Phase 2 Reviews // 14-15 January 2021

Nahmad / bhooshan STUDIO

GAMIFICATION / ROBOTIC FABRICATION / MASS-CUSTOMIZED DESIGN

The studio explores robotic fabrication while enabling mass-customisation strategies that can compete with contemporary co-living models in highly productive cities. The promise of mass-customisation integrated with new models of housing now allows for the generation of a vibrant community fabric.

Schumacher STUDIO

PARAMETRIC SEMIOLOGY / HIGH DENSITY / MULTI-AUTHORED URBANISM

The studio extrapolates from recent urban concentration processes for further intensification. Ecological challenges like climate change in general and rising sea levels in particular point to the wisdom urban densification. Densification is mandated by the transformation of cities from industrial centres to knowledge and innovation centres where the collaborative integration of self-directed, creative labour processes mandates the full exploitation of colocation synergies in hyper-dense, permeable urban fabrics. The proposal envisions a new high-rise district between the City of London and Canary Wharf, straddling both sides of the river. Four teams, each with four architects simulate the potential for a multi-author urbanism that generates a legible order and unity across a highly differentiated 3D urban fabric. The project assumes the hegemony of tectonism as precondition for achieving the required density of differentiation and correlation.

Spyropoulos Studio

DISASTER COMPLEXITY / AUTONOMOUS / ANTICIPATORY / AGENT-BASED

The studio challenges the fixed and finite orthodoxies of building design for a latent and unknown world. The studio examines scenario-based design through autonomous, self-structuring constructs. We propose high population based deployable systems that examine post disaster complexities. Issues of mass migration, post-earthquake housing and hospitals on demand are some of the challenges undertaken towards the development of an instantaneous response infrastructure.

Reviews day 1 // January 14th 2021

CRITICS: DR. VERONIKA VALK-SISKA / SUHAIR KAHN / NASSIA INGLESIS / HINA JAMELLE / ALI RAHIM / ROB STUART-SMITH / MARTA MALE-ALEMANY / PETER TESTA / PAULO FLORES

https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogramme/whatson/architecture-and-urbanism-drl-march-final-jury

MORNING SESSION // 12PM-3PM GMT

[symbios]City

ESC

polis

afternoon SESSION // 4PM-6PM GMT

vertporo

bring hospital to you

keynote lecture // january 14th 6:30pm gmt

Albert Williamson-Taylor, "Design and Engineering" (AA school link to the event)

REVIEWS DAY 2 // JANUARY 15TH 2021

CRITICS: DR. VERONIKA VALK-SISKA / SUHAIR KAHN / NASSIA INGLESIS / HINA JAMELLE / ALI RAHIM / ROB STUART-SMITH / MARTA MALE-ALEMANY / JELLE FERINGA / WOLF PRIX

https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/publicprogramme/whatson/architecture-and-urbanism-drl-march-final-jury-day-2

MORNING SESSION // 12PM-3PM GMT

INDUSTRIALIS3D

seismos

MORPHIELD

afternoon SESSION // 4PM-6:00PM GMT

interwoven

radical grAVITY

Skyscape

Invited Guest Critics:

Dr. Veronika Valk-Siska is an architect and researcher at the Estonian TalTech Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies, School of Engineering and of Smart City Centre of Excellence. She Chairs of an Open Method of Coordination (OMC) group of EU Member States’ experts on High-quality architecture and built environment for everyone. The OMC that is administrated by European Commission operates in accordance with the Work Plan for Culture 2019-2022. She has served as an advisor on architecture and design at the Ministry of Culture of Estonia and has helped to kick-start the Spatial Design Expert Group by the Government Office of Estonia. At TalTech, Dr Valk-Siska teaches courses in architectural design and supervises Master and PhD theses. Dr Valk-Siska has been a partner researcher in different projects in the EU H2020, FP7, Nordic and Baltic research programmes. Prior to joining TalTech, Dr Valk-Siska established a practice based Doctoral Program in Architecture and Urban Planning at the Estonian Academy of Arts and served as the Head of the Programme. She was the Artistic Director of Tallinn Festival of Light in 2005-2008. Today, she is also an Advisory Board Member of the Tallinn Architecture Biennale and Member of Advisory Board of the Architects Association in Estonia.

Suhair Khan Suhair is Lead of Strategic Projects at Google, prior to heading UK Partnerships and Global Projects for Google Arts & Culture. Khan is based in London, and her work has focused on the nexus of art, culture, storytelling, and technology. Recently she has led major collaborations with institutions such as the National Gallery, the Science Museum, the Serpentine Galleries, the V&A, the Mayor of London's office, the British Fashion Council, the Royal Collections Trust, and the Prince's Foundation. A long-time Googler, she has been based in California, Singapore and New York City. Her advisory roles centre around social impact, culture, design, and technology. Khan is a graduate of both Cornell University and Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. Formerly an investment banker in New York City, she has also written for Vogue, Conde Nast Traveler, and Architectural Digest.

Nassia Inglessis is an Artist, Engineer and Designer based in London and Athens. She founded Studio INI as an experimental practice that couples rigorous design and scientific research with public engagement in immersive and experiential installations. The past body of work of her practice, Studio INI, has included erecting a 17m long flexing wall of recycled plastic and spring steel that deconstructs upon the human’s presence and command in Disobedience - first exhibited in the heart of London, Somerset House, continuing its journey to India, the Middle East and across the globe to challenge the static constructs in both physical and cultural architecture across nations; crafting material lenses by co-opting automated with hand-driven pneumatic manipulations of molten glass to transform space via light caustics in the Victoria and Albert Museum, V&A - London and designing dynamic physical megaphones at architectural scale that can convert an urban environment of steel, concrete, rubber, and glass into a malleable canopy. A canopy that transforms to create a space unique to each individual amplifying and resonating their imprint through the vastness of New York City’s landscape.

Hina Jamelle is Senior Lecturer and Director of Urban Housing at the University of Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design. She has held the Visiting Schaffer Practice Professorship at the University of Michigan. Jamelle has co-edited two issues of Architectural Design AD titled IMPACT [2020] and Elegance [2007]. Her forthcoming book UNDER PRESSURE on Urban Housing will be published in 2021. She has lectured widely in North America, Europe, and Asia. She is co-director of the New York and Shanghai based firm Contemporary Architecture Practice. Founded in 1999, the firm has been known for its futuristic designs using digital techniques and the latest technologies for the design and manufacturing of architecture.

Ali Rahim is Professor of Architecture and Director of the MSD-AAD Program at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the Director of CAP in SoHo, New York City. Mr. Rahim has served as the Studio Zaha Hadid Visiting Professor at the University of Applied Arts (die Angewandte) in Vienna, as the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professor at Yale University, and as a Visiting Architecture Professor at Harvard University. His books include Catalytic Formations: Architecture and Digital Design (20012), published by the China Building Press, Beijing; Catalytic Formations: Architecture and Digital Design (2006), published by Routledge, London; Turbulence (2011), published by Norten and Company, New York; and three edited issues of Architectural Design, Elegance (2007), co-edited with Hina Jamelle, Contemporary Techniques in Architecture (2002), and Contemporary Processes in Architecture (2000).

Wolf D. Prix, born in 1942 in Vienna, is co-founder, Design Principal and CEO of COOP HIMMELB(L)AU. He studied architecture at the Vienna University of Technology, the Architectural Association of London as well as at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in Los Angeles. Amongst others, Wolf D. Prix taught at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc), Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia University, UCLA University of California and Yale School of Architecture. From 2003-2012 he was a Vice-Rector and Head of the Institute of Architecture at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. Wolf D. Prix is counted among the originators of the deconstructivist architecture movement. COOP HIMMELB(L)AU had its international breakthrough with the invitation to the exhibition „Deconstructivist Architecture“ at MoMA New York in 1988. Over the years Wolf D. Prix/ COOP HIMMELB(L)AU was awarded with numerous international architecture awards.

Marta Male-Alemany is a researcher and curator specialised in the relationship and integration between design and digital production technologies. Her focus is innovating industrial design and construction with novel material solutions and building processes, to expand their creative possibilities and address today’s global challenges. In practice, she has applied this approach in architectural interiors, large-scale installations and building applications. In academia, she accumulates a wide experience teaching advanced design studios and seminars in US and European architectural schools (UCLA Los Angeles, SCIArc Los Angeles, UPENN Philadelphia, MIT Boston, AA London, IAAC Barcelona and other), where she founded and directed several Master and Post-graduate programs. Currently, she is a Head Lecturer in Digital Production at the Faculty of Technology of AUAS - HvA (Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences – Hogeschool van Amsterdam), and is part of the Urban Technology Research Program –which includes 80+ researchers focussed on Mobility & Logistics, Urban Design, Energy Systems and Circular Design & Production - Within the chair of Circular Design & Production, Marta guides the implementation of digital production for Research and Education, seeking solutions that contribute to the Circular Economy of the city.

Rob Stuart-Smith is a co-founding director of international architecture and design practice Robert Stuart-Smith Design, the tech company Behavioural Robotics, and co-founding partner of the design-computation research group - Kokkugia. Robert’s work operates at the forefront of innovation and is enhanced through his engagement in academic research and teaching. Robert is the co-founding director of two Autonomous Manufacturing Labs, one based in Architecture (AML-Penn) and the other in Computer Science (AML-UCL) where he conducts funded research on multi-robot fabrication and construction. He is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at University of Pennsylvania, and Principal Research Associate at University College of London’s Department of Computer Science. Robert was previously a Studio Course Master at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London for eight years, running a design studio in the AA’s Design Research Laboratory, and has also taught architecture at University of Innsbruck, RMIT University, Washington University, and UEL.

Ross Lovegrove is a designer and visionary whose work is considered to be at the very apex of stimulating a profound change in the physicality of our three-dimensional world. Inspired by the logic and beauty of nature his design possesses a trinity between technology, materials science and intelligent organic form, creating what many industrial leaders see as the new aesthetic expression for the 21st Century. There is always embedded a deeply human and resourceful approach in his designs, which project an optimism, and innovative vitality in everything he touches from cameras to cars to trains, aviation and architecture.

Peter Testa is a founding partner and design principal at Testa & Weiser, and Senior Design Faculty at SCI-Arc. At Testa & Weiser, he leads a wide range of projects, for some of the world’s most innovative companies and institutions. His firm is widely regarded as an international design leader bridging the digital and physical. His work has been exhibited at museums and galleries worldwide and is part of the permanent collection at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA). His writing on design and theory has appeared in international art, architecture and design journals. Honors include the MIT Innovation Award, three Graham Foundation Awards, the Municipal Art Society of New York Architecture Award, and the Design Arts Award of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2016 Testa & Weiser’s work was featured in ‘Archeology of the Digital’ at the CCA and Yale School of Architecture. His most recent book, “Robot House: Instrumentation, Representation, Fabrication,” was published by Thames & Hudson in Summer 2017.

Paulo Flores joined ZHA in 2007 and was made senior associate in 2016, in 2018 he was made associate director. He leads the firm’s Front-End Design Research Team, which inputs to a wide variety of project types, with focus on development of the firm’s creative approach to early concept design. He previously worked for practices in Italy and Mexico. Paulo Leads the Z Cluster group which is a large design team within the practice responsible for design exploration on new projects, with focus on expanding and developing ZHA’s creative approach and repertoire to the early conceptual stages of project development.

Jelle Feringa is an architecture and robotics specialist and as CTO of Aectual responsible for the development and production of tailor-made building products at a mass scale. While developing his PhD thesis at TU Delft, Jelle established a full robotics lab in the docks of Rotterdam. Here he developed the technical underpinnings for Odico formwork robotics, the first publicly traded architectural robotics company which he co-founded in 2012. Technologies that Jelle developed, include hotwire, hotblade, diamond wire cutting and large scale 3d printing and are applied in high-profile construction projects. Jelle has taught & lectured internationally at the Bartlett, Architectural Association, Paris-Malaquias, IAAC, ETH Zürich, TU Delft and Aarhus School of Architecture. Jelle is a founding partner of EZCT Architecture & Design Research. The work of the office is widely exhibited, exhibitions include the Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Archilab, Orléans, Barbican Gallery Design Miami/Basel. Projects by the office are part of Pompidou Center permanent collection and the FRAC Centre Orléans. He is a long-term contributor of the PythonOCC project, and some of his fascinations include levelsets, stereotomy and powertools.

AADRL // Phase 2 Reviews // January 2021 // London