February 21/22/23

Strong Towns: Charles Marohn

Civil Engineer, Land Use Planner, Author, Activist
Brainerd, Minnesota

Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (2019) and Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (2021). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time.

ANC

Wednesday, FEB 21
6:30pm
anc. museum auditorium

Anchorage Tickets

FBX

Thursday, FEB 22
6:30pm
714 3rd Avenue

Fairbanks Tickets

JNU

Friday, FEB 23
5:30pm
THE HANGaR BALLROOM

Juneau Tickets

ADF + ANCHORAGE DESIGN WEEK

Join us for a special edition of PechaKucha night, focused on the topic of housing.

THURSDAY, FEB 22 @ SEED LAB
Happy Hour @ 5:30pm
pechakucha presentations @ 7pm

December 6/7/8

Ellen Lupton

Graphic Designer, Typographer, Educator, Author // BALTIMORE, MD

Ellen Lupton is a highly influential contemporary graphic designer, curator, and writer whose work has significantly shaped the field of design. Known for her innovative approach and commitment to design education, Lupton has played a pivotal role in advancing the discourse on typography, design thinking, and the intersection of technology and creativity.

As the Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and the Director of the Graphic Design MFA program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), Lupton continues to inspire and mentor the next generation of designers.

Her contributions extend beyond traditional design practice, encompassing an extensive body of written work, including numerous books that have become essential reading for design students and professionals alike.

ANC // Wednesday, DEC 6 @ anc. museum auditorium - 6:30pm // Free Tickets here >>
FBX // Thursday, DEC 7 @ venue - 6:30pm // Free Tickets here >>
JNU // Friday, DEC 8 @ Spice juneau indian Cuisine - 5pm // Free Tickets here >>

October 4/5/6

Erin E. Moore

Architect // EUGENE, OREGON

A professor in the Department of Architecture and in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Oregon, Erin E. Moore is an architect who uses her design research practice - FLOAT Architecture Research and Design - to explore and advance thought on ideas of nature in architectural design. She works with explicit intentions for material, ecological, and multi-species life cycles. Recent work addresses the architectural space of fossil fuel consumption, biogenic carbon sequestration, and climate change in the context of new materialisms, critical spatial practice, speculative design, and the environmental humanities.

ANC // Wednesday, oct 4 @ anc. museum auditorium - 6pm social, 7pm lecture
FBX // Thursday, oct 5 @ venue - 6:30pm social, 7pm lecture
JNU // Friday, oct 6 @ the baranof hotel - 5pm lecture*

* The Juneau lecture is in conjunction with AIA’s Keynote Speaker event. It is open and free of charge to the public.

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presenting our 2022 SPEAKER SERIES

This season, we explore hidden meanings in the designed environment, ambiguity and mystery in branded imagery, incognito uses of public space, and design secrets that hide behind the surface of the things.

THANK YOU to all of our sponsors, speakers, and supporters for another wonderful season! We look forward to announcing our 2023 Speaker Series soon.

Scott & Scott

SEPTEMBER 21/22/23
ARCHITECTS | Vancouver, Canada

Learn more at scottandscott.ca >>

Casper Mork Ulnes

NOVEMBER 9/10/11
ARCHITECT | San Francisco, CA + Oslo, Norway

Learn more at morkulnes.com >>

Wade and Leta

8/25 - Anchorage - SEED Lab - 6:30pm
8/27 - Cooper Landing - Camp K - Register Here

BRANDING / EXPERIENTIAL / PHOTOGRAPHY / DESIGN
Brooklyn, NY

Learn more at wadeandleta.com >>

2021 SPEAKER SERIES

The Alaska Design Forum is excited to announce our 2021 lecture series. "PLAY" seeks to investigate the power of play. Similar to design with its power to provoke human emotions and experiences, the power of play has an innate humanistic allure that provokes excitement and desire.

Rosan Bosch

Tuesday, April 6, 2021
ARTIST/DESIGNER/PLAY CONSULTANT
Copenhagen, Denmark

Learn more at rosanbosch.com >

Ronald Rael

Tuesday, September 14th, 2021
DESIGNER, ACTIVIST, ARCHITECT, AUTHOR
California

Learn more at rael-sanfratello.com>

Miriam Shevland

Wednesday, October 6, 2021
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Hobart, Tasmania, AU

Learn more at playstreet.com.au >

Neil Durbach

NEW TIME: Tuesday, November 16, 2021
ARCHITECT
Sydney, AU

Learn more at durbachblockjaggers.com >

Chris Reed

Tuesday, December 7, 2021
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Boston, MA

Learn more at stoss.net >

2020 Speaker Series

Revised Utopias

The Alaska Design Forum invites our community to join a conversation in 2020 around the theme of REVISED UTOPIAS. Picking up from 2019’s POLAR SHIFT theme, we seek to engage a discussion of the adjusted ideals that come after radical change, the re-worked goals that result from unforeseen events, and the evolving landscape of optimism in design.

Chris Drury

12/08/2020
LAND ARTIST // UK

Tucker Viemeister

February 17, 18, 19 - 2020
INDUSTRIAL DESIGNER // NY

Günther Vogt

09/01/2020
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT // ZURICH

Michael Ford

11/05/2020
HIP HOP ARCHITECT // MADISON, WI

Bill Posters

10/06/2020
HACKTIVIST & STREET ARTIST // LONDON

Nathan Shafer

03/31/2020
DESIGNER & EDUCATOR // ANCHORAGE, AK

ALASKA DESIGN FORUM presents

Join on Zoom

Tuesday, January 18th, 12pm

Learn about Chris Reed at stoss.net >

2019 Speaker Series

Polar Shift

We live in a time of massive change, of human culture and technology and consequently, of our biosphere. The effects of change are magnified at the poles, at the extreme ends of both ideology and geography.

In our POLAR SHIFT lecture series, we explore the implications of shifting paradigms. How do designers respond to shifts in landscape, institutional thinking, climate and economics? And can designers enact their own shifts in our notions of what is possible, prudent or necessary?

In Alaska, we live at one polar extreme of the rapid changes that are defining a new northern reality. POLAR SHIFT is about expanding our view from melting glaciers to the myriad patterns of human action and reaction that underlie the visual symptoms.

Alaska faces real consequences from global warming. A change in thinking is necessary in terms of the way we manage and respond to changes in Alaska’s vast landscape, with our municipalities and cities, with our farms and our seaways, our infrastructure and our forests.

David Buckland
Artist / Dorset, England

Klein Dytham
Architect / Japan

Bryan C. Lee, Jr.
Designer, Design Justice Advocate / New Orleans

Stefan Sjöberg
Architect / Sweden

SITU Studio
Architecture / New York

Biotope
Architecture / Norway

Michael Murphy (MASS Design Group)
Architecture / Boston

David Garcia, MAP Architects
Architect, Educator & Researcher / Copenhagen

Matthew Burtner, Ecosono
Composer & Eco-Acoustician / Virginia

Fly By Design: Australia

NOVEMBER 2019

Fly By Design: AUSTRALIA took place on November 3-10, 2019. The tour explored the cultural capitals of Eastern Australia. Guests spent four nights in Sidney and three nights in Melbourne, and experienced architectural icons, met design practitioners and explored art, cuisine, landscape, music and fashion – to better connect with the places and culture.

Pecha Kucha 2019

Three evenings of the high-energy series of short presentations.

ANC Design Week

ADF collaborated with the Anchorage Museum and AIGA Alaska on programs for Anchorage Design Week 2019.

2017/18 SPEAKER SERIES

Automata

With AUTOMATA, we were interested in understanding how embedded technology and automation change our perception of and experience in the built environment. We also wondered how robotics and advanced materials and construction methods are being utilized by designers. Our lecturers included artists and designers who employ automation in their work as well as those whose design ideas take advantage of ambient technologies.

Hugh Broughton
Architect / London

Wolfgang Buttress
Artist / Nottingham

Skylar Tibbits, MIT Self-Assembly Lab
Cambridge, MA

Maura Rockcastle and Ross Altheimer, Ten x Ten Studio
Landscape Architects / Minneapolis

Dave Pigram, supermanoeuvre
Architect & Innovator / Zurich

FLY BY DESIGN 2018

Japan

Fly By Design: JAPAN took place in March, 2018. The first half of the tour was based in Tokyo, where guests took in layers of history and architecture ranging from traditional shrines and 1960s Metabolist concrete superstructures to the creations of contemporary visionaries who push boundaries on today’s built environment.

The second half of the journey transported guests on the Shinkansen Bullet Train and a marine ferry to the countryside islands of Naoshima, Teshima, and Inujima. Contrasting the serene natural environments, guests visited museums and art installations by respected architects and artists, including Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa, Tadao Ando, James Turrell, Lee Ufan, Walter De Maria, Yayoi Kusama, and Claude Monet. Staying at the Benesse House provided special access to the wonders of these surreal art islands.

2016/17 SPEAKER SERIES

Nostalgia

NOSTALGIA celebrated the ways in which designers and artists embrace, reject or leverage the human tendency towards nostalgia, or the yearning for a previous time, place or experience.

We explored how nostalgia affects the design process consciously or unconsciously. Is there any truth to “everything old is new again”? Are there new ideas or just new re-interpretations of previous thinking?