Chris Abel has lectured on many subjects in the course of his career, reflecting both the broad range of his interests and personal experience in teaching and studying architecture on six continents. Generally, his public lectures are based on his own recent researches or publications, or the work of a current experimental studio he may be running. Recurring lectures given around the world include: ‘Regional Transformations’; ‘Bio-Tech Architecture’; ‘Architecture in the Pacific Age’; ‘Asian Urban Futures’, and ‘Foster and Gehry: One Technology; Two Cultures’. Most recently, he has lectured on ‘Foster in China’, based on his long experience of covering the practice’s major works in East Asia for The Architectural Review and other publications.

As with his lectures, Chris’s seminars typically cover a wide range of topics and issues, ranging from theoretical and interdisciplinary approaches to architecture, to the current challenges presented by climate change. Past seminars have included: ‘Architecture, Philosophy and New Science’; ‘Outside Architecture’; ‘Architectural Criticism’, and Contemporary Issues in Architectural and Urban Design Theory’. As Hyde Chair of Excellence at the University of Nebraska Lincoln in 2008, Chris also led a graduate seminar on ‘Climate Change, Architecture and Culture’, in parallel with his studio on ‘The Vertical Garden City’.