Sean Lally

Sean Lally
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Massachusetts Amherst University of California, Los Angeles
Occupation(s)	Architect, academic and author
Practice	Sean Lally Architecture
Website	seanlally.net nightwhiteskies.com

Sean Lally (born April 1974) is an American architect based in Lausanne, Switzerland where he is the principal of Sean Lally Architecture Sarl. He is an associate professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois Chicago. ^[1] He is known for his book The Air from Other Planets: A Brief History of Architecture to Come. ^[2]

His work looks at the implications of today's greatest pressures (climate change, healthcare and communication technologies) and how they will shape spaces and communities in the future. ^[3]

Lally was invited to present his work at La Biennale de Venezia's 17th International Architecture Exhibition. ^[4]

Education and career

Lally received his Bachelor of Science Landscape Architecture (BSLA) from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and his Master of Architecture from the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a Wortham Fellow at the Rice School of Architecture from 2002 to 2004, ^[5] and the Myles H. Thaler Visiting professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Virginia in 2018. ^[6]

In 2016, Lally began the podcast program Night White Skies to discuss design futures. ^[7] The podcast features interviews of people talking about the implications and opportunities related to an evolving global climate and a human body increasingly re-informed by communication technology. ^[8]

His projects include a public plaza design that uses below-ground air currents to affect the sidewalk’s surface temperature and a proposal for an installation outside Trump Tower in Chicago. ^[2]

He has been invited to present his work at La Biennale de Venezia's 17th International Architecture Exhibition ^[4] and as University Design Research Fellow for the 2019 Exhibit Columbus. ^[9]

Awards

Lally received the Prince Charitable Trust Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome ^[10] and the Young Architects Award from the Architectural League of New York. ^[11]

Books

Authored

• The Air From Other Planets: A Brief History of Architecture to Come (2014) ISBN 9783037783931

Edited

• Energies:New Material Boundaries: Architectural Design (2009) ISBN 9780470753637
• Softspace: From a Representation of Form to a Simulation of Space (2006) ISBN 9780415402019

Selected writings

• Tentacle Shapes Ambiguous Territories. Cathryn Dwyre, Chris Perry, David Salomon, Kathy Velikov, (eds.), Actar, 2022 ^[12]
• Alternate Realities’’, Landscape Architecture Magazine, March 2022 ^[13]
• Thanks for Asking Larry, A fictional Response to an Actual Question, Canadian Center for Architecture. October 2017 ^[14]
• Let's Touch Volume #46: Shelter, November 2015
• The Shape of Energy Projective Ecologies. Chris Reed and Nina-Marie Lister, (eds.), Actar, 2014.

Selected projects

• Shaped Touch, La Biennale de Venezia, the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, Arsenale, Venice Italy 2021 Curated by Hashim Sarkis ^[4]
• The Long Now, Installation as part of Exhibit Columbus, Columbus, Indiana, 2019
• EOS Series, Untitled One, Untitled Two, Untitled Three
• Gdansk Museum of World War II, Two Stage International Competition, Gdansk, Poland
• Tamula Lakeside Planning, Two-stage competition Voru, Estonia
• Estonian Academy of Arts, Two-stage competition, Tallinn, Estonia
• Amplification, Installation as part of the Gen(h)ome Project, MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles, USA ^{[15] [16]}
• Cheltenham Museum Addition, One stage Competition, Cheltenham, England

References

1. "Architecture at UIC". arch.uic.edu.
2. "Sean Lally: Energy as Architecture". Metropolis. Retrieved 2025-02-21.
3. "Sean Lally | Architecture at UIC". arch.uic.edu.
4. "Biennale Architettura 2021 | Homepage 2021". La Biennale di Venezia. January 11, 2019.
5. "Wortham Fellows | Architecture | Rice University". arch.rice.edu.
6. "UVA SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE WELCOMES FALL 2018 VISITING FACULTY". University of Virginia School of Architecture.
7. "Night White Skies". nightwhiteskies.libsyn.com.
8. ""Night White Skies" Podcast Explores How the Design of Our Environment and Our Bodies is Changing Architecture". ArchDaily. November 19, 2016.
9. "Sean Lally - Exhibit Columbus".
10. Rome, American Academy in. "Sean Lally". American Academy in Rome.
11. "No Precedent: Architectural League Prize Winners Announced | Architect Magazine".
12. "Ambiguous Territory - Actar Publishers".
13. "Alternate Realities | Landscape Architecture Magazine". landscapearchitecturemagazine.org. March 17, 2022.
14. Architecture (CCA), Canadian Centre for. "2017: Thanks for Asking, Larry". www.cca.qc.ca.
15. "Open Source Architecture | Schindler Lab". schindlerlab.org.
16. "Sensing future environments: Sean Lally | Landscape Australia".