Internationally renowned architect Davide Garda will be speaking about the Modernist architecture movement and its failed relationship to the environment in the Bowen-Thompson Student Union Theatre tonight.’ The University chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students in collaboration with the architecture department will be hosting Garda as part of their monthly lecture series. ‘It’s a lecture on modernism,’ AIAS University President Drew Cowdry said. ‘And Modernism has kind of been blamed for a lot of the problems we have in contemporary society. Things like urban sprawl and city planning issues, more or less.’ Garda represents the series first international architect, and is well qualified for the subject, Architecture and Environmental Design Instructor Audra Magermans said. Magermans is a former student and employee of Garda, who was her professor at Francisco Marroquin University in Guatemala, where he continues to teach. He holds a doctorate in Bioclimatic Architecture from the University of California, Berkley and a Ph.D. in Architecture from Universtia degli studi di Genova, in Italy, among others, Magermans said.’ Garda’s lecture will cover the Modernist architecture movements complete disregard to the environment, Magermans said.’ Most lecturers in the past tended to speak about their own work and research, but this lecture will be more about the theoretical side of architecture, Cowdry said. The event will be pertinent, not just to architecture students but to anyone even remotely interested in design and contemporary society, Cowdry said. The issue affects everyone because most of the architecture in the United States was influenced by the Modernist movement and relates to a lot of the environmental issues we are facing today, Magermans said. ‘I think it gives us a nice understanding of our mistakes done in the past and how we can avoid them,’ Magermans said. ‘Even if you are not an architecture student or you’re not an architect it relates, I think, to everyday because ultimately you’re the user. You live in those buildings and interact in them every day, so the decisions that an architect makes are going to affect a lot of people eventually.” The lecture will take place at 6:30 p.m.