IAAC Lecture Series – Curating Architecture
Lecturer: Wendy Teo – ARB/RIBA (UK)
Date: Tuesday, February 9th, 19:30 (CET)
Location: Online – Zoom – WATCH THE REPLAY ON FACEBOOK
Lecture Abstract:
In the progression in contemporary city making strategies, both curatorial and architectural practices are now required in city infrastructural building. Previously, our city used to focus on maximising its infrastructural efficiency, for which engineers and architects were heavily involved in the planning process. City making strategy nowadays, however, puts more weight on identity building, which tends to incorporate brand building, software establishment and curation in a process carried out through expertise in a curatorial capacity.
For a city to better manifest its liveability, the combination of both forms of expertise in the planning is becoming more and more inevitable. The collaboration also allows architects to get out of the conventional procurement relationship that was hugely dictated by the client and contractor and proactively experiment with the urban narratives with the curator. Through a presence as an ephemeral ‘exhibition’, curator and architect get to plan, experiment and gather feedback from the urban context, through amending or retrofitting the urban interfaces.
In Borneo Laboratory, they have instigated this combined role of curator and architect in the past few years of practice. This seems to have enabled social discourses in the public realm, which Wendy will share in this lecture.
About Wendy Teo
Wendy Teo is a ARB/RIBA (UK) Chartered Architect and founder of Borneo Laboratory, a multidisciplinary practice based in Borneo Malaysia. Teo is also a visiting scholar in Feng Chia University (Taiwan) as an Assistant Professor. In Teo’s research and pedagogical direction, she and her team focuses on embedding social-culture dialogue in forming architectural innovation. Born in Borneo, Teo received her B.Arch (Dist.) from Taiwan Feng Chia University, M.Arch(Dist.) from Bartlett, UCL. During her career with Foster and Poster, Teo also accomplished her ARB Part III course from Cambridge University and qualified as LEED green associate.
Teo’s projects were endorsed by a number of international awards such as Holcim Sustainable Next Generation Award (First Prize), Archiprix, Threadneedle Prize et cetera. Her projects were exhibited across UK, France, Germany, Slovenia, Turkey and Taiwan. One of the notable exhibition is 2013/14 Archilab ‘Naturalising Architecture’ exhibition curated by Pompidou Center director Frédéric Migayrou and FRAC Orlean Director Marie-Ange Brayer. Teo was nominated by British Council as a fellow in 2018 ‘Woman of the Future’ South East chapter organised by AVIVA group.