Cocktails & Conversation: SO-IL

Cocktails & Conversation is a series of dialogues about design that joins an architect with a critic, journalist, curator, or architectural historian to discuss current design issues. For this program, Florian Idenburg and Jing Liu, Founding Principals of SO-IL, will discuss culture and time with Nicolas Kemper over a custom-crafted cocktail. Founded in 2008, SO-IL (Solid Objectives – Idenburg Liu) won the MoMA/PS1 Young Architects Program Award in 2010. 

Speakers:
Florian Idenburg, Int'l Assoc. AIA, Principal, SO-IL
Jing Liu, AIA, Principal, SO-IL

Moderator: 
Nicolas Kemper, Publisher, New York Review of Architecture 

About the Speakers:
Florian Idenburg is a founding principal of SO-IL and Professor of Practice at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art & Planning. Born in the Netherlands, he was educated at the Delft University of Technology and was previously an Associate at SANAA. In addition to Cornell, he has taught at numerous institutions including Harvard, MIT, Columbia, Princeton, and the University of Kentucky. In 2010, Idenburg received the Charlotte Kohler Prize from the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund. He is a registered architect in the Netherlands. 

Jing Liu is a founding principal of SO-IL and has been a faculty member of Columbia University’s GSAPP since 2009. Born in China, she was educated in China, Japan, and the United Kingdom, and received her MArch from Tulane University’s School of Architecture in New Orleans. In addition to Columbia, she has taught design at Syracuse University and advises the Master’s thesis at Parsons School of Design at The New School. Liu also serves on the board of the Van Alen Institute in New York. 

Nicolas Kemper is the Publisher of New York Review of Architecture, which he co-founded in 2019 and operates as a cooperative of working writers. Educated at Yale University (BA; MArch), he has worked at design firms in Kansas City, Berlin, and New York, and has written articles for multiple publications, including AA Files and Urban Omnibus.  Nicolas is an Adjunct Professor at the School of Visual Arts and at Kean University. He was awarded grants from the Graham Foundation in 2021, 2022, and 2023. 

Organized by
AIANY Architecture Dialogue Committee