By using modern digital techniques, Mark Rakatansky, adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University, believes architects can learn more about a building’s cultural and social significance. He will present “Past/Present/Future Tense” on Friday, Nov. 10 at 5 p.m. in Pence Hall 209.

The lecture explores how Rakatansky has been engaging design elements as actors that act and react in and through social space, through a range of scales in architecture, interiors, graphics, products and urbanism. These themes of transformative performance are addressed throughout his writing, from his theoretical essays collected in Tectonic Acts of Desire and Doubt (Architectural Association, 2012) to his recent historical research in the digital humanities focused on Italian architecture from the 16th century to the 20th century.

Rakatansky has received a diverse range of awards in architecture, urbanism and graphic design. His project Open Stacks was selected for the 2013 Little Free Libraries/New York in association with Architectural League of New York and the PEN World Voices Festival. His designs and installations have also been exhibited in The Getty Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), Künstlerhaus Stuttgart, Louisiana Museum, University of California at Los Angeles, The Urban Center, and Yale University.