Alan Dunlop, partner in Gordon Murray and Alan Dunlop Architects (gm+ad) has been invited to give this year's Oscar Ekdahl Memorial Lecture at Kansas State University College of Architecture, Planning and Design.

Alan will deliver the lecture: 'Big Ideas from a Small Place', on April 6th 2009.

He will present the recent work of gm+ad and will be the first architect from the United Kingdom to be asked to give Kansas State University's most prestigious lecture on architecture.

"To be invited to deliver the Ekdahl Memorial Lecture is an honour, said Dunlop, as well as recognition of the work of the practice and more generally of the quality of architecture in Scotland. To be asked to join the list of internationally respected architects who have given the Ekdahl and present our work is a wonderful opportunity."


Dunlop will follow a high profile line of internationally respected architects, including Professor Alfred Jacoby Director of DIA at the Bauhaus Dessau, Madrid-based architect Alberto Campo Baeza and distinguished Argentinean architect, educator Miguel Angel Roca.

Founded nearly 40 years ago as a memorial to honour Topeka architect and KSU alumnus Oscar Ekdahl, the lectures bring together practitioners academics, theorists and artists on campus to interact with students, faculty and the public.

A concern for issues affecting the quality of the physical environment and the leadership roles played by the speakers characterise the Ekdahl series, which is structured to challenge and to inform and to complement the educational programs of the College of Architecture, Planning and Design.

gm+ad is recognised for the innovative nature of its projects. In the 12 years that the partnership has been established it has won over thirty five national and international awards, including Europa Nostra; Royal Institute of British Architects Awards; the Scottish Design Awards: Grand Prix for Architecture; a Special Award from the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland; a British Construction Industry: Best Practice Award; a Designshare Honor Award and two International Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum.

(GK/JM)