Arkitektúrdeild Listaháskóla Íslands

Silke Langenberg verður með gestafyrirlestur í Bratta, fyrirlestrarsal okkar í Stakkahlíð 1. mánudaginn 20. apríl.

Öll velkominn

Gestagangur // Silke Langenberg - Keep in Place

The conservation, maintenance, and repair of the built environment have recently taken center stage in architectural discourse. This shift is driven by the urgent need to adopt sustainable approaches and concepts such as circular economy and reuse. However, to achieve a significant change in practice—moving away from demolition and replacement towards preserving existing structures—universities must educate a generation of “sustainable natives” who value what has already been built, while also challenging established building practices through the integration of novel methods and technologies across generations and disciplines.

Alessandro Massarente verður með gestafyrirlestur í Bratta, fyrirlestrarsal okkar í Stakkahlíð 1. mánudaginn 13. April.

Öll velkominn

Gestagangur // Heiko Weissbach
My Life as an Architect – A good architect is always in doubt

In this lecture, Heiko Weissbach will present his personal experiences from working as an architect in 3 different countries (Denmark, France and Germany) over 3 decades and mention both the personal and the architectural highlights as well as the challenges, the struggles and the less bright moments in the life of an architect today. His aim is to inspire and to encourage anybody studying architecture (or another creative discipline) to follow their curiosity, interest and inspiration and not to lose faith when the world around seems to vanish.

Gestagangur // Debbie Chen
Building, More or Less

Debbie’s work revolves around transforming utilitarian aspects of infrastructural space into ones that entice, delight, and connect us to the elemental nature of infrastructure. This motivation is rooted in the belief that infrastructure plays a huge role in navigating the climate crisis. Environmental and political issues are systemic in scale – they are infrastructural issues. Yet the way we understand the benefits and limitations of these systems are always at a human scale – a social and cultural scale. Her work aims to suggest new ways of experiencing resource infrastructure through design proposals that reframe human relationships with the elements we rely on and take for granted.

As a current artist-in-residence at the Sím Residency in Reykjavik, Debbie is diving into the social and spatial qualities of geothermal systems in Iceland. Working through field observation and architectural model-making, Debbie is producing a small set of design maquettes inspired by the formal and material conditions of public baths around the country. Debbie will share this work in progress, along with other past projects touching upon similar themes.

Gestagangur // William Francis Gates

"From Hallucinations to Hallelujah"
This presentation explores how generative AI can enhance rather than diminish human creativity in architectural education. Drawing on his co-authored, empirical and qualitative research published December 2025 in Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, William Gates demonstrates that semantic fluency—the richness and diversity of language used in crafting AI prompts—directly correlates with creative visual outcomes. The research reveals a statistically significant relationship between prompt linguistic complexity and aesthetic quality of AI-generated images. Students who expanded their architectural vocabulary using rare, domain-specific terms like "apricity" and "frisson" produced more creative designs. The presentation reframes AI "hallucinations"—typically viewed as errors—as creative opportunities akin to "happy accidents" that generate unexpected insights. Through mixed-methods analysis including semantic spread scoring, computational aesthetic evaluation, and Creativity Support Index assessment, this research demonstrates that AI, when engaged strategically, accelerates deep learning through higher-quality iterative processes while expanding creative possibility.

Gestagangur // Bernard Khoury
Architecture In Toxic Grounds

Khoury’s presentation will begin with a reflection on the work he produced for the Seoul Architecture Biennale five years ago, titled Place Your Bets, Hold Your Bets. The piece reflects on Bernard Khoury’s practice in Beirut and across the region during the two decades preceding the 2019 collapse of Lebanon’s economic sector. The installation revolves around major political and financial events, including the crash of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, which led to the rise and celebration of Lebanon’s Central Bank governor, whose strategies were believed to have shielded the Lebanese economy from the effects of the global financial crisis.

Within this political and economic climate, Khoury’s practice expanded, resulting in 48 built commissions within Beirut’s city limits during that period—up until the catastrophic collapse of the local economy, which would later be described as a Ponzi scheme.

Khoury’s talk will first focus on the highly specific strategies he developed through his local practice, which largely revolved around financially speculative private-sector commissions. In counterpoint, the presentation will conclude with a selection of his international projects, most of which were commissioned by the public sector on foreign territories.

Gestagangur // Muzaffer Özgüleş

Palimpsest Cities: Gamification and Storytelling for Architectural History and Cultural Heritage Awareness

In this lecture, Dr. Muzaffer Özgüleş will present the "Palimpsest Cities" project, Alanya University’s first successful Erasmus+ Higher Education initiative. This interactive event aims to engage the public with cultural heritage through science, gamification, and storytelling. The Project, designed for all multi-layered cities, uses innovative, learner-centered approaches such as gamification and storytelling to foster awareness of architectural history and cultural heritage by building connections with the city’s past and its people.

Far from a traditional lecture, we will explore the importance of heritage using fun games and stories about our city. Dr. Özgüleş will share the project’s innovative, learner-centered approach. We will discuss the project’s design phase and major outcomes, including public tours for a wide audience ranging from children to individuals with disabilities, course implementations across various university departments with its results, and the Palimpsest Cities mobile app. The session will also demonstrate how these educational models can be adapted for various age groups and disciplines to make science a source of enjoyment.

Verkefni nemenda LHÍ tilnefnd til Nýsköpunarverðlauna forseta Íslands | Listaháskóli Íslands Nýsköpunarverðlaun forseta Íslands voru afhent við hátíðlega athöfn á Bessastöðum í gær þann 20. janúar 2026. Verðlaunin eru veitt þeim námsmönnum sem hafa unnið framúrskarandi starf við úrlausn verkefna sem styrkt voru af Nýsköpunarsjóði námsmanna árið 2025. Stjórn s...

Applications for MA.rch at Iceland University of the Arts

The application portal opens on 14 January, and the application deadline is 2 March.

BA.arch – arkitektúr við Listaháskóla Íslands

Umsóknargáttin opnar 14. janúar og umsóknarfrestur stendur til 13. apríl.