Between Structure and Sky
This project explores architecture through a series of three lecture posters designed for the Dallas Architecture Forum 2025 — each one a visual introduction to an architect whose work is defined by a deep sensitivity to place, material, and the natural world.
The selection was intentional. From a roster of fifty architects, three were chosen not for stylistic similarity, but for a shared philosophical thread: a belief that great buildings don't impose on their environments — they emerge from them. Brian Mackay-Lyons, Carol Ross Barney, and Katherine Chia each practice a form of architecture rooted in restraint, material honesty, and a quiet attentiveness to light and landscape.
The design system reflects this sensibility. Rather than imposing a uniform visual template across all three posters, each was given its own material identity — a textured background drawn directly from the character of the architect's work. The typography, layout structure, and hierarchy remain consistent, but the surface changes. The result is a series that reads as a cohesive whole while honoring the distinctiveness of each voice.
01 — Brian Mackay-Lyons Mackay-Lyons Sweetapple Architects
Mackay-Lyons builds from the land up. His Nova Scotia-based practice is shaped by vernacular tradition, rural craft, and the unforgiving beauty of the Canadian landscape. The poster reflects this through a warm wood-grain background — tactile, honest, and grounded. The architect's name runs vertically along the right edge, a nod to the vertical rhythm of timber construction.
A Lecture Poster Series
02 — Carol Ross Barney Ross Barney
Carol Ross Barney has spent decades designing public infrastructure — transit stations, riverfronts, schools — with a conviction that civic architecture should be both environmentally responsible and deeply human. The poster uses raw concrete as its ground, a material synonymous with public space and urban permanence. The layout is open and structured, mirroring the accessible, community-oriented spirit of her practice.
03 — Katherine Chia Desai Chia Architecture
Katherine Chia and her partner Arjun Desai have built a practice around the threshold between interior and exterior, structure and nature. Where the other two posters feel rooted in the earth, this one breathes — light spilling through carefully considered space, held against the weight of dark stone.