Rensselaer Architecture is pleased to announce its lecture series for spring 2026. All events start 5:00pm at EMPAC Theater, admission is free.   Levent Ozruh Beginning at the End Wednesday, January 14 Levent Ozruh is the founder and director of OZRUH, a London-based architectural studio exploring material-driven, adaptive design through research-led practice. His work challenges conventional architectural permanence by developing systems that evolve through change – bridging advanced manufacturing, elemental material cycles, and open-ended spatial strategies. OZRUH is deeply inspired by the principles of evolution and diversity in nature, driving us to venture beyond the traditional confines of manual and analog human creativity. Their pursuit is aimed at harnessing the intrinsic diversity and richness offered by nature’s evolutionary processes, proposing an architectural ethos that is pluralistic rather than idealistic. Ozruh works through algorithmic design and custom fabrication to develop systems that emerge from matter, not impose form onto it. By simulating physical behaviours – like erosion, aggregation, or decay – they grow architectures that adapt, recombine, and mature over time. Ozruh is a Design Expert at the UK Design Council, advising on national priorities in sustainable innovation, and has contributed to the European Space Agency’s lunar architecture strategy as part of Hassell’s Space Architecture team. His design research has been exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Barbican Centre, Royal Academy of Arts, and the London Design Festival. Ozruh studied architecture at University of Edinburgh, the Bartlett (UCL), and the AA School of Architecture. He has conducted research at MIT’s Senseable City Lab and taught across leading academic institutions, including the Bartlett, IAAC, and the Architectural Association, where he currently directs the Moonshot Visiting School https://ozruh.co.uk/     Cecilia Puga / Paula Velasco Arquitectura Some character in search for an author Wednesday, January 28 Cecilia Puga is co-director and co-founder of Cecilia Puga – Paula Velasco Arquitectura, a practice that connects independent professionals from various disciplines and specialties. Through international competitions, the studio has been in charge of the new headquarters of Chile’s Ministry of Cultures and Heritage, the infrastructure design project for Queulat National Park, and the master plan and preliminary project for Punta Arenas’ International Passenger Terminal. Recently, they obtained first place in a public competition to design The National Archive Building in Valparaiso, Chile. Puga has developed her professional practice in Santiago since 1995, where she has carried out design projects at different scales and programs, from single-family homes—most notably the House in Bahia Azul, to collective housing, educational and industrial equipment, and urban design such as the renovation of public spaces in Cerro Toro. She has developed her academic activity at Universidad Católica de Santiago, ETH Zurich’s School of Architecture, University of Texas at Austin, Harvard GSD, and Barcelona Institute of Architecture. Her work has been featured in several national and international specialized publications, including the 53rd issue of journal 2G which was dedicated to her work. Her office was one of the 100 offices around the world selected by Herzog & De Meuron to design a villa in Inner Mongolia, within the context of the Ordos 100 project, led by artist Ai Wei Wei.     Florian Idenburg / Solid Objectives (SO–IL) Once Again, but This Time with More Feeling Mike Wacholder Memorial Lecture Wednesday, February 4 Florian Idenburg is an internationally renowned Dutch architect with over two decades of professional experience. After learning the ropes in Amsterdam and Tokyo, he founded SO–IL in 2008 together with Jing Liu. His years of working in cross-cultural settings make Florian a thoughtful and collaborative partner. With a joyous demeanor, he pursues innovation through working together. He has a particularly strong background in institutional spaces, leading the office on projects as Kukje Gallery and the Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis as well as Amant in Brooklyn. His strength lies in generating imaginative ideas and transforming those into real-world spaces and objects. Idenburg has a strong intuition for the orchestration of form, material, and light, and enjoys developing projects to a level where those elements become places for people to experience and use. He combines a hands-on approach with a theoretical drive, sharing this creative spirit with clients, collaborators, and students. A frequent speaker at institutions around the world, he has taught at Harvard, MIT, Columbia, and Princeton University and is currently a Professor of Practice at Cornell University. In 2010, Idenburg received the Charlotte Köhler Prize from the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. He is a registered architect in the Netherlands and an International Associate of the American Institute of Architects. https://solidobjectives.com/     Sou Fujimoto Between Nature and Architecture Kenneth L. Warriner Memorial Lecture Wednesday, February 11 Sou Fujimoto established his own architectural practice in 2000. His work quickly gained recognition for its unique approach, blending nature, architecture, and human interaction in a harmonious and sometimes provocative manner. His designs often explore the relationship between inside and outside spaces, as well as the boundaries between nature and built environments. He designed the Serpentine Pavilion in London in 2013. The pavilion, a delicate lattice of white steel, is a prime example of his philosophy of creating spaces that evoke both natural and artificial environments simultaneously. The structure blurs the lines between architecture and nature, creating a transparent, cloud-like space that invites visitors to explore its ambiguous boundaries. Other notable projects include House N in Oita, Japan, a residential project that features a series of nested boxes with varying degrees of openness, and the Musashino Art University Museum & Library, which is characterized by its labyrinthine interior and extensive use of bookshelves as structural elements. Sou Fujimoto is a frequent lecturer and has taught at various institutions both in Japan and abroad. His work has been exhibited internationally and he has received numerous awards, including the Japan Institute of Architects Grand Prix and the Wallpaper Design Award. He studied architecture at the University of Tokyo, graduating in 1994. https://www.sou-fujimoto.net/     Javier Senosiain Organic Architecture Wednesday, March 11  Javier Senosiain is a Mexican architect known to be one of the first architects to design organic architecture in Mexico. He is a graduate from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and has served as an architecture professor at the university. Throughout his career he has worked with different areas of architecture, but he specialized in Organic Architecture. He is the founder of the Organic Architecture firm in Mexico City, which has been responsible for designing offices, houses, factories, and co-ops. He is also the author of two books called Bioarquitectura and Arquitectura Organica. Casa Orgánica (Organic House), 1985, which he built for his family as an experiment in organic architecture—and which is now publicly accessible by appointment—has become an archetype of the possibilities of contemporary cave living. The organic house was born of the idea of creating a space suited to human beings, adapted to their environmental, physical, and psychological needs, which takes into account both their natural origins and their historical background. Senosiain’s almost incomprehensibly vast El Nido de Quetzalcóatl (The Nest of Quetzalcóatl), 1998–2007, in contrast to the domestic comforts of Casa Orgánica, is a still-developing organic architecture theme park. The design is executed on a lot measuring 5,000 square meters, with a very irregular topography owing to the oak-filled ravine that crosses it lengthwise. Senosiain’s interest in building organically, which he does principally in formed concrete, extends to a wide range of models and systems patterned on nature. What they all share is a quality of emerging from, and/or nestling into, the earth. In 2022, Javier Senosiain debuted a large mosaic-covered serpent installation in the exhibition “In praise of Caves” at the Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum in Long Island City, New York. https://www.arquitecturaorganica.com/