“It was very important for us to have a weekend that is about ideas that matter and ideas that can really transform the built environment,” Mostafavi said in an interview after Saturday night’s lecture.

On Saturday night, as guests mingled in Gund Hall, there was a tangible feeling of excitement. K. Michael Hays, associate dean for academic affairs and professor of architectural theory at GSD, said in an interview before the event that he hopes GSD’s campaign will enhance the school’s position within the network of Harvard graduate schools.

“I think the GSD, because we are very small, is sometimes regarded as not having as much capacity to bring good effects to the University in a larger sense,” he said. “I think the campaign will show that our capacity for collaboration, our capacity to interact with other disciplines is much greater than people think.... It will show them that we are big enough in terms of resources that we can collaborate.”

After the Graduate School of Design, only a handful of schools have yet to launch their pieces of the campaign, which aims to raise $6.5 billion University-wide. The Graduate School of Education will launch its fundraising effort Sept. 19.

—Staff writer Matthew Q. Clarida can be reached at matthew.clarida@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattClarida.

—Staff writer Amna H. Hashmi can be reached at amna.hashmi@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @amna_hashmi.

—Staff writer Vimal S. Konduri can be reached at vimal.konduri@thecrimson.com.