Hybrid Landscapes, A Lecture by Walter Hood

In this lecture the renowned landscape designer and artist Walter Hood, principal of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California, and professor of architecture at the University of California, Berkeley, will discuss some of his recent innovative projects, including urban spaces, landscape design, and public art. In each of them, past and future matter equally, complicating the ways we understand memory of space and its revitalization in the present. 

In each of them, past and future matter equally, complicating the ways we understand memory of space and its revitalization in the present. The lens through which he will illuminate his own work is that of postcolonialism, drawing on such influential theorists as W. E. B. Du Bois, W. J. T. Mitchell, and Robert J. C. Young. In doing so, he will emphasize our current critical postcolonial moment, probing how concepts such as hybridity and difference may interrogate the design of public landscapes. The program will feature live closed captions in English.

The program is free, but registration is required. Register here >> 

The event will also be livestreamed to the Sam Fox School Facebook page. This lecture is cosponsored by the Harris Armstrong Fund, Graduate School of Architecture & Urban Design, the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor for Civic Affairs and Strategic Planning, and the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum.

Presented by the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, In Conversation is a series of live online talks with artists, art historians, and scholars, exploring the intersections of art, history, and contemporary life. Bring your own questions and insights to these lively discussions from wherever you are.

About the Speaker:

Walter Hood is the creative director and founder of Hood Design Studio in Oakland, California. Hood Design Studio is a cultural practice, working across art, fabrication, design, landscape, research, and urbanism. Hood is also the David K. Woo Chair and professor of landscape architecture and environmental planning at the University of California, Berkeley. He lectures on and exhibits professional and theoretical projects nationally and internationally. He was recently the Spring 2020 Diana Balmori Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture.

Hood creates urban spaces that resonate with and enrich the lives of current residents while also honoring communal histories. He melds architectural and fine arts expertise with a commitment to designing ecologically sustainable public spaces that empower marginalized communities. Over his career he has transformed traffic islands, vacant lots, and freeway underpasses into spaces that challenge the legacy of neglect of urban neighborhoods. Through engagement with community members, he teases out the natural and social histories as well as current residents’ shared patterns and practices of use and aspirations for a place.

The Studio’s award-winning work has been featured in publications including Dwell, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Fast Company, Architectural Digest, Places Journal, and Landscape Architecture Magazine. Hood is also a recipient of the 2017 Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award, 2019 Knight Foundation Public Spaces Fellowship, 2019 MacArthur Fellowship, and 2019 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize.