Free lecture from famed international architect James Timberlake

By Design Daily Team, May 2, 2011 @ 3:21 pm

Helping rehouse the victims of Hurricane Katrina is quite the achievement. Founding partner of the Philadelphia-based architecture firm KieranTimberlake, James Timberlake, took to the task whole heartedly when Brad Pitt commissioned his practice (one of 13 chosen) to develop designs for affordable homes in New Orleans. And the lessons learnt from that experience will be translated as part of a free lecture in Christchurch this week by Timberlake, who is currently in New Zealand as the international guest judge in HOME New Zealand magazine’s Home of the Year award. 

When asked about reshaping the built environment after such a catastrophe, James is clear to point out that although he only knows Christchurch from pictures and descriptions “ … perhaps the way to look at any disaster, after the loss and sadness, is to treat it as an opportunity. It begins with questions, or queries.” 

Date: Thursday 5 May

Time: 6.30pm

Where: DL Lecture Theatre, CPIT, Madras Street (entrance off the D Block Quad) 

More about James Timberlake 

Timberlake received a Bachelor of Environmental Science from the University of Detroit, and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. He is a recipient of the Rome Prize. 

His practice KieranTimberlake is noted for its fusion of research with architecture, receiving over one hundred design citations including the 2008 Architecture Firm Award from the American Institute of Architects, and the 2010 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for Architecture from the Smithsonian Institution. 

In addition to his architectural practice, James teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Design. He has held visiting professorships at the University of Washington, Yale University, the University of Michigan and the University of Texas at Austin, among other institutions. He lectures extensively in the United States and abroad.

James and his partner, Stephen Kieran, received the first Benjamin Latrobe Fellowship for architectural design research from the AIA College of Fellows in 2001. They have co-authored several books, including Manual: The Architecture of KieranTimberlake, refabricating Architecture, which examines how manufacturing methodologies are poised to transform building construction, and Loblolly House: Elements of a New Architecture, a case study of a single building which shows a way forward to quality, productivity and sustainability.
 
James is currently involved in the design of the new Embassy of the United States of America, London, the Brockman Hall for Physics, Rice University, Texas, the Center City Building, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, the Revelle College Apartments, University of California at San Diego, and the Delaware River Master Plan, Philadelphia.

Rendering of US Embassy in London

New Orleans rendering