Join us on Thursday, February 24th, 6:30-8:30 pm for a reception, lecture, and discussion with Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, Space Popular

Distant Crowds

In collaboration with the Helms Bakery District and the Cal Poly SLO LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design

HELMS DESIGN CENTER        
8745 Washington Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232

Free Parking is available at the corner of Helms Ave. and Venice Blvd.

Lecture is Free and Open to the Public

Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg

Space Popular is directed by Lara Lesmes and Fredrik Hellberg, both alumni of the Architectural Association in London (2011). They founded the practice in Bangkok (2013) and have been based in London and Spain since 2016. Space Popular creates spaces, objects, and events in both physical and virtual space, concentrating on how the two realms can blend together. The studio has completed buildings, exhibitions, public artworks, furniture collections, and interiors across Asia and Europe, as well as virtual architecture for the immersive internet. Clients, collaborators, and commissioners include national institutions such as MAXXI – National Museum of 21st Century Art, Rome, Italy; The Swedish Centre for Architecture and Design –ArkDes, Stockholm, Sweden; Royal Institute of British Architects, London, UK; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul, South Korea; as well as independent galleries such as MAGAZIN, Vienna, Austria; and Sto Werkstatt, London, UK.

Lesmes and Hellberg both have extensive academic experience having taught architectural design studio since 2011, first at INDA, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok from 2011 to 2016, at the Architectural Association in London from 2016 to 2021, and currently at Daniels, Faculty of Architecture, University of Toronto since 2020, and UCLA Architecture and Urban Design since 2022. Their current MArch design and research studios both at Daniels and UCLA investigates visions for civic architecture in the immersive internet.

Introduced and moderated by Stephen Phillips, AIA, PhD, Principal of Stephen Phillips Architects (SPARCHS) and professor, director, Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) and Jimenez Lai, Principal of Bureau Spectacular and faculty, Cal Poly LA Metro Program in Architecture and Urban Design (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)

Photos (Left to Right): Image of Lara Lesmes, Image of Arquia Proxima, 2020, Image of Fredrik Hellberg.