FF - Distance Edition: Ants of the Prairie

The League’s FF – Distance Edition, an online version of the long-running First Friday series, continues on Thursday evenings. This season’s events feature design practices that are redefining the contemporary public landscape by responding to social and environmental concerns and exploring the intersections of architecture, technology, and ecology.

In the words of its director, Joyce Hwang, Ants of the Prairie is an architecture and research practice dedicated to “confronting the pleasures and horrors of our contemporary ecologies.” For over a decade, the practice has “explored the gaps in the logics of sustainability, with attention to designing for biodiversity enhancement and environmental justice.” In its recent prototypes and experimental designs, Ants of the Prairie has focused on incorporating habitats for non-human species into the built environment.

The presentation is followed by a Q+A moderated by Lola Sheppard and Mason White, the founding partners of Lateral Office in Toronto, Canada. Sheppard is a professor at the University of Waterloo School of Architecture in Ontario, Canada, and White is a professor at the University of Toronto, John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design.