Students in the Bachelor of Interior Architecture (ARIA) program held an exhibition of their work in the Dudley Gallery on March 6 in memory of Auburn University professor and alumnus Michael Hubbs. Hubbs, who died last year at age 63, was an interior architecture adjunct professor at Auburn University for nine years and a 1974 graduate of the interior design program. A group of alumni raised $2,070 dollars for a one-time scholarship in memory of Hubbs; the scholarship will be awarded at the end of spring semester to a rising fifth year thesis student in interior architecture.

Designer, urbanist and social innovator Liz Ogbu presented the final lecture in the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture’s spring 2014 lecture series, “Renegades + Outlaws: Design Thinking at the Edge.” Ogbu runs her own multidisciplinary design and consulting practice, is a faculty member at UC Berkeley and Stanford’s d school and is an IDEO.org fellow. Her lecture, “Creative Disruption: Designing Opportunities for Impact,” was on Wednesday, April 9.

The Environmental Design Program in the College of Architecture, Design and Construction (CADC) hosted Open Ground: Conversations about Communities, Design Thinking + Social Entrepreneurship, on Thursday, April 10. The forum, open to anyone interested in design thinking and socially conscious entrepreneurship, involved presentations and dialogue with thought leaders Liz Ogbu, an IDEO.org fellow from Oakland, CA, who is also on the faculty at Berkeley and the Stanford d school; Blake Canterbury from Dime Creative in Atlanta, GA; and Sara Williamson and Grant Brigham from Jones Valley Teaching Farm in Birmingham, AL.

On April 24 an exhibit of work from the NCARB Award “Urban Healthcare” studio, which will include the Alagasco winners and finalists, will open at the AIA Center for Architecture in Birmingham. Alagasco is sponsoring the opening reception and the exhibit will be up until May 3. To read more about the 52nd annual Alagasco Competition, please visit StudioAPLA.

Congratulations to School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture Rural Studio alumni Robert Gay and Lucy Begg on the inclusion of three of their projects, Santa Anna, Escaped Infrastructure, and Chromatic Confluence, in the 2014 AIA Emerging Professionals Annual Exhibition. (thoughtbarn.com)

Assistant Professor of Community Planning, Dr. Jay Mittal, spoke at the seventh session of the World Urban Forum in Medellín, Columbia on April 7. A technical forum developed by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), the Forum occurs every two years to examine issues facing global human settlements.