APLA Hosts Fourth Annual Bob & Sherry Faust Distinguished Lecture

This annual event honors the legacy of Robert L. Faust, Professor Emeritus of Architecture, who taught in APLA from 1968 to 2012 and passed away in November 2020. The Bob & Sherry Faust Distinguished Lecture, made possible through the generosity and support of Professor Faust’s wife Sherry was attended by over 300 faculty, staff, students and community members.

This year’s event featured Distinguished Lecturers Rossana Hu and Lyndon Neri, cofounders of Shanghai-based interdisciplinary practice Neri&Hu Design and Research Office. The pair founded their studio in 2006, and over the last 20 years, have established a global portfolio with commissions ranging from master planning and architecture, to interior design, installation, furniture, product, branding and graphic works.

In addition to running Neri&Hu, Rossana Hu is the Chair and Miller Professor of the Department of Architecture, University of Pennsylvania Weitzman School of Design. Deeply committed to architectural education, she has taught, lectured and critiqued at many universities including the University of California, Berkeley; the Harvard Graduate School of Design; the Yale University School of Architecture; and Tongi University.

Lyndon Neri is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. In addition to teaching alongside Hu, he has published several books including “Persistence of Vision: Shanghai Architects in Dialogue” in 2007 and two monographs: “Neri&Hu Design and Research Office” in 2017 and “Thresholds: Space, Time and Practice” in 2021.

Assistant Professor Ernesto Bilbao, who moderated the event, said it was an honor to engage with Hu and Neri—both during the lecture and in discussions with the students—and witness their passion for architecture and education.

“They offered our students invaluable advice and encouraged them to approach architecture with passion, intellect and even love,” he said. “I also deeply appreciated the rigor and intellectual depth of their work, and above all the manner in which they shared it with our local community.”

Students, faculty and staff viewed the curated works in the Faust Architectural Archives in the Ralph Brown Draughon Library before the lecture and got a chance to network with the speakers at a reception after the lecture.

“Through their lecture, it became evident that we must understand architecture as a practice that is both universal and deeply rooted in specific local traditions and sites,” Bilbao said. “Through their work, Rossana and Lyndon demonstrated the ultimate purpose of architecture: to elevate the human experience in all built environments.”