Evening lectures at the University of Reading School of Architecture
Jean-François C. Lemay gave two evening lectures at the University of Reading School of Architecture, the first in February 2023 and the second in March 2024 at the invitation of the Reading University Architecture Society (RUAS).
The first lecture was part of a series organised by the RUAS with the theme “In Experience of…”. On 23 February 2023, Jean-François spoke about virtual reality in an hour-long presentation entitled “In Experience of the Virtual and the Real”. His argument was that unrealised architectural projects are in effect virtual realities and have much in common with special effects made for the cinema. All architecture is virtual until it is realised. Architects often use the same software as visual effects artists, and the latter are often architecturally trained. The difference is that architects make drawings — many of them photorealistic — of places which will probably be built; whereas visual effects artists make photorealistic images of places which will not be built, only seen on screen. But this distinction fades when a construction project remains unbuilt.
Jean-François gave the example of Oceanwide Center, a skyscraper in San Francisco on which he worked for five years at Foster and Partners, and which was fully illustrated down to the selection of flowers in the public space, but which ground to a halt in 2020 when its owner went into administration.
The lecture is available to watch on YouTube at this link.
In 2024, the RUAS organised a lecture series with the theme “Change”. On 21 March, Jean-François gave the season’s last lecture, entitled “Potential, Change, Life, Architecture”. He described how the universal direction of change, towards the lowest potential energy, seems upended by life; how stones for example tumble to the bottom of a valley, and humans bring them back from the valley to form artificial mountains, such as Stonehenge or the pyramids of Egypt. He proposed that life be understood as a process which resists the trend towards low energy by storing energy and releasing it only when this helps it to survive. With this understanding, the wall of a cell, the den of a bear, the house of a human all serve the same purpose: to preserve the living being’s energy by providing shelter from the elements.
Jean-François surveyed the ways in which humanity garners energy, such as fossil fuels, and compared these to a honey-pot which can be well-spent or squandered. He concluded with examples of the reuse (or non-reuse) of buildings and encouraged the audience to consider a retrofit just as interesting as a new construction.
This lecture is also available to watch on YouTube at this link.
With sincere thanks to the lecture series organisers: faculty member Arjun Rajah, RUAS president Augustas Jocys (2023) and RUAS president Jasmine Bensarda (2024).