Steven Holl on Air / Light / Greenspace: A Post-COVID Architecture

The integration of air, light, and greenspace has consistently motivated Steven Holl’s work. During a period of global pandemic, the need to carefully consider these aspects of the built environment is greater than ever before. This lecture focuses on past projects of Steven Holl Architects that hold potential lessons for a post-COVID architecture, focusing on principles such as the embrace of greenspace and landscape, maximizing fresh air and natural light, the facilitation of open circulation for social spaces, and ecological integration and innovation. **Please note that there is a delay in the recording between 0:05:12–0:06:00 due to connection issues. There are no further delays in the video.** About the 2020-2021 Soane Lecture Series: Color and Light In 1780, John Soane returned from the Grand Tour with a fresh eye for light and color — daylight streaming through an oculus, marbles aglow in amber dusk, a rich red fragment of wall plaster from Pompeii. In the years that followed, Soane became obsessed with light and the effects it could produce, deploying colored and stained glass, richly pigmented surfaces, and increasingly inventive lighting strategies throughout his interiors to generate dramatic, ever-changing scenes. Today, Sir John Soane’s Museum in London stands as a testament to the architect’s bravura manipulation of color and light, brimming with “exquisite hues and magical effects” (in the words of Soane’s friend, the novelist Barbara Hofland) enjoyed by thousands of visitors each year. Inspired by Soane, our 2020-2021 lecture series considers the interplay of light and color across periods and disciplines, from Soane’s world to the arenas of art, architecture, and design in the twenty-first century.