The first lecture of the spring 2007 semester sponsored by the Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning and Design will be given by Finnish architect Mikko Heikkinen.  His slide illustrated lecture entitled

Shades of Green:
Case Studies on Sustainability in Architecture

is scheduled to begin at 4:00 p.m. Monday, February 5, 2007, in the Little Theatre of the K-State Student Union.  The event is open to the public without charge.

Heikkinen is the third annual Regnier Distinguished Chair of Architecture of the K-State Department of Architecture.  He will spend several periods in residence at K-State during the 2006-2007 academic year, teaching in the fifth-year studio of Professor Gary Coates, whose students are working on the design of a Tallgrass Prairie Retreat Center for a remote site on the Tallgrass Prairie National  Preserve in Chase County, KS. The aim of the center is to help users to reconnect with nature, self and human community. It is to be a place for spiritual solitude as well as conviviality, privacy as well as community. Because of the unique nature of the site, the client also wants a facility that will stand as a working demonstration of ecologically sustainable building and landscape design.

Born in Savonlinna, Finland, Mikko Heikkinen received his Master of Science in Architecture at Helsinki University of Technology in 1975. Later in 1975, Heikkinen founded a partnership with Markku Komonen under the name Heikkinen - Komonen Architects.  The firm’s references include the Finnish Science Museum ‘Heureka’ near Helsinki (1988), the Finnish Embassy in Washington D.C. (1994), the Airport Terminal in Rovaniemi (1992), the European Film College in Denmark (1993), the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden (2001), as well as pre-fab homes for a Finnish manufacturer and schools in Guinea, Africa (1994-1999).

Heikkinen has held teaching positions at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg (1992), Städelschule in Frankfurt (1995), and Kunstakademiets Arkitektskole in Copenhagen (1998).  In 2002, he was the Ruth and Norman Moore Visiting Professor at Washington University in St. Louis.  Heikkinen has received the Finland Award (1996), the Aga Khan Award for Architecture (2001) and Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal (2003).  In 2003, Heikkinen was nominated as Artist Professor by the Arts Council of Finland.  He is an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

The Victor L. Regnier Chair in Architecture was established in 2003 through the extraordinary generosity of his children, Victor A. Regnier, Robert D. Regnier and Catherine M. Regnier, through the Victor and Helen Regnier Family Foundation of Mission, Kansas.  The purpose of the Victor L. Regnier Chair is to recruit and retain the highest quality faculty, as well as to enrich the educational experience of students by engaging architects with national and international reputations to teach annually in the Department of Architecture.  Victor A. Regnier is a 1971 K-State graduate with degrees in architecture and architectural engineering.

Attendance at the lecture can be submitted as continuing education credit by design professionals by contacting Diane Potts.

For more information, contact:
Gary Coates, 785.532.1105
Diane Potts, 785.532.1090