Computational Design NEXT: 4.0

Brian Ringley is a construction technologist at Boston Dynamics, where he promotes new value-added autonomous capabilities for construction project delivery and works to expand the construction application ecosystem with the Spot SDK. Prior to Boston Dynamics, he was a Senior Construction Automation Researcher at WeWork, where he managed the construction robotics research program and contributed to initiatives in design automation, unitized prefabrication, and construction site progress monitoring. He has also taught architecture courses for many years, most recently at Pratt GAUD, where he led seminars in computational fabrication and industrial robotic automation for industrialized construction.

Soomeen Hahm to lecture at the CD NEXT 4.0 conference, the world’s most famous Computational Design event by far. Soomeen is the founder of the SoomeenHahm Design Ltd, a design faculty and robotic researcher at the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc). Interested in looking at the ecology of computational power, technology, and human intuition, looking at how this collaboration impacts the design industry and physical environment lately, the office has been focusing on the use of Augmentation (i.e., AR/VR/wearables) to invoke immersive experiences of users and builders of our future cities.

Ayoub Ahmad is a Dubai-based architect and designer whose interests include exploring the ability to connect various design software workflows with computational strategies and parametric modeling to facilitate the complexity of design projects.

Kristýna Uhrová is an architect and designer creating physical solutions for digital design. With an interest in experimental and conceptual architecture, connecting architecture, design, spatial installations, and scenography. A graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Brno University of Technology, where in 2019 she completed her studies and is currently an assistant consultant for Jiří Uran Vítek at the Institute of Experimental Architecture. She is involved in academic projects, publishes, and contributes to the contemporary architectural community, leads workshops on computational design and architecture. In 2019, she also joined the studio Subdigital, a team of architects, designers, and programmers focused on innovation, generative and parametric architecture and design, research, software development, and the creation of interactive art installations. At studio Subdigital originated The project Monoceros, a plug-in for Grasshopper developed by Ján Toth and Ján Pernecký and the rest of the contributors of Subdigital team. The work of Kristýna Uhrová is now focused on its ongoing growth and its application in architectural and design practice. The project Monoceros adapts the mathematical method/algorithm, Wave Function Collapse (WFC). It fills an entire space segment with repeating prefab elements while ensuring they connect properly and are organized according to given rules. Unlike other aggregation methods, it inherently creates interwoven rhizomatic structures. She is inspired by discrete aggregation methods and the ability to precisely control complex patterns of spaces. Together with her colleagues in Subdigital, she strives to apply Project Monoceros to bring novel designing and fabrication methods to the 21st-century creative and architectural industry.

Cameron Newnham is co-founder and CTO of Fologram, where he leads the development of mixed reality software solutions for the design and construction industry. Fologram’s design practice has been internationally awarded, most recently for the design and construction of the Tallinn Architecture Biennial Installation Competition. Fologram’s clients include leading universities, multinational architectural firms, industrial designers, engineers, and artists building mixed reality applications for full-scale construction, public art, architectural fabrication, sculpture, automotive design, and cyber-physical visualization systems.

Vincenzo Reale is a chartered structural engineer (ICE) and architect (ARB). He currently holds the position of the senior structural engineer in the Specialist Technology + Research group in Arup in London. Here, as part of a multi-disciplinary team, he has gained experience in a wide range of projects with internationally awarded architects. Concurrently with his professional work he has also held several academic positions, teaching at the Architectural Association, Imperial College, Bartlett School of Architecture and Arup University. His works and collaborations have been exhibited worldwide, notably at the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Royal Academy of Arts and Design Museum in London.

Mauro Porcini joined PepsiCo in 2012 as its first-ever Chief Design Officer. In this newly created position, Mauro is infusing design thinking into PepsiCo’s culture and is leading a new approach to innovation by design. His focus extends from physical to virtual expressions of the brands, including product, packaging, events, advertising, fashion and art collaborations, retail activation, architecture, and digital media.

Nathan Miller is the founder of PROVING GROUND, a digital design agency that enables digital transformation through data-driven solutions for architects, engineers, builders, and owners. Nate has worked with some of the most reputable organizations in the building industry to create strategies and software that connect builders with data to realize value and performance. Nate has personally authored numerous free and open-source tools widely used by professionals and researchers to improve designer productivity. Nate oversees developing three new commercial plugins to streamline the digital design workflow: Conveyor, Semantic, and Tracer.

Mollie Claypool is an architecture theorist who focuses on the future of automation in design production and issues around social justice, including the future of work, platforms, and circular economies. She is the Director of Automated Architecture (AUAR), a design and technology consultancy based in Bristol and London.

Edwin Hernandez is the ShapeDiver‘s project manager and lead parametric designer. Edwin studied Architecture at Andes University in Bogotá, Colombia, and Computer Animation at the SAE Institute in Melbourne, Australia. While studying, he started working as a “solopreneur” with clients in Australia and New Zealand, working on projects that allowed him to learn how to use BIM software, parametric design, and web coding. With this experience, he joined the ShapeDiver team in Vienna, Austria, in 2017, where he has been challenged with various projects involving over 15 different industries. Throughout these projects, he has learned how to create highly optimized and complex parametric models, code with C#, create custom plugins for Grasshopper, and create cloud applications based on Grasshopper.

Suryansh Chandra is the co-founder of London-based robotics company Automata, striving to democratize robotic automation by building robot arms with user experience, accessibility, and purposeful design at their core. Since founding the company in 2015, Suryansh has worn many hats, focusing primarily on hardware design in the earlier days before shifting gears to business development, commercialisation, revenue growth and fundraising. Suryansh previously worked as Lead Architect within the research group at the world-renowned architecture practice Zaha Hadid Architects, where he was dedicated to the conception, creation, and use of advanced technologies in design methods and construction processes. He worked on a number of high-profile projects, such as the Youth Olympics City in Nanjing and highly R&D focussed projects, such as the Science Museum in London.

Fulvio Wirz is an architect and designer, a partner at Wirz Architects, and currently a Senior Lecturer at the University of East London, where he is the program leader of the MA in Architecture and Urbanism. He is also head of the Digital Fabrication Lab at UEL (dFUEL). He is a former associate at Zaha Hadid Architects, where he was responsible for the design of more than 40 projects, including cutting-edge buildings and products. Lately, he completed the design of an office in Dubai within the Opus Building designed by the late Zaha Hadid.

Hamid Hassanzadeh is a distinguished architect, entrepreneur, researcher, and speaker. Having earned his degree in architectural engineering in 2012, Hamid has since contributed to various architectural projects across multiple regions around the globe. In early 2016, he founded the ParametricArchitecture platform, initially launching on Instagram. Today, ParametricArchitecture, often abbreviated as PA, stands as a globally renowned hub for parametric, computational design, and AI lovers, boasting over 20 million monthly interactions on the internet. Hamid endeavors to demystify the intricacies of the parametric, computational, and AI realms through compelling articles, interviews, workshops, podcasts, and conferences disseminated across various digital platforms. Furthermore, he’s the visionary behind PAACADEMY, an educational entity under the aegis of PA, dedicated to propagating the concepts of computational architecture and design. The PAACADEMY, as an educational platform, educates and engages with its audience, introducing them to advanced techniques and algorithms employed by architects, designers, and coders alike. He highlights exemplary projects executed using state-of-the-art design software, ensuring that his audience not only witnesses but also comprehends the depth and philosophy of these avant-garde design practices. Moreover, as the esteemed host of the 'PA Talks' interview series, he engages in enriching conversations with architects, orchestrates numerous workshops, conferences, and events, and has had the privilege of interviewing myriad globally acclaimed architects, delving into their methodologies and foresighted visions for the architectural landscape.

Michael Pryor is a multi-faceted designer utilizing Rhino + Grasshopper, C#, Maya, ZBrush, Houdini and others. He is currently a Head of Procedural Generation at Wilder World Metaverse and the CDO of DesignMorphine. Previously he was a Computational Designer at Nike NXT on performance footwear. He has been involved in various major architectural works in the US, China, Dubai, and Lebanon. Previously, he worked at Trahan, SOMA, OLI, and [AY]A on projects ranging from museums, housing, restaurants, furniture, products, exhibits and prototypes. Michael is the author of the popular Grasshopper3d plug-in Pufferfish with over 150k downloads. He has been the tutor to workshops by the AA visiting school Paris with Louis Vuitton, 3D-Dreaming, Rese.Arch, MIT OSL, Harvard GSD, rat[LAB], PA, Meal, and DesignMorphine.