Apr. 5, Craig Dykers, “Culture/Architecture/People”

Architect Craig Edward Dykers is a native of Frankfurt, Germany, and has lived extensively in both Europe and North America. Dykers received a bachelor's degree in architecture at the University of Texas at Austin after initial studies in medicine and art. He has worked in Texas and California and later co-founded the architecture, landscape and interior design company of Snøhetta arkitektur landskap AS in Oslo, Norway, in 1989 and in New York City in 2004. He worked with the design of several key projects including the Alexandria Library in Egypt, the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo, and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York City. Other projects have included the Lillehammer Winter Olympics Art Museum and the Norwegian Embassy in Berlin.

Dykers has been a member of the Norwegian Architecture Association (NAL), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and is a Fellow in the Royal Society of Arts in England. He has been the Diploma Adjudicator at the Architectural College in Oslo and a Distinguished Professor at City College in New York City. He has lectured extensively in Europe, Asia and the Americas. In addition, Dykers has been commissioned to complete various installation art projects in public spaces, many of these focused on the notion of context, nature and human nature.

Dykers says this about his upcoming lecture: “Public and cultural buildings can very quickly become untouchable monuments or institutional and static. Snøhetta strives to create accessible architecture that while describing connections to people does not minimize the importance of gesture and form. Craig Dykers, a co-Founder of Snøhetta will discuss the company's work from its first project, the Alexandria Library in Egypt, through to the Oslo Opera House in Norway and the National September 11 Memorial and Museum in New York City.

Sponsor: Polk Stanley Wilcox Architects Sustainability Lecture

memorial

Snøhetta was commissioned to design the museum pavilion for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum (New York City). The memorial design by Michael Arad and Peter Walker was chosen in a competition that saw 5,201 submissions from 63 countries. (Image courtesy of Snøhetta.)