Ekdahl Lecture History

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Lecture Title: Interior Design: Furniture Design

Description: With a deep understanding of the modern workplace, combined with a respect for history, designer Brian Graham explains how thinking like an interior designer informs the creation of his new furniture designs. From his start as an interior designer for corporate giant Gensler to an independent furniture designer working for some of the best brands in the industry, Brian uses rich visual images combined with a wry sense of humor to deliver an inspiring design talk. Subjects covered include where his inspiration comes from; the importance he places on establishing mentors in your career; the process he’s refined of reading & reacting to evolving workplace trends that informs his development of new products, and much more.

Best known for elegant case goods and distinctive seating collections, Brian is involved in a wide range of genres, consulting across disciplines and crafting integrated design programs for his clients. Brian received a BFA in Interior Architecture at California State University, Long Beach, where he also served as an adjunct professor. In 1999, he established the Graham Design Studio in San Francisco to offer a strategic approach to the design, development, and marketing of products.

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Lecture Title: The Africatown International Design Idea Competition So NOW What's the Story?

Description: Renee Kemp-Rotan, Master Planner, Urban design, Professional Competition Advisor will present The process behind her development of the multi-site INTERNATIONAL design challenge to resolve the most critical issues in preservation of this unique 1865 African built community, from conflicts between American slavery and freedmen-built towns; public health and environmental protection; public and private cultural heritage agendas; African-centric architecture and zoning; site control and implementation; to the creation of the Africatown Cultural Mile as a cultural tourism/ economic development engine that revitalizes the grossly underserved population of Africatown. In 2019, Clotilda the Slave Ship was ‘discovered’ in Mobile Bay. Now, there is international interest in this unique American place built by Africans at the end of the civil war…This is a tale of American slavery, 2 southern cities, 1 town, and many African descendants…. In 1860, 110 Africans were brought from Benin/Dahomey/Nigeria/ to Mobile/Bay, Alabama on the Clotilda, the last slave cargo ship to come to America. In 1865, after 5 years of enslavement, Clotilda Africans were emancipated;32 freed slaves then built their own town called Africatown. Today, vestiges of this unique African/American settlement remain, spread across multiple waterways & 2 Alabama cities Prichard & Mobile. What once was an African town– is now an African/American descendant neighborhood in poor repair—a unique American place, threatened by generations of benign neglect…Now, The Africatown International Design Idea Competition aims to resolve longstanding issues about spatial, social and economic justice for the underserved descendants of historic Africatown, Alabama.

Renee Kemp-Rotan, CEO studiorotan, Urban Designer, Master planner; 1st African American woman Syracuse, B. Arch.; Architectural Association, London, RIBA II; Columbia, MSUP; Taught Design: Howard University, Parsons School of Design, Georgia Tech Graduate Design Studio; Lectured: National Museum African American History Culture, Sorbonne, Cairo University, MIT, Harvard, Cooper Hewitt, Howard, Hampton, FAMU, Georgia Tech, Auburn, Tuskegee ; Contributing Editor, Encyclopedia World Vernacular Architecture , Cambridge. Directed AIA Design, Education, Practice Division, National Endowment Arts’ Design Demonstration/Competition Programs; Master Planner 1996 Olympics Atlanta; Mayors Liaison: Atlanta Aquarium, Olympic Park, Philips Arena: Chief of Urban Design Urban Development Atlanta; Director of Economic Development Atlanta; Birmingham/Office of Mayor :Director of Capital Projects; Founder and Director of Grants Division Birmingham: RR Park, Civil Rights Trail, Spark@Sloss; Directs Africatown International Design Idea Competition, Mobile Alabama. Bio in African American National Biography, Harvard/Oxford University Archives.

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Lecture Title: Modern Design Methods for Twenty-First Century Challenges

Description: Vanka will present, "Modern Design Methods for Twenty-First Century Challenges." The design of digital products borrowed proven methods from the discipline of architecture. However, the 21st-century need to serve billions of customers at high velocity has birthed novel approaches that merge fields such as ethnography, cognitive science and experimental psychology. To design for a complex world, venerable disciplines like architecture can now adopt and adapt these modern hybrid methods, including service design, inclusive design, and data-driven design.

Vanka is a designer, educator and author who leads AUTHENTIC, a design studio that focuses on design strategy, UX, futures prototyping, service design and interaction design. He has been at the leading edge of physical and digital experiences for more than 25 years. He served as director of user experience at Microsoft, a tenured professor of design at the University of Illinois and a fellow at the prestigious Center for Advanced Study. Vanka has authored design books and other publications; lectured in more than 20 countries; and earned several industry awards. He's also the chair of the Industrial Designers Society of America's 50th anniversary International Conference, set for August in Seattle.

"Design has become synonymous with innovation," Vanka said. "Corporations are betting on design leaders to show a path through unprecedented technological upheaval, heightened global competitiveness and radical business disruption. Professionals from other disciplines are augmenting their business and engineering backgrounds with a design-thinking mindset to become the new breed of corporate design leaders. To thrive and lead, designers, too, must supplement their own design skills with data-driven approaches, particularly of the metrics that matter. They must know the why, what, when and how to measure, and use that insight to manage change and drive design decisions."

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Lecture Title: Formats

Description: Licensed by the American Institute of Architects and certified through the National Council of Architectural Registration Boards, Forrest received his bachelor's degree and master's degree in architecture from Princeton University. In addition to running the practice, he is an associate professor of architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. Forrest has taught studios at the University of Pennsylvania and Princeton University. He has extensive professional experience, having practiced in New York with Bernheimer Architecture and Guy Nordenson and Associates Structural Engineers, and in Madrid with Ábalos & Herreros Arquitectos. He was also a designer-in-residence at MoMA/PS1 for the Rising Currents exhibition.

Led by Forrest and Yasmin Vobis, Ultramoderne is an award-winning architecture and design firm in Providence, Rhode Island. The office is committed to creating architecture and public spaces that are at once modern, playful and generous. The office has experience working at a wide variety of scales, from single-family residences to urban-scale planning. Clients include the Van Alen Institute, the US National Park Service, Chicago Parks District, the Architectural League of New York, the Southside Cultural Center of Rhode Island, and the city of Central Falls.

Ultramoderne regularly participates in high-profile architectural competitions, with winning entries for the Chicago Lakefront Kiosk competition in 2015 and the Central Falls Affordable Housing competition in 2017. The office was selected as a finalist for MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program in 2016 and for the Philadelphia Contemporary museum competition in 2018. Its work has been published nationally and internationally, and Forrest and Vobis regularly discuss Ultramoderne's work for professional and academic audiences. Awards include the Architectural League Prize, an Architect Magazine R+D Award, and multiple awards from the American Institute of Architects. The office was recently recognized as "Next Progressives" by Architect Magazine.

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Lecture Title: Just Design: Building more equitable futures through landscape architecture and urban planning

Description: Odbert believes in the potential of low-cost, high-impact design interventions to improve the physical, economic, and social quality of life in low-income communities. She has extensive field experience through her work in Africa, Latin America and the U.S. Having shaped Kounkuey Design Initiative into an internationally recognized  and award-winning design, planning and community development firm, she lectures and speaks around the world and writes about the initiative's community-engaged approach to planning and design.

Kounkuey Design Initiative is a community development and design nonprofit. They partner with under-resourced communities to advance equity and activate the unrealized potential in their neighborhoods and cities.

Odbert's experience and expertise cover a range of topics from leadership, participatory planning and social entrepreneurship to urban development, environmental remediation and social impact design. She has lectured and written about the initiative's community-engaged approach to planning in the U.S. and abroad, and has been recognized by the Van Alen Institute, American Express and the Aspen Institute.

Odbert holds a Bachelor of Arts from Claremont McKenna College, where she graduated with magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa honors. She received her Master of Urban Planning from Harvard University.

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Lecture Title: Planning for just and sustainable communities: Reflections on food systems and climate action planning in the Pacfic Northwest

Description: Megan’s research interests are in the relationship between food systems and planning, particularly focused on questions related to public policy and planning and food justice, sustainable food systems, farmland conservation, and access/ownership of resource lands. Megan co-directs the Sustainable Food Systems certificate. Her work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of the American Planning Association, Journal of Planning Theory and Practice, Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development.

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Lecture Title: Inspiration in Public Practice

Description: David Fletcher, founding principal and owner of Fletcher Studio and registered landscape architect, will present "Inspiration in Public Practice" as part of the Kansas State University  College of Architecture, Planning & Design Ekdahl Lecture Series at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 4, in the Regnier Forum of Regnier Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

Fletcher will present recent public projects, with an emphasis on concept development and design process. His research and writings address infrastructure, ecology and landscape urbanism. Fletcher's practice ranges from strategic site design to regional planning, with an emphasis on performance and process. The firm is committed to a collaborative and contextual approach to spatial design practice, and to the design of performative landscapes, urban spaces and living infrastructures.

Fletcher Studio has been named finalist and winner in a number of international open space design and planning competitions. The firm recently won the Urban: Revision Dallas competition and placed second in "A New Infrastructure," sponsored by SCI_Arc. Current and recent work includes alternative transportation networks, green streets, public parks, reclamation projects and waterfronts. Fletcher has taught at the Harvard Design School, SCI-Arc, Woodbury and Otis College, where he was the assistant chair of architecture.