Wednesday, October 30, 4-5 pm, GC7

Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012) was an architect devoted to the provocative and implicit possibilities of the built environment, and his body of work largely exists as impeccably detailed drawings and models of speculative architecture. His practice as an architect, while emphatically within the experimental and theoretical realm, pushed on our common perceptions of what architecture could do, both structurally and socially, and its capacities to instigate or facilitate a change in the way we view the potential of our buildings and cities. Acknowledging the parallels between society’s physical and psychological constraints, Woods depicted a career-long narrative of how these constructions shape our way of life and sought out ways to short-circuit the status quo. Joseph Becker is Associate Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.