Ohio State’s Austin E. Knowlton School of Architecture offers its students the opportunity to meet “big name” architects through a series of lectures.

According to a description of the architecture program on the OSU Web site, KSA offers a series of lectures in autumn, winter and spring quarters.

The lectures are geared toward giving students an idea of what goes on in the professional world of architecture and landscape architecture.

Students are encouraged to develop an individual and inclusive approach to design and planning through exposure to a wide range of contemporary design and planning philosophies and a variety of technical and scientific methodologies.

“The lectures are open to the public as well as the students,” said Amy Carey, communications coordinator for the architecture school. “Most of our audience are students from the architecture program, but we do tend to get other students as well.”

The lectures are held each quarter in the Knowlton Hall Auditorium on various days at 5:30 p.m.

“Because architecture and landscape are both design disciplines, there is a strong tendency to bring in a speaker with a design focus,” said Wendy Wolpert, assistant to the director of the school.

“The lecturers not only come in and speak to the students, but they also stay for a couple of days and teach a class here at the university.”

Some of the lecturers who come to speak are Antoine Picon, who spoke last Wednesday. He is a professor of the history of architecture and technology as well as the director of the doctoral program at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Another lecturer is Sheila Kennedy, a founder of Kennedy & Violich Architecture. Her professional practice explores new possibilities for architecture and urbanism in the contemporary public realm, according to the company’s Web site.

Petra Blaisse, author of “Inside Outside,” is scheduled to speak May 2.

On Wednesday, April 19, Mimi Hoang and Eric Bunge, founders of nArchitects, will be speaking in the Knowlton auditorium.

They design and oversee the construction of buildings, installations, exhibitions and interiors, according to the OSU Web site.

“The idea was to bring in big and emerging names, so that students could have a first-hand look at where the design community is headed,” Wolpert said.

Along with other features that the architecture program offers, such as design studios and state of the art equipment, some students see the lectures as insightful.

“I find the lectures to be intellectually stimulating,” said Sam Rapopart, a junior in architecture. “They really let you know about what the other architects’ interests are, and about ideas and views that go on outside of the school.”

In conjunction with the lectures and studio facilities, which allow students to practice architectural design, KSA offers essential courses in structures, construction, environmental systems and professional procedures.

These courses are combined with an energetic series of studios and seminars that address issues in history, technology and computers in critical theory.

“To me its a liberal type of education, and it makes you think about the world in a different way,” Rapopart said.