The Architecture of Place: Florida, Atlanta, and Al Ain with Scott Merrill

Please note that this program will be held as a webinar over Zoom. Registration for today's event is still available. You will receive a Zoom link within an hour after registering.

The ICAA, INTBAU, and the Prince’s Foundation are pleased to announce a collaborative series of high-level online talks on ‘The Architecture of Place’.

Perhaps now more than ever before, we are all aware of the built environment that surrounds us, and of the impacts it has on the health of individuals, communities, and the planet. The Architecture of Place series brings together the established and emerging voices working to create a better built future. You can find more information on the full series here.

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This talk will focus on local forces that influence design, like climate, or the skills of the labor force, or the proximity of materials, or local culture; and larger forces--regional, national, and global--that are in constant tension with local forces. The goal of the talk is to help architects find a good balance between all these competing considerations, but it also addresses a question many of us face, which is whether we have the right--or the professional standing--to work in far-flung places that we don’t know as well as we know our own backyards.

The talk will start with Florida and work outward. Florida has always drawn in far-flung influences and managed to adapt them, assimilate them, and make them her own. Sometimes the result has been a circus, but sometimes it is exhilarating. One goal of the talk is to help avoid the circuses and to take advantage of the freedom this affords--without having a locale lose what makes it special, and without local places becoming anachronistic. The talk will look at the history of how regional and international influences have influenced Florida, and at provincial traditions that have withstood an onslaught of outside influences. The talk will emphasize the idea that we do not need to choose between these two; that both are part of our common inheritance, and that to ask people to choose only has the effect of making our inheritance smaller and more impoverished.

Since Florida has successfully assimilated many remote influences, and since outsiders have had such a positive influence on Florida architecture, the conclusion is that, if done intelligently and respectfully, architects can practice successfully in more far-flung places by drawing in appropriate measures from both local and remote traditions. Eight projects--four in Florida, one in SW Atlanta, and three in the Arabian Peninsula--will be used as case studies. All three places have a surprising number of things in common. They all face challenges that local traditions strain to solve, and the case studies will show, in very specific ways, how drawing from broader traditions can be constructive in solving new problems.

Learning Objectives

Please click here to view learning objectives for this program:

• Understand, through a series of case studies, ways in which significant, locale-dependent considerations for occupants' health and comfort--such as local climate--can be reconciled with broader design considerations.
• Consider, through specific case studies, ways in which local, regional, national, and international design traditions can be used in harmony to solve critical design challenges while simultaneously preserving local character--ensuring that challenges related to the health and safety of occupants are effectively resolved, while benefitting residents' emotional and social well-being by enhancing local character and increasing pride of place and community engagement.
• Explore the question of whether it is appropriate to design buildings in international locations and use design traditions outside of one's own, and consider how architects can practice successfully in places far outside of their home region without disrupting the local community's social and cultural engagement with their built environment by drawing in appropriate measures from both local and remote traditions - ensuring that inhabitants' social and emotional well-being is enhanced by the respectful and intelligent practice of design traditions.
• Look at the history of regional and international design influences on Florida, and ways in which provincial traditions have withstood an onslaught of outside influences; understand how both larger and smaller scale design influences are a part of our common inheritance, and how the human experience for inhabitants of cities is elevated by embracing both, promoting inhabitants' welfare.

Sponsors

The ICAA would like to thank The Benton Family Foundation for its generous support of this lecture series, along with series sponsor McCrery Architects.

Additional thanks to INTBAU's supporters for this series, Fairfax & Sammons, ADAM Architecture, and Size Group.

Additional thanks to The Prince's Foundation's supporter, Mr. Paul Beirne.

AIA Provider Information

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Instructional Delivery Method: Live Online Learning Program

Program Level: Introductory

AIA CES Program Approval Expiration Date: October 8, 2023

Provider Number: G193

Provider Statement: The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art is a registered provider of AIA-approved continuing education under Provider Number G193. All registered AIA CES Providers must comply with the AIA Standards for Continuing Education Programs. Any questions or concerns about this provider or this learning program may be sent to AIA CES ([email protected] or (800) AIA 3837, Option 3).

This learning program is registered with AIA CES for continuing professional education. As such, it does not include content that may be deemed or construed to be an approval or endorsement by the AIA of any material of construction or any method or manner of handling, using, distributing, or dealing in any material or product.

AIA continuing education credit has been reviewed and approved by AIA CES. Learners must complete the entire learning program to receive continuing education credit. AIA continuing education Learning Units earned upon completion of this course will be reported to AIA CES for AIA members. Certificates of Completion for both AIA members and non-AIA members are available upon request.