Architecture professor Deborah Richards recently lectured on “Architecture, Space and Time: How Ontology has Inspired Innovation in Architectural Surfaces.” Her lecture was sponsored by the OU Humanities Forum. Richards is a 2018 Humanities Forum Fellow.
During her lecture, Richards explored how a surface condition in architecture can be generated and understood through philosophical framings in three different ways: surface can be generated as a continuous field, the crust of an object, or as a narrative.
Prior to the lecture, Richards invited attendees to read excerpts from Stan Allen’s Points + Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City (1999), as well as Mark Foster Gage’s essay, “Killing Simplicity: Object-Oriented Philosophy in Architecture” (2015), and Bruno Latour and Albena Yaneva’s essay, “‘Give Me a Gun and I Will Make All Buildings Move’: An ANT’s View of Architecture” (2008).
This lecture offered a preface to her Humanities Forum-funded Surface Flux project, which she is completing with architecture professor Ken Marold. Richards and Marold plan to use parametric design to produce three different surfaces.
Surface Flux “investigates the ways in which the physical environment can be understood and shaped through different philosophical perspectives. Three unique surfaces will be computationally designed and digitally fabricated as part of a final exhibit. The first surface will explore networks, the second will explore objects, and the third will explore the tension between the two, while also engaging the viewer as part of the built environment narrative."
An exhibition of “Surface Flux” is planned for Oklahoma City in Spring 2019.
The Gibbs College of Architecture celebrates fifth-year architecture student Haley Praytor, who has been recognized at the national level for her design work. In early March, Haley received a Graduate Division Award of Merit for her submission to the 2025 Metal Building Manufacturers Association student design competition.
Ronald Frantz Jr., emeritus professor, has been named a 2026 Mary Means Leadership Award recipient, the highest honor presented by Main Street America. The award was announced at the Main Street Now Conference in Tulsa, recognizing leaders who advance preservation-based economic development and community revitalization.
The Gibbs Design in Action Awards (GDAA) program, led by Dr. Wanda Liebermann, has announced its 2026–2027 funded student projects. The initiative supports design and research work that addresses social, cultural, and economic issues in the built environment through collaboration with faculty and community partners.
