Fall 2026 events

Buildings, swamps, and dredges; people, plants, and animals; mud, sand, and asphalt—that’s the stuff our cities are made of. Fall 2026 events at the Rice School of Architecture assemble architects, landscape practitioners, artists, and researchers to consider these entangled subjectivities and the expanded role of design across environmental scales and processes—from buildings and landscapes to material cycles and labor practices. Engaging with both human and nonhuman beings, as well as the physical and the ecological, our fall programs explore the environment as a living organism rather than a mere resource. Themes of design stewardship, adaptation, and civic engagement run through lectures, exhibitions, and public forums to create a web of dialogues about the new platforms for collective life, whether in singular locations or globally.

These considerations take on particular urgency in Houston and along the Gulf Coast, where rapid urbanization, environmental transformation, and changing climates continually reshape the relationship between the built and natural environments. The exhibition Houston, Untitled, part of the Houston Archive Project, presents photographs by Rory Gardiner that examine two mid-century icons—the Astrodome and Rice Stadium—within their broader urban context. The exhibition is accompanied by a Rice Design Chat examining questions of preservation, heritage, and the changing identity of the city.

Our annual civic forum, Gulf Coast Futures, and the symposium Swamp Systems consider the environmental and civic challenges facing communities along the Gulf Coast, while lectures by Sean Burkholder, Oscar Tuazon, Jane Hutton, and Jenny Jones explore coastal relationships, water, material flows, labor, and landscape as sites of design research and care. Jing Liu of SO–IL, Troy Schaum of Schaum Architects, and Li Hu of OPEN Architecture discuss their respective design approaches, offering perspectives on the ways architecture can respond to the changing social, cultural, and material conditions of our world. Together, these events ask how we might cultivate greater reciprocity with the environments and systems that surround us.

All lectures, exhibitions, and symposia are free, open to the public, and qualify as AIA continuing education courses.

Jing Liu, SO-IL
“Once Again with More Feeling”
September 2, 4:00 pm

Book Talk
Troy Schaum
“Blanking”
September 9, 12:00 pm

Publication Launch 
Moon-Scar City
Architecture at Rice, Pamphlet 1
Reto Geiser with Nathan Friedman
Basket Books & Art
September 15, 7:00 pm

Exhibition
Houston, Untitled
Houston Archive Project: Rory Gardiner
Exhibitions at Rice, Cannady Hall
September 25–December 5, 2026
September 25, 5:00–7:00 pm, opening

Rice Design Chats: The Stadium and the Dome—Preserving Collective Memory
Convened by Igor Marjanović and Rusty Bienvenue in conjunction with Houston, Untitled
Co-organized with AIA Houston
Exhibitions at Rice, Cannady Hall
September 26, 1:00 pm

Sean Burkholder, Dredge Research Collaborative
“Muddled Methods: Designing Coastal Relationships for an Unpredictable Future”
September 30, 4:00 pm

Oscar Tuazon
“Water School”
Co-organized with the Department of Art
Pitman Cinema Theatre, Sarofim Hall
October 1, 6:30 pm

Jane Hutton
“Still Here: How to Care for What’s Already There”
October 9, 4:00 pm

Jenny Jones, Terremoto
“Radical Gardens of Love and Interconnectedness”
October 21, 4:00 pm

Rice Civic Forum: Gulf Coast Futures—Galena Park
Convened by Amna Ansari and Albert Pope
Galena Park Resource and Training Center
October 24, 1:00 pm

Symposium
Swamp Systems
Convened by Maggie Tsang
November 6, 9:30 am–5:00 pm

Li Hu, OPEN Architecture
“OPEN for a World in Flux”
Alumni Award and Reception
November 13, 4:00 pm

Unless otherwise noted, programs are held in Farish Gallery, MD Anderson Hall, Rice University. For accessibility information, please email arch@rice.edu or call 713-348-4375. Dates and times are subject to change; please refer to our calendar of events for updates.

Exhibitions at Rice is a curatorial program and exhibition venue at the Rice School of Architecture located in Cannady Hall.

Support provided by the Betty R. and George F. Pierce Jr., FAIA, Fund; the William B. Coleman Jr. Colloquium Fund; the Wm. W. Caudill Lecture Series Fund; and other generous donors.

Fall 2026 events are organized through the office of Dean Igor Marjanović and the faculty lecture series committee led by Associate Professor Christopher Hight and Assistant Professor Maggie Tsang.

The Rice School of Architecture is an international center of design research, experimentation, and debate that engages and reconstructs our world in the most imaginative and holistic ways. We educate the next generation of architects to be at the forefront of our discipline and to embody the dual role of public intellectual and agile practitioner as they design for a world in flux.

To learn more about the Rice School of Architecture, visit arch.rice.edu. 

© 2026 Rice University, School of Architecture, 6100 Main Street MS–50, Houston, Texas 77005.