Computational Design: NEXT 6.0

Andrew Kudless, Houston-based designer to give an address at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference. Andrew is a designer based in Houston, Texas where he is the Bill D. Kendall Professor at the University of Houston’s Hines College of Architecture & Design as well as the Director of the Advanced Media Technology Lab. In 2004, he founded Matsys, a design studio exploring the emergent relationships between architecture, engineering, biology, and computation.Andrew holds a Master of Arts in Emergent Technologies and Design from the Architectural Association and a Master of Architecture from Tulane University. The work of Matsys has been exhibited internationally and is in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the FRAC Centre in Orleans, France. His work on Confluence Park has won a number of awards including a 2019 AIA National Honor Award.

Jenny E. Sabin is an architectural designer whose work is at the forefront of a new direction for 21st-century architectural practice will give an oration to the audience at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference.Jenny’s work investigates the intersections of architecture and science and applies insights and theories from biology and mathematics to the design of material structures. She is the Arthur L. and Isabel B. Wiesenberger Professor in Architecture and Associate Dean for Design at Cornell College of Architecture, Art, and Planning where she established a new advanced research degree in Matter Design Computation.Jenny is the principal of Jenny Sabin Studio, an experimental architectural design studio based in Ithaca, and Director of the Sabin Lab at Cornell AAP. In 2006, she co-founded the Sabin+Jones LabStudio, hybrid research, and design unit, together with a biologist, Peter Lloyd Jones. Sabin holds degrees in ceramics and interdisciplinary visual art from the University of Washington and a master of architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. She was awarded a Pew Fellowship in the Arts in 2010 and was named a USA Knight Fellow in Architecture.In 2014, she was awarded the prestigious Architectural League Prize for Young Architects and Architectural Record’s national Women in Architecture Awards selected her for the 2016 Innovator in design award. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including in the acclaimed 9th ArchiLab Naturalizing Architecture at FRAC Centre, Orleans, France, and most recently as part of Beauty, the 5th Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Her book, LabStudio: Design Research Between Architecture and Biology, co-authored with Peter Lloyd Jones was published in July 2017. In 2017, Sabin won MoMA & MoMA PS1’s Young Architects Program with her submission, Lumen.

David Stasiuk, senior algorithm designer at Nike Innovation, in the NXT Advanced Studio, will be giving a lecture at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference. David is a researcher and designer living in Portland, OR. He received his Ph.D. from the Centre for Information Technology and Architecture (CITA), at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Copenhagen, where he focused on complex modeling for computational design in architecture.

His research explored the integration of material behaviors into design and CNC fabrication through simulation, embedded data logic, and circular feedback loops. Professionally, he has worked as a consultant in advanced geometry and assembly systems for several architectural projects as a part of Proving Ground, as well as at his own design consultancy, Bespoke Geometry. He is currently working as a Senior Algorithm Designer at Nike Innovation, in the NXT Advanced Studio.

Mariana Popescu, computational architect, and structural designer to give a lecture at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference. Mariana has a strong interest and experience in innovative ways of approaching the fabrication process and use of materials in construction. Dr. Mariana Popescu is a post-doctoral researcher at the Block Research Group (BRG) at the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich, involved in the NCCR Digital Fabrication. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Parametric Structural Design and Digital Fabrication at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of TU Delft in the Netherlands.

Her area of expertise is computational and parametric design with a focus on digital fabrication and sustainable design. Her extensive involvement in projects related to promoting sustainability has led to a multilateral development of skills, which combine the fields of architecture, engineering, computational design, and digital fabrication. In 2019, she successfully defended her Ph.D., which was nominated for the ETH Medal for outstanding dissertation, and was named a “Pioneer” on the MIT Technology review the global list of “35 innovators under 35”. 

Claudia Pasquero is an architect, curator, author, and educator; her work and research operate at the intersection of biology, computation, and design. She is the founder and co-director of ecoLogicStudio in London, Associate Professor and director of the Urban Morphogenesis Lab at Bartlett UCL, Professor of Landscape Architecture, founder of the Synthetic Landscape Lab, and Head of the Institute for IOUD (Institute of Urban Design) at Innsbruck University. Claudia was the Head Curator of the Tallinn Architectural Biennale 2017 and was nominated in the WIRED smart list in the same year. She is co-author of “Systemic Architecture – Operating Manual for the self-organizing city”published by Routledge in 2012. Her work has been published and exhibited internationally: at the FRAC Centre in Orléans, the Venice Architectural Biennale, ZKM Karlsruhe, and the MilanoExpo2015, among others.ecoLogicStudio has, in recent years, completed a series of photosynthetic architectures, such as the BioTechHut Pavilion for Expo Astana 2017, HORTUS Astana 2017, Urban Algae Folly Aarhus 2017, PhotoSynthEtica Dublin 2019, HORTUS XL 2020 for the Center Pompidou in Paris, PhotosSynthEtica Helsinki 2020 upon others. Claudia is writing a new book with Marco Poletto, ‘DeepGreen: Biodesign in the Age of Artificial Intelligence’ due to be published by Routledge in early 2022, and collecting the last 10 years of work and research.

Marco Poletto is an architect, educator, and innovator. He is co-founder and Director of ecoLogicStudio and the Photosynthetica consortium. His practice investigates the dissolving boundaries between city and nature. He has designed and built architectures, installations, and digital protocols testing human interaction with non-human systems. His theory of the Urbansphere argues that the increased spatial articulation and material integration of such systems within architecture are crucial to evolving higher forms of urban ecological intelligence. His body of work proposes a redefinition of the traditional paradigm of sustainability in the age of ubiquitous computing.

Marco has been Unit Master at the Architectural Association in London, Visiting critic at Cornell University and Carnegie Mellon University, a Research Cluster leader at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and a Research Fellow at Aarhus School of Architecture. He holds a Ph.D. Degree from RMIT University, Melbourne. He is currently Visiting Lecturer at the University of Innsbruck and a Senior Tutor at the IAAC in Barcelona.

Marco’s work has been published and exhibited throughout the world, more recently in Tokyo (Mori Art Museum, 2020), Paris (Centre Pompidou, 2019 and EDF Foundation, 2013), Dublin (Dublin Castle, 2018), Tallinn (bio.T.A.llinn, 2017), Astana (EXPO 2017), Karlsruhe (Globale Exhibition – ZKM Museum, 2015), Milan (EXPO 2015), in Orleans (Biennale of Architecture #1, 2017 and 9th Archilab – FRAC Collection, 2014), London (Building Centre 2018, Architectural Association, 2011 and London Biennale, 2006 and 2008), at the Venice Art and Architectural Biennales (STEM, 2006; STEMv3.0 the lagoon experiment, 2008; The Ecological Footprint Grotto, 2010; HORTUS.venice, 2015; Solana Open Aviary, 2016).

Marco is co-author of “Systemic Architecture – Operating manual for the self-organizing city” published by Routledge in 2012.

Travis Fitch, the principal of Fitchwork, to give an address at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference. Fitchwork is a collaborative architecture, fashion, and product design practice founded in 2016. Driven by an obsession with a pattern, Fitch combines geometric research with novel design and fabrication tools to create radical-yet-rational forms. An initial collaboration with fashion house threeAsfour on their collections Biomimicry and Quantum Vibrations included a series of landmark 3D printed dresses.

In 2017, Fitchwork launched Superpattern, a collection of intricately structured, made-to-order lighting and jewelry, with a two-week pop-up in Soho. Fitch’s work has been featured in Vogue, the MFA Boston, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. As a part-time faculty member with the Parsons Textiles MFA, Fitch is critically involved in the research, development, and applications of modern textiles. Ongoing projects look to expand on these possibilities and include a latticed shade canopy, a warehouse renovation, and a series of experimental 3D printed textiles.

Leonardo Nuevo-Arenas is the Founder and Head of Computational Design at Kinetica, where he leads the integration of algorithmic workflows, digital fabrication, and robotic manufacturing. Trained as an industrial designer, he belongs to Latin America’s first generation of computational design practitioners.

At Kinetica, he established the Computational Design Department, developing custom processes that bridge architectural vision with precision manufacturing. Leonardo has collaborated with leading firms such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, Heatherwick Studio, and AS+GG, and is an active educator and speaker across Latin America.

Emma Sanson, a Vienna-based architectural designer and musician, will demonstrate a Rhino 3D + Grasshopper 3D workflow for about 90 minutes at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference. With professional experience from Populous and CoopHimmelb(l)au, Emma holds a bachelor’s from Oxford School of Architecture and is now pursuing her M.Arch degree in Studio Rashid at Die Angewandte and at SCI-Arc.With a background in music, one of her main topics of interest is exploring the relationship between sound and form, which ranges from conceptual approaches to building scale proposals. In 2020, she co-founded the architectural magazine and platform Abstrakt, which is a collaborative project between the three master studios at Die Angewandte aiming to expand on research and ideas through conversations with students and professionals.For the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0, Emma will briefly introduce 90 minutes to Rhino 3d + Grasshopper 3d tools that can help you develop music into both abstract and more spatial ideas. This workshop aims to inspire people to bring their musical explorations from an audible to a visual level, which may kickstart a new and more immersive way of experiencing sound.”

Oliver Thomas, British architect and Senior Design Technology Specialist at Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), will give a lecture at the Computational Design: NEXT 6.0 conference about BIM and the intersection of architecture and technology. Oliver has 9 years of experience working in various roles as an architect, specializing in design, technology, and fabrication for firms such as Aedas, BIG, and Front. Having studied in the UK and gone on to become a fully qualified British architect, Oliver went on to work in London, Hong Kong, and New York.Oliver is also the co-founder of PIXEL, an architecture think tank rethinking a sustainable future via the built environment, and Archi-Tech Network….an online platform that aims to foster collaboration, discussion, and education resources around the intersection of Architecture and Technology.

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.