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We will be at the Venice Biennale as part of the Architect's Newspaper's symposium on contemporary architecture criticism which is taking place at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia on May 18, 2023.
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Read our interview with Women Writing Architecture! We discussed how BI and Loké have related to the burdensome context of their production and how they flow with the tide of progressive social change. This conversation delves into minority experiences that will be relatable to those in a spectrum of industries.
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This lecture was a part of Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University) annual lecture series. It will explore architectural publishing as a critical practice with emancipatory potential. As a counterpoint to a talk given at the University of Rwanda in 2019, ‘Centering the Edge’ will reveal how the act of filling the gaps, in what stories are shared, can move the discipline toward both greater equity and understanding. The role that writing can play in building a ground-up movement toward a freer, more inclusive landscape within architecture will be discussed, while looking back at over a decade of digital and printed work.
Erandi de Silva is a Sri Lankan-British-Canadian Architect and Editor, currently based in Accra, Ghana. In 2016, she launched Loké Journal, which examines the art of making as an inclusive, cross-cultural, and global pursuit. Loké Journal is a leader in the effort to actively widen the conversations in the field, by making space for a multiplicity of experiences, ideas, and work.
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Growing up in Manhattan between the neighborhoods of Washington Heights and Inwood, Lucia Hierro was raised in the island’s Dominican community. Attending a weekend art program at Cooper Union during high school was an early step that eventually lead her to pursue a Master of Fine Art at Yale University and embark on a career as an artist. Performing intersectional remixes on New York-centric references such as Warhol, Wesselmann, and Oldenburg, her often oversized works recall and transform the spaces of the Dominican pantry, the bodega, and the city itself. This dialectical exchange between island life in the Dominican Republic and Manhattan reflects the nuance of identity, diversified and reflected through the lens of consumption.
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This conversation is part of LOKÉ’s 'Disrupting Assumptions' series, which highlights underrepresented narratives, challenging unfounded certainties surrounding design production.
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This event will take place on July 10, 2020 on IG Live at 12.00 pm (New York) / 4.00 pm (Accra)
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In our upcoming talk 'Bawa Unbound' we will be discussing the work of the important 20th century architect Geoffrey Bawa, with the curator of his Trust, architect and historian Shayari de Silva. Our conversation will examine the cross-cultural essence of his rich practice and will explore how his work has been Othered through architectural criticism.
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As Bawa eschewed categorization to walk a complex path that was all his own, his work continues to be narrowly defined in a manner that seeks to distinguish it from that of his Western peers, a position which is unsupported by a wealth of postcolonial scholarship.
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As an architect practicing in Sri Lanka's post-independence period, we will examine how his office uniquely adapted to political shifts, economic upheavals, and a decades long civil war, to produce site specific, environmentally sustainable work. He thoroughly synthesized the sophisticated design history of an island nation through a lens that was simultaneously local and international, timely and timeless.
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This will be a rare opportunity to hear two Sri Lankan architects share their unique perspectives in a conversation about Bawa.
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This conversation is part of LOKÉ’s 'Disrupting Assumptions' series, which highlights underrepresented narratives, challenging unfounded certainties surrounding design production.
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This event will take place on May 21, 2020 on IG Live at 11.30 am (New York) / 3.30 pm (Accra) / 9.00 pm (Colombo).
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Our talk 'Centering the Edge: Interrupting Architectural Narratives' will feature architect and LOKÉ Journal editor Erandi de Silva who will speak about architectural publishing as a critical practice that can hold emancipatory potential in non-Western contexts.
This event will take place on November 15, 2019 at the University of Rwanda's School of Architecture and Built Environment 5.00 pm in the Auditorium of the Sabyinyo Block.
These talks are part of an ongoing series that will highlight underrepresented narratives, challenging unfounded certainties surrounding design production.
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Our Thursday talk 'Tools for Empowerment' will feature designers Active Social Architecture who will discuss their approach to architectural practice in Rwanda, which emphasizes training women in construction. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
This event will take place on November 14, 2019 at the University of Rwanda's School of Architecture and Built Environment 5.00 pm in the Auditorium of the Sabyinyo Block.
These talks are part of an ongoing series that will highlight underrepresented narratives, challenging unfounded certainties surrounding design production.
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We are launching LOKÉ Journal’s issue on UNDERSTANDING at 100% Silk Shop! ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Editor Erandi de SIlva will be in conversation with designer and shop owner Lee Dekel. They will be discussing the intersection of production and social awareness through non-dominant narratives of making, in particular, the finer details of textile production in a transnational context. We will also explore what it means to navigate ideas of inclusion within a design retail environment.
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Copies of the Journal will be available and we will be launching a series of new designs in collaboration with 100% Silk Shop! 100% of the net profits from these pieces will support the construction of low-cost homes in the Global South.
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Our Speaker:
Clothing designer Lee Dekel founded her gallery-like space,100% Silk Shop, to showcase the work of artisans and designers who share her ethos. These designers combine traditional textile production processes that have been passed on through generations, with their own distinctive vision. A thoroughly global project, her shop represents brands that are steeped in cross-cultural, handmade narratives, such as Mozh Mozh, Osei-Duro, Tigra Tigra, and VVORK VVORK VVORK as well as Dekel’s own clothing line which is produced between Ghana, Uzbekistan, and Canada. With all that goes into the various garments in the 100% Silk universe, a unique dialogue is created between the maker’s hand, the wearer’s body, and the environment from which they originate.
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On April 1, 2019 LOKÉ founder Erandi de Silva will be the featured guest at a dinner hosted by Building Equality in Architecture. Find tickets and more event information by visiting their website.
How can we construct space with increased social and environmental awareness? In this talk we will explore how directed effort, considered process, and the specific act of understanding an other can make room for unacknowledged experiences and new outcomes. By juxtaposing Hawa Arsala’s commercial creative practice with Yamini Nayar’s fine art practice, we will examine how both women build layered spaces through an active engagement with material culture.
Our Speakers:
Hawa Arsala takes a cross-disciplinary approach to her creative work. Her precise role might seem difficult to define, but could be described as someone who is reshaping the brandscape into a more inclusive space. Initially pursuing a career in diplomacy, she now applies her knowledge of and experience in negotiating delicate interrelations to the marketing world. In the act of imbuing material and less tangible products with new cultural meaning, ensuring that branding is presented with an awareness of different social experiences becomes vital.
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Yamini Nayar is a New York/New Delhi-based artist. Influenced by architecture and psychoanalysis, she constructs emotive spatial images through model-making and assemblage, resulting in layered work that shifts between flatness and volume. Often using building materials as she creates contemplative psychological spaces, her work echoes the empathetic themes of Modernism’s social interests.