Internationally renowned architect, Frank Barkow of Barkow Leibinger Architects in Berlin held a lecture and workshop on housing at CCA on Wednesday, October 14th, 2015. The session included students from the March Studio 3 Housing studio, Share | City taught by Neal Schwartz and Neeraj Bhatia as well as from the Horizontalism Advanced Studio taught by Antje Steinmuller and Christopher Roach on developing new forms of housing and density for San Francisco.

Barkow Leibinger Architects is a stellar example of the kind of integrated practice valued at CCA. They are leading voices in design as well as research and teaching. Their design work began with elegant re-interpretations of traditional industrial typologies and has rapidly expanded to include significant civic, commercial and residential commissions. Their material research, particularly into forms of lightweight concrete construction is cutting edge and their teaching equally so.

The format of the small-scale lecture and intimate setting ensured maximum student interaction with our guest. After a brief review of Barkow Leibinger and the work of their recent Berlin-based Harvard design studio, students interviewed Frank leading to a lively discussion about the power of architecture to impact our cities and to create more opportunities for housing density within critical areas of Berlin and San Francisco. Student response to the format and the quality of the work and discussion was uniformly enthusiastic and we were honored to have an architect of such stature internationally join us.