Making Accommodating Form 

will be given on Monday, October 28, at 4:00 p.m. in the Little Theatre of the K-State Student Union.  The presentation is open to the public without charge.

Dr. Stephen Kendall is Assistant Chair, Department of Architecture, and Director, Building Futures Institute, College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University.

Kendall grew up building things and reading books on architecture and the arts. When he got a chance to study architecture, he went to the University of Cincinnati whose co-op program kept him in touch with the real world. Later graduate studies in urban design at Washington University in St. Louis brought him into touch with the larger fabric of human settlements. An opportunity to spend time outside the U.S. came from a first-place award in the Steedman Competition. Later, Kendall was a carpenter and then entered architecture practice, becoming a registered architect and designing large buildings. After a shift into an academic career, he was able to study at MIT where he earned a Ph.D. in Design Theory and Methods. This opportunity only deepened his interest in understanding the forces shaping built fields and allowed him to focus on interests that continue to occupy him. 

For some time, Kendall has been interested in the behavior of ordinary environments over time. This interest has led to studying international developments toward an "agile" residential architecture. Much of his teaching and research centers on this interest and the questions of theory and methods that flow from it. His interest is in supporting the implementation of open building in practice. This has meant keeping very close to what is really happening in the field. This has also led to a role in coordinating an international commission called Open Building Implementation, one of the many commissions in CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction). A few years ago, Kendall co-authored a book, “Residential Open Building” (Spon, 1999) that tells the story of residential open building over the past three decades internationally with many case studies. Recently, the focus on open building has broadened to include a study of an innovative hospital project in Switzerland that exemplifies "open building" principles.

In his talk, Kendall will outline the basic principles of "open building" and show several examples of real buildings--both new buildings and rehabilitation projects and both residential and non-residential--that point out how the real world already seems to organize itself on "open building" principles. From there, Kendall will raise questions about how well we are doing in our teaching to provide students with the design skills and attitudes needed to help "agile" environments flower. 

Kendall’s visit is sponsored by the Kansas State University Student Fine Arts Fee.

For more information, contact:

David Sachs, 785/532-5953
Diane Potts, 785/532-1090