The League’s FF – Distance Edition, an online version of the long-running First Friday series, will continue 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.

FF – Distance Edition brings participants on site, offering virtual access to practices’ workspaces and current projects. Following each presentation, join in an open conversation with the designers.

FUTUREFORMS is a San Francisco-based art and design studio founded and led by Jason Kelly Johnson and Nataly Gattegno. The studio has most recently focused on artwork that integrates into existing frameworks such as landscapes, infrastructural pathways, and building facades through the use of geometry, light, and shadow. FUTUREFORMS describes its work as “activating the urban realm by creating places for public exchange, celebration, or reflection.”

Completed projects include:

• Lightweave, a permanent public artwork in Washington, DC, that translates ambient sounds from the city into dynamic auroras of patterned LED light.
• Radiance, a sculptural shade canopy that seeks to foster pedestrian interactions and establishes a dynamic focal point for Chattanooga, Tennessee’s Patten Parkway.
• Constellations, an immersive artwork animated by flowing patterns and algorithmic formations of light and shadow in Pensacola, Florida.

Current and upcoming projects include:

• Levitt Pavilion, a light-filled structure in San Jose, California’s St. James Park whose design was inspired by the architecture of music and performance.
• Weatherscape, a sculptural canopy in El Paso, Texas, that channels dynamic weather conditions, triggering optical, material, and sound effects.
• 1000 Suns, a dynamic sculptural shade canopy in Sunnyvale, California, that aims to establish a lively focal point for the neighborhood and reflect the diversity of its residents and visitors.

The program will be moderated by Jesse Reiser, a professor of architecture at Princeton University and a founding principal of Reiser + Umemoto, RUR Architecture DPC. He recently became an honorary fellow of the University of Tokyo School of Engineering.