As part of the Council of Architecture’s ongoing digital engagement series COASocial Reads, American architect Steven Holl will be in conversation with Indian architect Durganand Balsavar. The extraordinary conversation between the two will be documented and archived by STIR for future reference.

Titled Air/ Light/ Greenspace: Post-COVID, the talks are about the integration of air, light, and greenspace consistently motivating Holl’s work. During a period of global pandemic, the need to carefully consider these aspects of the built environment is greater than ever before. This lecture focuses on past projects by Steven Holl Architects that hold potential lessons for a post-COVID architecture, such as the embrace of greenspace and landscape, maximising fresh air and natural light, the facilitation of open circulation for social spaces, and ecological integration and innovation.

You can watch the conversation live on the COA Social YouTube Channel on June 17, 2021, at 2:00 pm GMT (7:30 pm IST / 10:00 am NYC).

This will be the 10th conversation hosted by Durganand Balsavar. Balsavar is the founder-principal architect of Artes - a human settlements research collaborative, and has co-authored several books on re-imagined landscapes of the future and alternative histories. Previous iterations include conversations with Jean Louis Cohen, Gurjit Singh Matharoo, Rahul Mehrotra and Kengo Kuma.

About Steven Holl

Holl received the 2016 VELUX Daylight Award in Architecture, the 2014 Praemium Imperiale International Arts Award for Architecture, the 2012 AIA Gold Medal, the 2010 RIBA Jencks Award, and the first ever Arts Award of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards in 2009. He is a tenured Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. He has also taught at the University of Washington, Pratt Institute, and the University of Pennsylvania. Holl has published numerous texts and has lectured widely. He is a tenured faculty member at Columbia University where he has taught since 1981. He was named by Time magazine as “America’s Best Architect,” for creating “buildings that satisfy the spirit as well as the eye.”

Steven Holl Architects is a 35-person innovative architecture and urban design office working globally as one office from two locations: New York City and Beijing. Holl leads the office with partners Chris McVoy, Noah Yaffe and Roberto Bannura.