Taubman College announces fall 2026 lecture series: CRAFT
Organized around the theme of CRAFT, Taubman College’s fall 2026 series of lectures and public programs collectively examine what we make, how we make it, with whom, and to what ends. Together, these programs consider how spatial knowledge takes form before it becomes style, system, or standard.
Visiting architects, authors, designers, educators, industry leaders, and policymakers will address topics ranging from the use of living organisms and natural systems to design’s role in transforming land, energy, and economic systems.
The full schedule follows.
Out of the Ordinary | the work of John Ronan Architects
Exhibition · Johe Lecture Series
Exhibition dates: Sept. 4-Dec. 4
Public hours: Fridays, 6-9 p.m.; Saturdays, 1-4 p.m.
Location: Liberty Annex, 305 W. Liberty St., Ann Arbor
Out of the Ordinary showcases the work of Taubman College alumnus John Ronan and his Chicago-based practice, John Ronan Architects, an internationally recognized firm known for conceptual innovation and rigorous attention to detail. Through a research-based, iterative design process, the studio orchestrates materials, systems, and details to create buildings and spaces defined by functionality and beauty. Working across a wide range of scales and project types, the firm’s searching approach consistently produces compelling and memorable work.
gru.a | Looking at the Intersection Between Architecture and Art
Correa Lecture
Time and date: 6 p.m. Sept. 21
Location: Auditorium, Lecture Hall 2104, U-M Art and Architecture Building
gru.a is an architecture studio founded in 2013 by Caio Calafate and Pedro Varella. The studio works across diverse scales and typologies, focusing on the intersection of architecture and the arts. Its work is shaped by the academic, research, and design practices of its members.
Emerging Innovations in Mass Timber: Regional Advancements in Policy, Practice, and Education
Climate Week · Climate Futures and MassTimber@MSU
Time and date: 9:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Oct. 2
Location: The Commons, U-M Art and Architecture Building
Building on the momentum generated by MassTimber@MSU’s leadership in fostering and expanding Michigan’s mass timber ecosystem, this event convenes leaders in policy, industry, design and education to explore the innovations needed to scale mass timber adoption across the Great Lakes region. The symposium is organized into three thematic sessions: Networks, Programs and Policies; Educating Future Professionals; and A Full Systems Values Approach.
Aroussiak Gabrielian | Working with Living Organisms, Natural Systems, and Atmospheric Phenomena
Johe Lecture Series
Time and date: 6 p.m. Oct. 5
Location: The Commons, U-M Art and Architecture Building
Aroussiak Gabrielian is an environmental designer and bioartist who works with living organisms, natural systems, and atmospheric phenomena. Her work aims to torque our imaginaries, helping us rethink our interactions with human and nonhuman agents on this planet.
Amelyn Ng | Seeking Alternate Narratives to the Status Quo of Building
Johe Lecture Series
Time and date: 6 p.m. Oct. 15
Location: Auditorium, Lecture Hall 2104, U-M Art and Architecture Building
Working across exhibitions, publications, cartoons and media experiments, Amelyn Ng addresses how media shape architecture’s material realities, politics and practices. By attending to the gap between representation and reality, she troubles architecture’s default settings and seeks alternative narratives to the status quo of building.
Billy Fleming | Building Postcarbon Futures: Land, Justice, and Energy Transitions
Book launch · Climate Futures and R+CP
Time and date: 6 p.m. Oct. 26
Location: Auditorium, Lecture Hall 2104, U-M Art and Architecture Building
Billy Fleming is a leading voice on design’s role in responding to the climate crisis in cities, communities and landscapes. His book, Building Postcarbon Futures, guides readers through case studies of people transforming their social, ecological and economic systems in response to the climate crisis. It is both a celebration of work underway and a clarion call to the planners, designers, policymakers and activists pushing the planet toward a future of collective flourishing.
The event will include a panel discussion with Fleming, Shalanda Baker and Jen Maigret, moderated by Kathy Velikov.
Suzanne Lettieri and Anya Sirota | Junior Architects: New Paradigms in Design Education
Book launch · Johe Lecture Series
Time and date: 7 p.m. Nov. 4
Location: The Scarab Club, 217 Farnsworth St., Detroit
Suzanne Lettieri and Anya Sirota, editors of Junior Architects: New Paradigms in Design Education, will host a conversation about efforts to advance equity in architecture and design education in the United States amid widening political divisions over race and class.
Bringing together contributors to the book and leaders of local enrichment programs, the event will take stock of this work, its history and its ambitions, and ask where it might go next. It is an opportunity to reconnect, reflect and consider how more equitable pathways into architecture and design might continue to be built. Participants will include Sharon Haar, Jonathan Massey, Harley Etienne and others.
Wallenberg Lecture
Time and date: 6 p.m. Nov. 16
Location: The Commons, U-M Art and Architecture Building
Jia Yi Gu is an architectural scholar, curator, and designer whose research explores the materiality of buildings and the history of cultural techniques in architecture. Kate Yeh Chiu is a designer and arts organizer whose work investigates material flows and labor conditions at the peripheries of architectural and cultural production. Together, they co-curated the major exhibition Material Acts: Experimentation in Architecture and Design.
