Michelle Provoost in Conversation

Lars Lerup is the William Ward Watkin Professor, and former dean, at the Rice University School of Architecture. Born in Sweden, Professor Lerup holds degrees in engineering, architecture, and urban design. He is a Doctor of Technology, honoris causa, at Lunds Tekniska Hogskola, Sweden. In 2003, Lerup was awarded a distinguished professorship by the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture and is a member of the Swiss Foundation for the International Institute of Architecture in Vico Morcote. Lerup has lectured and exhibited around the world and has written several books and some fifty essays that have been published internationally. His design work includes projects and competitions for new towns, housing, and furniture. His most recent exhibition was held at the Menil Foundation in Houston.

Michelle Provoost is an architectural historian, curator and consultant on urban planning and architecture affairs. She presently directs the INTI International New Town Institute. After finishing her studies at Groningen University she taught and lectured there, before establishing the office Crimson Architectural Historians in 1994, in Rotterdam. With Crimson she has engaged in a large number of research and design projects in the fields of urban planning, architecture and art. She is a former curator at the Netherlands Architectural Institute, where she organized two major exhibitions and edited the accompanying publications. She was a staff member and project leader of WiMBY!, an urban regeneration project in Rotterdam-Hoogvliet. She completed her doctoral dissertation on the Dutch architect Hugh Maaskant.