Francois Roche, co-founder/director of R&Sie(n) Architects, Paris, and visiting professor
at Columbia University, will speak at the Syracuse University School of Architecture
on Thursday, Oct. 16, at 6:30 p.m. in Slocum Hall Auditorium. His lecture, "BI[r]O-
BO[o]T/Ecosophical Apparatus + Skizoid Machines," is free and open to the public.
Roche was born in Paris in 1961 and originally trained and worked as a
mathematician. He later graduated from the School of Architecture of Versailles in
1987 and founded R&Sie(n) Architecture Studio in 1989 along with fellow French
architects Stephanie Llavaux and Jean Navarro. The studio has built a name for itself
with its investigative approach to architecture. It is currently focusing on developing
technological experiments, from which it can create architectural "scenarios." These
experiments are designed as forms of cartographic distortion or territorial mutations,
transforming nature into a dynamic element of the design. This organic approach is
concerned with linking the context with the building and human relations.
R&Sie(n) has exhibited its work at institutions around the world, including the Tate
M Modern, London; Columbia University; the Pompidou Center, Paris; the Museum
of Modern Art, New York; and MIT's Medialab. R&Sie(n) also exhibited for France at
the 1990, 1996 and 2000 Venice architectural biennales and was also featured in the
2000 and 2004 international selection.
Syracuse University School of Architecture is the fourth-oldest program in the United
States and is consistently rated among the top architecture schools in the country. In
2008, the school's undergraduate program was ranked third in the nation by
DesignIntelligence.
For more information, visit http://soa.syr.edu.
