Ellie Abrons and Meredith Miller, both associate professors of architecture, delivered an online visiting lecture earlier this week at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art as part of its 2020 fall lecture series. The lecture is archived for viewing online.

Abrons and Miller began their talk by acknowledging the difficult context of the present moment, but also embracing the globality of the connection as attendees streamed the talk from all over the world. They then guided viewers on a virtual tour of many of their projects that they have undertaken through their architecture practice T+E+A+M — a partnership with fellow associate professors Thom Moran and Adam Fure.

One project they discussed, “Detroit Reassembly Plant,” was created for the 2016 U.S. Pavilion exhibition at the Venice Biennale and reimagines the vacant, iconic Packard Plant as a rich stockpile of concrete, brick, and other construction materials. The project transforms this resource into a new architectural material by selectively demolishing the debilitated portions of the plant, and combining the rubble with plastics and other post-consumer materials recovered from Detroit’s waste streams.

View the entire lecture, including Q&A, here.