Zachary Tate Porter: Cuts and Fills: Constructing a Discourse on Ground

How have architects conceived of the relationship between building and ground? Why are some structures embedded within the earth, while others float above? Should contemporary architects strive for continuity with the surrounding landscape or emphasize the discreteness of architectural form? What ideological frameworks underlie these various approaches? 

Featuring L.A.-based educator, designer, and historian Zachary Tate Porter, this lecture will trace these questions and others through a discussion of four distinct activities—teaching, curating, designing, and writing—undertaken at SCI-Arc during a yearlong fellowship. Weaving together these diverse pursuits, Porter will demonstrate a multimodal approach to architectural scholarship and speculation. Much like a topographic landscape, the discourse on ground has its own peaks, valleys, and craters. Porter’s research engages this theoretical landscape in order to produce a vocabulary for articulating contemporary positions on the relationship between building and ground.

More info here.