APLA Hosts Third 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 400 faculty, staff, students and community members.

This year’s event featured Distinguished Lecturer Tatiana Bilbao, CEO & Founder of Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO. Bilbao established her practice in 2004 with a mission to integrate research, design and community-based strategies into responsible construction. Her work is adaptable to a range of contexts, including reconstruction and crisis scenarios. Before launching her firm, she served as an advisor to Mexico City’s Secretary of Development and Housing.

A respected educator, Bilbao holds a professorship at the Yale School of Architecture and has previously taught at institutions such as Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, the Harvard Graduate School of Design, Rice University School of Architecture, Andrés Bello University in Chile and the Peter Behrens School of Art in Düsseldorf, Germany. Her work has been featured in major publications such as The New York Times, A+U, Domus, Arquitectura Viva and El País.

Over the years, Bilbao has received numerous accolades, including being named an Emerging Voice by the Architectural League of New York in 2010 and earning the Kunstpreis Berlin in 2012. Her contributions to architecture have also been recognized with the LOCUS Foundation Global Award for Sustainable Architecture (2014), the Marcus Prize (2019), the Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal (2020) and an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada (2021). In recent years, she has been honored with the Richard Neutra Award and AW Architect Award (2022), the J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize and the ArpaFIL Award (2023). Most recently, Boston Architectural College awarded her an Honorary Doctorate in 2024.

“It was an honor to have Tatiana Bilbao visit Auburn University as a Faust Distinguished Lecturer and engage closely with her way of thinking,” shared Assistant Professor Ernesto Bilbao. “For Tatiana and her studio, architecture is about making places and spaces by and for people, deeply connected to social, economic and environmental aspects. She sees nothing in the design of the built environment is indivisible; on the contrary, she considers every element part of a collective endeavor. Through her work, Tatiana reflects on achieving a harmonious and sustainable coexistence between art, nature and humankind. For her, there is still room to change the world. I am sure that our community, particularly our students, benefited greatly from her message.”

A reception was held after the event, providing students, faculty and staff to network and interact with Bilbao and a selection of her work.