Phase 2 Reviews // 12-13 January 2023

Angius STUDIO

MOBILE ARCHITECTURE / SOFT INFRASTRUCTURE / AMPHIBIOUS ENVIRONMENTS / SELF-SUFFICIENCY

The studio re-examines the opportunities offered by the hybrid design territory situated between the human body and the minimal spatial construct for the living and the moving. Yona Friedman’s vision of a “mobile architecture” as per the post-war concept of “Existenzminimum” are revisited and contextualized on a near projection of the future where limited resources and climate shifts may drive new paradigms for the built environment. The research gravitates around the use of programmatic overlays and multi-potent spatial interfaces, whilst experimenting on amphibious environments as testing scenarios for extreme adaptive and transformational qualities. The large-scale interventions speculate on the concept of “soft-infrastructure” as a strategy for a dynamic, distributed and self-sufficient human inhabitation.

bhooshan STUDIO

PARTICIPATORY AGENCY / EMERGENT BUILT ENVIRONMENT / ROBOTIC MANUFACTURING / GAMES AND GOV-TECH

The studio explores the creation of architecture and urbanism via participatory mechanisms. The design-research of the studio builds on its prior experience in computer-aided-geometric-design, robotic fabrication, and industrialised construction. These technologies of physical realisation provide the substrate for a gamified, stake-holder participation framework to operate upon. Together they create spaces and governance mechanisms to host online communities, in anticipation of their physical realisation.  These cyber-physical platforms couple the social, exploratory and network-effect benefits of online ‘metaverses’ and the effective resource utilization of digital technologies.

Schumacher STUDIO

CYBER-URBAN INCUBATOR 2: METAVERSE URBANISM 

The studio investigates the metaverse as a set of interconnected 3d virtual platforms, that facilitate social and economic activity via a persistent user owned real-time platform, weaving the digital and physical worlds. The studio challenges the foundations upon which a virtual native city should be developed upon, with the goal of establishing itself as a dense, legible, information-rich environment, capable of facilitating orientation, navigation and recognition for an interaction-rich experience. 

Spyropoulos Studio

ELEMENTAL

Within the contemporary condition new conceptual terrains emerge that raise questions of agency and intelligence within a deep ecology of our environment. The work explored examines environmental phenomenon in the service of sustaining life. From growing architectural skins with bacteria, fusing sand onsite into glass infrastructures, to examining seaweed ecosystems and crystalline and biofilm constructs.  

DAY 1 // January 12th 2023

morning session // 10AM-2pm GMT

afternoon session // 3pm-8pm GMT

DAY 2 // January 13th 2023

morning session // 10AM-2pm GMT

AFTERNOON session // 3pm-8pm GMT

GUEST CRITICS:

Ross Lovegrove - http://www.rosslovegrove.com/home

is a designer and visionary who’s 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 possess 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.

Dr. Molly Wright Steenson – https://design.cmu.edu/people/faculty/molly-steenson

is Vice Provost for Faculty at Carnegie Mellon. She is also Associate Professor in the School of Design and the K&L Gates Associate Professor of Ethics & Computational Technology. From 2018–21, she was Sr. Associate Dean for Research in the College of Fine Arts. Molly is the author of the book Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape (MIT Press, 2017), which explores the radical history of design, architecture, AI and cybernetics from the 1950s to the present. It focuses on the practices of Nicholas Negroponte, Cedric Price, Christopher Alexander, and Richard Saul Wurman. She's the co-editor of Bauhaus Futures (MIT Press, 2019) with Laura Forlano and Mike Ananny, an edited volume that looks at the impact of the Bauhaus as it turns 100. She also researches the ethical impact of AI. Molly holds a PhD in architecture from Princeton University and a Master's in Environmental Design from the Yale School of Architecture.

Dr. David Kirsh - https://interactivity.ucsd.edu/

is Professor/past chair of the Dept. of Cognitive Science/UCSD, received a D. Phil.(Oxford), did post-doctoral work at MIT (AI Lab), held research or Visiting Professor positions at MIT and Stanford, and the Bartlett School of Architecture UCL. He has written on situated and embodied cognition, how environments can be shaped to simplify/extend cognition, and how space, external representations, our bodies and even manipulable objects become interactive tools for thought. He is co-Director of the Arthur C. Clarke Center for Human Imagination and on the Board of Directors for the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture. He is Adjunct Professor at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Mario Carpo - https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/mario-carpo

is an architectural historian and critic, and is currently the inaugural Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, and Professor of Architectural Theory at the Institute of Architecture of the University of Applied Arts Vienna.

Monia De Marchi - https://www.aaschool.ac.uk/people/Monia-De-marchi

is an architect and Head of the First Year Undergraduate Programme at the Architectural Association (AA). She completed her architecture studies at Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia with distinction and a MArch from the Design Research Laboratory (DRL) programme at the AA. She has been teaching at the AA since 2005, formerly directing a Diploma Unit, and from 2011 as Head of First Year Programme. Since 2008, she has also held a number of roles in the school’s leadership, as a member of the Academic Board, the Senior Management Team, and currently the Teaching and Learning Committee.

Philippe Morel – https://www.ezct.fr/

is an architect and theorist, co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research (2000) and initiator and founding CEO of the large-scale 3D-printing corporation XtreeE (2015). He is currently a Visiting Professor at UCL Bartlett and an Associate Professor at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Malaquais, where he headed the Digital Knowledge department (co-founded with Pr. Girard).

Dr Kostas Grigoriadis - http://www.continuumatters.com/
Bartlett School of Architecture/ Programme Director, Architecture March. His work explores the spatial and theoretical implications of the use of multi-materials in architecture, as well as the new paradigm of spatial and material continuity that they will enable. He has held a Visiting Lectureship at the Royal College of Art where he also completed a PhD in Architecture by Project (in June 2017) that focused on multi-material design methodologies. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and a Design and Technical Tutor at the AA (since 2010). He has edited the book Mixed Matters: A Multi-Material Design Compendium, published in June 2016 by Jovis Verlag and was awarded the Ivan Petrovic Prize in eCAADe 2014, and the Arup Prize for Emerging Talent in Architecture- Special Mention at the Royal Academy’s 2016 Summer Exhibition. In 2018 he won the RIBA President’s Award for Design and Technical Research and in 2019 he was awarded the inaugural Google R+D in the Built Environment Fellowship.

Jan Bunge - https://www.squintopera.com/

is a Director at Squint/Opera Jan oversees the creative and digital excellence for many international projects. He builds long-term relationships with leading industry partners and is instrumental in furthering the studio’s presence in the built environment and green technology industries. Jan’s wide network keeps him up-to-date on the latest technology and industry trends, which he brings back in-house, pushing the boundaries of Squint/Opera’s work. Before joining Squint, Jan worked as a landscape architect on many large-scale projects, and developed a deep knowledge of the built environment. With two decades of experience, he has an intimate understanding of the world of architecture and urban design.