Chris walked through the process of creating a study for a memorial at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. The understanding of Sikhism in America is limited and this has been a cause for discrimination and violence. In order to foster awareness of the religion and its people, Chris and Harpreet proposed a cultural center and memorial to violence against Sikh’s in America. The talk traced the basic premises of Sikhism through its cultural expressions especially those pertaining to clothing, while walking through the process of creating a memorial.

Sanmita presented a series of ideas about architecture’s evolving role in relationship to technology. Starting with classic pencil illustrations of the Crystal Palace, a modular structure erected in 1851 from wood, iron and glass, we explored this monument to technology and expression its age. Sanmita talked about how architecture has evolved with technology and continues to do so.

The body in architecture. Bodies in space. Chris gave a talk for a class at NYIT in 2011 about the body in architecture. That lecture spanned the way the body has been perceived in architecture throughout history, particularly in reference to scale—from Renaissance ideals of human form to current ergonomic design. Here, he picked up where he left off, diverging into a lecture about ways art conceives the body in space.