Famed Architect Antoine Predock to Keynote Vectorworks Design Summit 2018

Global design and BIM software provider, Vectorworks, Inc., has announced its design keynote speaker for its upcoming 2018 Vectorworks Design Summit. Celebrated and award-winning architect Antoine Predock, of Antoine Predock Architect, will deliver a talk titled “Site Specificity and the Aura of Globalization.”

The conference for Vectorworks users takes place 4-6 November 2018 at the Sheraton Grand at Wild Horse Pass, in Phoenix, Arizona.

Keynote Highlights

Predock’s speech will educate attendees on how they must tune into the context of the people and the vibe of a place and how strong connections to those items can lead to innovative and distinctive design.

Key Takeaway

Predock demonstrates that the Vectorworks brand is strong with world-renowned architects while the shift in the schedule this year for the Design Summit itself has more to do with putting more distance between the annual release and a demanding conference. 

Predock will share his experience balancing the physical and digital sides of design. Predock will also talk about his wide-ranging projects, from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, which is now featured on the Canadian ten dollar bill, to the Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q), a College of Media and Communications, to the Luxe Lake Gateway and Art Center in Chengdu, China. A Vectorworks user for 25 years, Predock will explain how the software played a role in these projects.

Software Keynote

While Predock’s keynote takes place on the second day of the conference, on the first day Dr. Biplab Sarkar, CEO, will focus on the company’s strategic vision and direction regarding current trends and future technology. Attendees at this keynote will get a closer look at what will be the latest version of the software—Vectorworks 2019—anticipated for a fall release this year.

“Unlike our competition that develops products for a single industry, we have the advantage of being able to innovate across multiple industries and serve a broad array of designers. This gives us an advantage in that we can see and embrace innovations that they cannot,” said Vectorworks CEO Dr. Biplab Sarkar. “Year after year, the Vectorworks Design Summit is the best place to learn how Vectorworks has advanced and to get up and running with our latest technology.”

More Details

In addition to these two inspiring keynotes, the conference will include 90+ industry sessions and workshops, one-on-one tech support, networking events and hands-on training. Multiple sessions will offer continuing education credits.

Secure your spot at the ultimate training event and register today by visiting vectorworks.net/design-summit.

Press can register for free by emailing Vectorworks Senior Communications Manager Lisa Lance at [email protected]. Join the Summit conversation by following and engaging with #VectorworksDesignSummit.

Architosh Analysis and Commentary

Predock is another architect, educated in the mid-twentieth century, who is firmly grounded in a culture of drawing as experience and understanding. His site is filled with examples of his many travel drawings; the drawings are an expression, on many levels, of his philosophy of architecture. It should be interesting to attendees to hear him talk about the digital world of software and how that relates and connects back to this highly personal philosophy so firmly grounded in drawings. 

Predock’s work has been related to or deemed critical regionalism. In this sense, it relates to work of other famous critical regionalists, like Swiss architect Mario Botta. Unlike his Swiss contemporary, however, Predock is less self-referential and his work reflects various contexts. He writes on his website, “The lessons I’ve learned here [in New Mexico] about responding to the forces of a place can be implemented anywhere. I don’t have to invent a new methodology for new contexts. It is as if New Mexico has already prepared me.”