that this conceptual idea influences a great many parts of our quotidian life. In particular, she observed that "you can now have more agency - you can now be your client." You can be your publisher, realtor, investor, media expert; you name it. The fact that she points this out, to me, is quite significant. We do need to, as architects, look at how roles are changing in our society. We are no longer so dependent on each other as we used to be. Each person has more power to make a change. How do you design for the individual who has more power than ever to map out their destiny?

Pendleton's Image of Tom Brook's Project Regarding Regional Design & Carbon Capture

I loved how Pendleton also talked about the layers of civilization as described by Stewart Brand. It takes a long time for "fashion" to make its way through society to invoke a cultural change. It took a long time for Martin Luther King, Jr. and all those who worked with him to make cultural changes. Perhaps Pendleton brought up this topic because she believes that the successful architect will even be able to make a prediction about what future generations will want/need in a building? If we can see what is going on now on the front lines of research, perhaps we can see what kinds of social change will occur?

Pendleton's Images of Venice & Le Corbusier's Hospital in Venice, designed in part by her late husband, Jullian

Pendleton was married to the late Jullian who was one of Le Corbusier's architects. She talked about how Le Corbusier ingested Venice before he began to design the hospital in Venice. He made numerous sketches, spent lots of time in the city before designing, and even made studies and observations about the lighting in this great city. LC explored the native city planning as well and paid attention to the San Marco Campanile and how it was not axial. LC then patterned his building after the city itself to make the building completely meaningful for the public who would use it later.

Pendleton's Images of bird murmurings about the concept of "emergence."

This blog barely scratches the surface of all that she had to present in approximately an hour and a half at the Knowlton School of Architecture at The Ohio State University. What an excellent addition to the team Pendleton has become for the architecture department.