A Presentation by Sean Canty  

Curious Forms & Other Houses 

Sean will present six design proposals of recent work from his independent practice, Studio SC. Curious Forms & Other Houses is a collection of work and research which explores the formal, spatial, and perceptual misalignment's between geometry and building typology as a speculative process of design. The work draws inspiration from conceptual frameworks found in art and architecture as well as techniques of descriptive geometry. These frameworks and techniques are combined to complicate disciplinary ideas around building organization with artistic practices around shape, form and perception. Through these convergences of geometry and typology, new architectural typologies can curiously call into question assumptions embedded within existing typologies, while playfully speculating on the production of other typologies.

Sean Canty is a Designer and Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design and teaches architectural design in the Core Design Studios.

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Canty's teaching, research and practice explores unexpected forms of visuality, motivated by architectural type and geometry. Exploring the interrelationships between interior, envelope, and building, Canty explores montage as a spatial practice.

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Sean directs Studio SC and is also one of the founding principals of Office III, an experimental architectural collective based in New York, San Francisco and Cambridge. Office III was selected in November 2016 as a finalist for the Young Architect's competition at MoMA PS1. They have also recently completed the Governors Island Welcome Centre for The Friends of Governors Island and exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the storefront for art and architecture, the Cooper Union, and the A+D Museum in Los Angeles. Before establishing these two respective practices, Canty was a project Designer at IwamotoScott Architecture in San Francisco, during which he led projects including the Pinterest headquarters, Bloomberg TechHub, The Goto House, Noe Valley Residence, and HeavyBit Industries.

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Canty has been a Visiting Professor at the Cooper Union Irwin S. Chanin School of Architecture, and a Lecturer at both the California College of the Arts in San Francisco and The College of Environmental Design at the University of California Berkeley. He received a MArch from the GSD and BArch from California College of the Arts.

As usual, the talk is free

Door 6:00PM / Talk 6:30PM

October 16, 2019