Join HCCC for a series of six speaking events designed to provide a forum for Houston’s rich dialogue on urban development. Held in conjunction with the SPRAWL exhibition this fall, the series features a variety of notable individuals from city, county, academic, architecture, and urban planning backgrounds.
Like the exhibition, the speaker series addresses three main topics, “Infrastructure of Expansion,” “Survey, Plan, Build,” and “Aftereffects,” which loosely define the phases of urban growth. To supplement the art works in the show, the series aims to create a cross-disciplinary dialogue to address the complex issues raised by the exhibition and generate public discussion.
Sara Zewde
M.L.A. Candidate, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Sara Zewde has long had a keen interest in the spatial practices of various cultures and their relationships with landscapes. She has explored the potential for cultural spatial understanding to inform contemporary design and planning through her studies in Brazil, South Africa, and New Zealand, among other places. Her professional experiences have proved to be test laboratories for ideas on cultural spatial practice, as well, ranging from sustainable transportation planning in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to landscape design in Oakland, California, with Hood Design Studio, and as a designer and planner with Asakura Robinson Company in Houston, Texas.
Zewde ultimately believes that good design empowers people. She holds a B.A. from Boston University, a Master of City Planning and Urban Design Certificate from MIT, and is currently a candidate for the Master of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design.
Click here to see the full event schedule and speaker biographies. All events take place at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and are free and open to the public.
The SPRAWL Speaker Series was made possible in part through the City’s Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance.
Above: Dustin Farnsworth, “Looming Genes and Rooted Dreams,” 2009. Reclaimed bead board, MDF, plywood, aluminum, poplar, mild steel, plexiglass, soil, concrete, various polychrome. Photo by Peter McDaniel.
