This year’s “Rendezvous With the U,” an annual event of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota, is not to be missed. Packed with a lecture, exhibition openings, and plenty of time to chat with the architectural and design cognoscenti of the Twin Cities, tonight’s event ranges across the design disciplines.
From 6 to 7 p.m., 100 Rapson Hall, Danish architect Kim Herforth Nielsen, of 3XN, will lecture on “How Architecture Shapes Behavior.” He’ll discuss the ways in which architecture provokes, calms, activates and shapes culture.
From 7 to 9 p.m., in the Rapson Hall lobby, a new exhibition, “The Importance of Drawing: Ralph Rapson’s Legacy,” will open. Rapson, of course, is the revered grandfather of architecture in Minnesota: a progenitor of the International Style, an impeccable modernist, a beloved educator, and an architect who emphasized the power and engagement of drawing. His illustrations are iconic, playful and encapsulate his love of space and people’s places in it.
Next door, also from 7 to 9 p.m., the Bell Museum will hold its reception for “Sustainable Shelter: Dwelling within the Forces of Nature,” currently on exhibition at the museum.
And that intriguing structure between Rapson Hall and the Bell, on the lawn of the Armory? It’s the College of Design students’ ICON Solar House, also open for tours. For a preview of the ICON Solar House, go here.
“Rendezvous With the U,” 6-9 p.m. tonight. Rapson Hall, University of Minnesota. Free.
