Sustainability in Northern Design
Jan 28, 2024
Larson Hall at American Swedish Institute
Part of the Climate Solutions Series
Tickets: Free
Halifax-based, award-winning architect Omar Gandhi will join Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD) President Sanjit Sethi for a conversation about environmental inspiration and sustainable design in Northern climates. Gandhi will provide case studies of special projects as well as ideas for aspiring designers, architects, students, and homeowners.
Come early for coffee and conversation!
Please join the Consulate General of Canada in Minneapolis for an informal, no-host coffee hour and conversation with Canadian speakers Soren Brothers, Curator of Climate Change at the Royal Ontario Museum, and Omar Ghandi, award-winning architect based in Halifax. Join us from 10-11 on Sun, Jan 28 at Fika's coffee bar outside of Larson Hall on the second floor of ASI for an intimate opportunity to connect with two of Canada's leaders in imagining a more sustainable future.
About the Panelists
Omar Gandhi is the Principal of Omar Gandhi Architects, an architectural practice founded in 2010 with small teams in both Halifax and Toronto.
In its early years, the studio was awarded the Canada Council for the Arts Professional Prix de Rome, was included in Wallpaper* Magazine’s (London, UK), Architects Directory, and Omar himself was named as one of Monocle Magazine’s (London, UK) ‘Most Influential Canadians’. Omar was chosen as one of the Architectural League of New York’s ‘Emerging Voices’ of 2016.
In 2018, Omar was appointed the Louis I. Kahn visiting Assistant Professor in Architectural Design—an Endowed Professorship at the Yale School of Architecture. Most recently, Omar Gandhi Architect was the recipient of a 2018 Governor General’s Medal in Architecture for its work on Rabbit Snare Gorge and honored as the only Canadian practice in Architectural Record Magazine’s (United States) 2018 Design Vanguard. In 2020, the studio was part of the team awarded the new Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and in 2021, completed the revitalization of one of Canada’s most Iconic landmarks, Peggy’s Cove. Omar was made a Fellow of the Royal Architectural Association of Canada in 2022.
Sanjit Sethi (moderator) has more than two decades of experience as an artist, curator, and cultural leader. Sethi’s previous positions include Director of the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at George Washington University, Director of the Center for Art and Public Life, Barclay Simpson Professor, and Chair of Community Arts at the California College of the Arts; and Executive Director of the Santa Fe Art Institute. Additionally, Sethi has taught at the Srishti School of Art, Design, and Technology; the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Sethi received a BFA from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University, an MFA in Ceramics from University of Georgia, and an MS in Advanced Visual Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sethi has been awarded numerous grants and fellowships, including a grant from the Robert Rauschenberg foundation, and a Fulbright Fellowship to India.
As an artist and curator, Sethi’s work has spanned different media and geographies. Past works include the Kuni Wada Bakery Remembrance; Richmond Voting Stories; the Gypsy Bridge project. Recent curatorial projects have included Spiked: The Unpublished Political Cartoons of Rob Rogers and the upcoming exhibition, 6.13.89 The Canceling of the Mapplethorpe Exhibition.
Sanjit Sethi is the 19th President of the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
The Climate Solutions Series is made possible through the generous support of The McKnight Foundation.