+ CONTEXT Design Lectures 

XYC Design

PUBLIC
Is a building inherently complete? Instead, could it be understood as an armature for an ever-changing daily life, existing unfulfilled and ambiguous until we, the public, interact with it? Perhaps a work of architecture can remain incomplete, in a positive way, even after construction is finished - open to the environment, responsive to the city. By shedding its typological character, embracing a multitude of perceptions, and committing to ambiguity, it could provoke appropriation and continue to evolve over its life.
nARCHITECTS, a Brooklyn-based architecture firm, approaches design from this perspective, aiming for open-ended buildings and public spaces that facilitate social interaction and endow flexibility to future users.
The +CONTEXT lecture series introduces the local works of architects and artists through the lens of their larger bodies of work, encouraging Calgarians to engage with design in their city, province and beyond. The series will explore ways in which location, time, and culture shape what is built and how we experience space; each lecture will focus on a specific circumstantial factor and examine how it can be considered and embraced to produce meaningful design.
Principal Eric Bunge will share his firm’s interest in an indeterminate architecture that resists the precise definitions commonly prescribed by the discipline, and how this approach to design, originating from a position of open-mindedness, with the goal of open-endedness, leads to participatory and democratic spaces. At M2, the firm’s first building in Canada, nARCHITECTS created a building without a back: a sculptural and engaging river facade contrasts a bold presence on Confluence Way, and inviting pedestrian connections between RiverWalk and the street tie the two together. Responding to contrasting contexts - historic and new, natural and urban - the firm has designed an outward-focused building that invites the public’s engagement.
ABOUT ERIC BUNGE
nARCHITECTS is a Brooklyn-based architecture office led by Principals Eric Bunge and Mimi Hoang. The practice was founded in 1999 with the goal of addressing contemporary issues in architecture through conceptually driven, socially engaging and technologically innovative work. Recent projects include the NYS Equal Rights Heritage Center, Carmel Place (New York City’s first micro-unit building), the design center A/D/O, and the renovation of Chicago Navy Pier. The firm’s awards and honors include a 2017 national AIA Institute Honor Award in Architecture, the 2017 NYS AIA Firm of the Year, a 2016 Academy of Arts and Letters Award in architecture, the AIANY Andrew J Thomas Award for Pioneers in Housing, the Architectural League’s Emerging Voices in 2006, and inclusion in Architectural Record’s Vanguard in 2004. The firm has been ranked within the top 10 in the US in the design category for the past five years by Architect Magazine.
In addition to practicing architecture, Eric Bunge, FAIA is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University. A native of Montreal, Eric received a Master of Architecture from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Architecture from McGill University. He previously taught at Parsons School of Design, R.I.S.D. and Columbia/Barnard Colleges, and as a visiting professor at Harvard University, Yale University, UC Berkeley, University of Toronto and Universite de Montreal. 
nARCHITECTS first book, Buildings and Almost Buildings (Actar, 2018), was published earlier this year and will be available later this Spring.

PUBLIC featuring Eric Bunge of nARCHITECTS

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+ CONTEXT Design Lectures

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+ CONTEXT Design Lectures

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