The UB School of Architecture and Planning begins its fall semester lecture series this evening Wednesday, September 14 @ 5:30pm with Toronto Architect Philip Beesley. Beesley is head of his own design firm, Philip Beesley Architect Inc but he is actually as much teacher, artist, writer, and graphic designer as he is architect. All Lectures begin at 5:30 pm in Crosby Hall room 301 - South Campus. They are open to the public and free of charge. From the UB web site:
Inaugural Lecture in this year's Lecture Series, "Relocation." Philip Beesley will talk on "Limbic Places" and ask "How might architecture inspire our future? Can we see living qualities in emerging architecture?"
Philip Beesley practices digital media art and experimental architecture in Toronto. His creative work has focused on "field"‐oriented sculpture and landscape installations over the last two decades. He received a Bachelor of Fine Art from Queen's University in 1978 and received his professional degree in Architecture from the University of Toronto in 1986.
He maintains a practice that combines sculpture with public buildings, exhibitory and stage design. Distinctions for his work include the Prix de Rome in Architecture (Canada), a Governor‐General's award, an Allied Arts Medal from the RAIC, two Dora Mavor Moore Awards and three OAA Awards for Architectural Excellence. He frequently works within art collaboratives and was a founding member of the Kingston Artists Association, an ANNPAC parallel gallery.
In parallel with his sculpture work he teaches architecture at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Cambridge, Ontario, and is co‐director of Waterloo's Integrated Centre for Manufacturing, Visualization and Design, a facility combining high‐performance computing and automated manufacturing of architectural components.
I write this in fear of censorship but what the heck...
Beesley's stuff can be a little frilly, but his work on geotextiles is downright sick. He has largely been, until recently, overlooked in n. america for explainable reasons, plus he's a cool guy in person.