This autumn’s Open Architecture Lecture Series is curated by Mira Samonig, a doctoral student at the EKA Faculty of Architecture and one of the curators of the 2026 Tallinn Architecture Biennale, under the overarching title Standby.
On November 19 at 6 pm Zoë Ritts will give a lecture “Loving, Iron: The spatial envelopes of German migration law” at EKA lecture hall A-101.
Zoë Ritts is an architect from Toronto / Tkarón:to, based between Berlin and New Haven. She is currently pursuing a post-professional Master of Environmental Design at Yale University, directed by Keller Easterling. Her practice spans art, design and writing; her research focuses on the politics of urban space and inhabitation. She has cofounded several artistic projects, such as Architektur-In-Residency e.V. or Questions on Dwelling, and taught design and theory at Technische Universität München and Humboldt-Universität Berlin. She has edited publications on architecture, art and urbanism, including Para-Platforms (co-edited with Markus Miessen, Sternberg Press, 2019), The Office of Good Intentions: Human(s) Work (Taschen, 2022), “Designing Justice in the City” (City 28, 2024).
In this lecture, she will share her current research on how migration law writes itself into space and bodies. Drawing on examples from actual design practices and legal frameworks, the talk works toward practices of resistance under legal and physical pressure.
Within the framework of a series of open lectures, the Faculty of Architecture of EKA presents a dozen unique practitioners and valued theorists in the field in Tallinn every academic year.
The lectures are intended for all disciplines, not only for students and professionals in the field of architecture.
Autumn 2026 programme:
October 1 – Alejandro Aravena “Elemental’s Toolkit”
October 15 – Gabu Heindl “Radical democracy in thinking, building, maintaining”
November 19 – Zoë Ritts “Loving, Iron: The spatial envelopes of German migration law”
November 26 – Mireia Luzárraga “Unlearning the Anthropocene”
All lectures are held on Thursdays at 6 pm in the EKA main auditorium. All lectures are in English and free of charge.
The lecture series is supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Previous open architecture lectures can be viewed at www.avatudloengud.ee