Computational Design: NEXT 9.0

Arthur Mamou-Mani – AA dipl, ARB/RIBA FRSA – is a French architect and director of the award-winning practice Mamou-Mani Architects, specializing in a new kind of digitally designed and fabricated architecture. He is a lecturer at the University of Westminster and founded a digital fabrication laboratory called the Fab.Pub, which develops mobile factories to allow people to experiment with large-scale 3D Printers. Since 2016, he is a fellow of the The Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce​. He has won the Gold Prize at the American Architecture Prize for the Wooden Wave project installed at BuroHappold Engineering and the RIBAj rising star award in 2017. Arthur gave numerous talks, including the TedX conference in the USA, and has been featured on the cover of the FT, in The New York Times, and in Forbes​. His work has been exhibited at the Sir John Soane Museum, and the Wired Mag Highlight show at the Tate Modern in London. Before founding Mamou-Mani in 2011, he worked with Atelier Jean Nouvel, Zaha Hadid Architects, and Proctor and Matthews Architects.

Erfan Habibpour is a 3D design and architectural visualization professional with over seven years of experience using Cinema 4D to create innovative and immersive designs. With a background in architecture and extensive work in the automotive and dealership industries, he combines technical expertise with artistic vision to deliver pioneering projects.

As a skilled Unreal Engine developer, Erfan specializes in gamifying metaverse projects, pushing the boundaries of virtual environments. A dedicated design seeker, he is passionate about exploring new ways to bring creative ideas to life in both the physical and digital realms.

June Lee is a New York-based architectural designer and artist who creates conceptual spaces with parametric geometry, as well as a series of abstract designs and artworks. His expertise lies in abstract concepts, enabling him to construct complex forms through simple processes and design languages.

Lee’s works emphasize the integration of organic flow, random generation, continuity, repetition, and overlap. He explores architectural elements on various scales by applying a consistent design concept, resulting in correlated works that serve as valuable sources of future inspiration.

Yavor Stoykov, the V-Ray licensed trainer at Chaos Group, will be addressing the audience at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference. With a background in architecture, Yavor joined Chaos as a 3D artist in 2010, and soon became one of the major forces behind the V-Ray Training Program. Since then, he has traveled across the world as a CG Specialist, meeting with artists and companies in the AEC and M&E industries and advising them on how to use V-Ray to improve their workflow. When it comes to technical material and media, Yavor is one of the primary in-house providers.

Negar Kalantar, Associate Professor at California College of Arts, will be delivering a lecture on the intersection of architecture, science, and engineering at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference. Negar explores the efficacy of transformable design principles in the creation of adaptable designs, architectural components, and interior spaces that display real-time morphological changes in people and surroundings. Her multidisciplinary research focuses on materials exploration, robotics, and additive manufacturing technologies, as well as using architecture, science, and engineering as venues to investigate the crucial role of design in global concerns and built environments. She is the co-director of the Digital Craft Lab at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, as well as the co-founder of the transLAB, where she bridges current advances in additive manufacturing technology with large-scale structures. Additionally, she has received several awards, including the Dornfeld Manufacturing Vision Award 2018, a National Science Foundation grant, an Autodesk Technology Center Grant, and an X-Grant from the Texas A&M President’s Excellence Fund for developing sustainable materials for 3-D printed buildings.

Jason Kelly Johnson is the lead artist and co-founding partner of FUTUREFORMS. Jason brings an expertise in computational design and advanced digital fabrication, produced through the lens of critical art production and public space advocacy.

Jason was born and raised in Canada. He received a Bachelor of Science from the University of Virginia and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University. Johnson is currently a tenured full Professor at the California College of the Arts (CCA) in San Francisco, CA, where he is the Founding Director of the CCA Digital Craft Lab.

He also serves on the board of the Museum of Craft & Design in San Francisco. He has previously taught at the University of Virginia, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan, and Cornell University. 

Giovanni De Niederhausern, the Senior Vice President at Pininfarina Architecture, will be addressing the audience at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference with the overarching notion of objective beauty in design and form. Pininfarina’s design story has the wonderful quality of being timeless by accepting a succession of cross-pollination by branching out into product design and, eventually, into architecture. The company’s design is embedded with digital technologies, infused with material and productive innovation, and responds to multiple and concurrent needs of the individual and the environment.

Dana Cupkova, Co-Founder and Director of EPIPHYTE Lab will lecture on the intersection of built environment and ecology at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference. Dana is an Associate Professor of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, IJAC Editorial Board. Previously, she was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Architecture at Cornell University from 2005 to 2012 and sat on the ACADIA Board of Directors from 2014 to 2018.

Dana’s design engages building design with ecology, computer-driven processes, and systems analysis. She investigates the interaction between design space and ecology using computational tools, thermodynamic processes, and experimentation with geometrically driven performance logic.

Manuel Jimenez García, the co-founder of madMdesign and Automated Architecture Ltd (AuAr), and the robotic manufacturing and design brand Nagami, will be showcasing some of his recent work at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference. Manuel is also a professor in architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, where he is the program director of the MSc/MRes Architectural Computation (AC) and the unit master of Research Cluster 4 at the MArch Architectural Design (AD). Additionally, he is a co-founder of UCL Design Computation Lab and the curator of Plexus, an interdisciplinary lecture series focusing on computational design.

Melodie Yashar, space architect, technologist, and the director of Building Design & Performance at ICON, will be demonstrating the interaction of modern software and hardware systems for spaceflight at the Computational Design: NEXT 9.0 conference.

Melodie believes that the future of autonomous building will rely on human-robot and human-machine collaboration on Earth and space. She thinks of a thoroughly collaborative problem-solving process that is based on merging research and design. Previously, she has worked as a co-founder of Space Exploration Architecture, a Senior Research Associate with the San Jose State University Research Foundation at NASA Ames in the Human-Computer Interaction Lab, an Associate Researcher at the UC Davis Center for Human/Robotics/Vehicle Integration and Performance and etc. She holds graduate degrees in architecture and human-computer interaction with a focus on robotics from Columbia University and Carnegie Mellon Universities, respectively.

Meeson Pae, the award-winner artist, works at the intersection of science, technology, and mythology to create densely stratified images and objects representing natural processes. Starting from basic components, her work extends into transmuted conglomerations. Operating in various mediums, including painting, film, sculpture, and installation, each medium serves as a tool for processing natural phenomena ranging from the microscopic to the macroscopic. Her solo exhibitions and projects have been shown in many national and international galleries, and she has received many awards, including the James Irvine Foundation’s California New Visions Award, the Durfee Foundation’s ARC Award, the Hans G. and Lordis W. Burkhardt Foundation Award, the AHL Foundation Award, and the Beverly Alpay Award.

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.