Join Texas Tech College of Architecture for this lecture.

Fiction is a method to speculatively imagine the possible worlds architecture can deliver. In this lecture, we will look at the fallouts of suspending the disbeliefs in both science fiction and political fiction. What promises do either fictions bring for the built environment? Swerving between the built and the unbuilt, the body of work of Bureau Spectacular embraces the sensibilities and realities of architectural fictions.

Jimenez Lai was born in Taiwan, grew up in Canada, and lives in Los Angeles. Before establishing Bureau Spectacular, Lai lived in a desert shelter at Taliesin and resided in a shipping container at Atelier Van Lieshout on the piers of Rotterdam. Lai’s first book, Citizens of No Place: An Architectural Graphic Novel, was published by Princeton Architectural Press with a grant from the Graham Foundation. Lai has won various awards, including the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects, the Debut Award at the Lisbon Triennale, and the Designer of the Future at Art Basel. Lai represented Taiwan at the 14th Venice Architecture Biennale. Lai’s work is in the permanent collection of MoMA, SFMOMA, Art Institute of Chicago, and LACMA.