The Architectural Act: Building in an Unstable World

Room: Grand Lobby, 1st Floor

Architecture typically comes into being as a sequence of decisions we make in the present while thinking, more or less, about an unpredictable future. This talk will use architectural techniques to explore a mode of designing in and for the present, the moment and place we occupy together. Deirdre and Nicholas McDermott, partners of the Brooklyn-based architecture office FE, will use drawings and models to demonstrate relationships between the abstract architectural process of design and the physical act of making space.

Deirdre McDermott (AIA) received her B.Arch from the Cornell University School of Architecture. She is a co-founder and partner of FE and is a registered architect in New York State.

Nicholas McDermott (RA, LEED-AP) received his M.Arch from the Yale University School of Architecture. He is a co-founder and partner of FE and serves on the board of the non-profit Design Advocates. He teaches in the graduate design program at Yale and is a registered architect in New York State.

FE is an architecture office founded by Deirdre and Nicholas McDermott located on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, NY. The office works on cultural, residential, public space, and multi-family housing projects in New York and beyond. FE was founded on the belief that the future provides us with the opportunity to constantly improve on the past, that ideas and context matter, that previous solutions should not preclude new inventions, and that we should always work for a more positive and expansive future. We believe that every place matters but we’re committed to cities and urban spaces that bring people together.