Architects Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski will launch Nebraska’s 2017-18 Hyde Lecture Series with a 4 p.m. Sept. 15 talk in Richards Hall, Room 15.

The talk, “Diogenes Lantern,” will explore how irony, humor and critical theory can fuel teaching, publishing, designing spaces, and building and constructing ideas in search for an honest architecture.

The lecture title is a reference to Diogenes, the Greek philosopher known for holding a lantern to the faces of Athenian citizens claiming he was searching for an honest man. Garcia and Frankowski will examine the possibility of producing discourses, positions and projects that aim to shed light on the ignored, discarded and overlooked values.

The pair will challenge the audience to explore the role of architecture in today’s world through a different lens by rethinking the potential and limitations of alternative tools and strategies of representation for project creation.

Garcia and Frankowski are serving as the University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Architecture’s Hyde Chairs. They are co-founders of WAI Architecture Think Tank, a studio created to contribute to the collective intelligence of architecture by focusing on its understanding and execution from a panoramic approach. Since 2009, Garcia and Frankowski have been based in Beijing, where they collaborate in art and curatorial projects.

Recent projects include a shortlisted design for the National Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow; design of a boarding school for student-athletes in Puerto Rico; and designing several exhibition and research spaces in Beijing.

Nebraska’s Hyde Lecture Series is a long-standing, endowed public program. Each year the College of Architecture hosts compelling speakers in the fields of architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning that enrich the ongoing dialog around agendas which are paramount to the design disciplines and Nebraska graduates.

Learn more about the 2017-18 lecture series.