Design-Tech Talk 10

Step into the future of design innovation with Design-Tech Talk 10, a two-day online event exploring the evolving relationship between architecture, technology, and digital design.

Through a series of curated sessions, the event will explore how emerging technologies are influencing creative practice and shaping the future of the built environment. The program brings together ideas, discussions, and perspectives around new design tools, computational approaches, and technological shifts impacting architecture and design today.

Whether you are an architect, designer, researcher, or enthusiast, Design-Tech Talk offers a space to engage with forward-looking ideas, gain fresh perspectives, and connect with the broader design-tech community.

Attending the live event is free. However, an active membership is required to access the event recordings.

More information about guest speakers will be added soon.

Program

Day 1, May 2nd:

• Opening Session: 14:00-14:15 GMT
• 1st Speaker: Nic Bao 14:15 – 15:15 GMT
• 2nd Speaker: Dustin White 15:30 – 16:30 GMT
• 3rd Speaker: Tola Navarro 16:45 – 17:45 GMT
• Closing Session: 17:45 – 18:00 GMT

Day 2, May 3rd:

• Opening Session: 14:00-14:15 GMT
• 1st Speaker: Jae K Kim 14:15 – 15:15 GMT
• 2nd Speaker: Takbir Fatima 15:30 – 16:30 GMT
• 3rd Speaker:  Alex Josephson 16:45 – 17:45 GMT
• Closing Session: 17:45 – 18:00 GMT

Guest Speakers

Nic Bao

Dr. Nic Dingwen Bao is a Senior Lecturer in Architecture, Architecture Technology Course Coordinator, and PhD supervisor at the School of Architecture and Urban Design, RMIT University, where he founded the FormX Research Lab. His research focuses on computational design, artificial intelligence, structural optimisation, robotic fabrication, and intelligent construction for performance-driven architecture.

Nic is a practising architect with over 12 years of professional experience and is a Registered Architect in Australia (ARBV) and the US (NCARB), and RIBA Chartered Architect in the UK. He is the Director of BW Architects (BWA) and a partner at Ameba Technology. He also serves as Secretary of the Association for Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA) and the DigitalFUTURES Association.

His work has been widely exhibited internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Shenzhen Biennale, DigitalFUTURES, IASS Expo, and Melbourne Design Week. He is also a core member of the organising committee of the IASS 2023 Annual Symposium in Melbourne, curator of the IASS 2023 Expo and ACADIA × CAADRIA joint exhibition, and co-chair of the Computational Design and Robotic Fabrication International Conference 2026.

Dustin White

Dustin White is an Assistant Professor of Structural Design and Director of the Architectural Products Lab in the School of Architecture at Florida Atlantic University. He teaches a broad range of undergraduate and graduate courses spanning architecture and interior design studios, structures, furniture design, visualization, and digital fabrication. 

White’s work bridges architecture, interior and furniture design, exhibition design, material innovation, and fabrication technologies. His interdisciplinary practice is driven by advanced computational tools, sustainable strategies, and innovative construction methods that reduce material waste and maximize performance.

He integrates traditional craftsmanship with digital and emerging technologies to develop hybrid processes that balance creativity, efficiency, and environmental responsibility. His workflows are strategically structured to optimize time, labor, and value engineering, resulting in design solutions that are both high-impact and resource-conscious. 

A central focus of his current research is transforming industrial material waste streams into architectural artifacts, structures, and products through additive manufacturing. These efforts are often pursued in partnership with industry collaborators, exploring how circular design practices can shape the built environment. 

His creative and scholarly work has been exhibited and published internationally. He has participated in the Marmomac Stone Expo in Verona, Italy (2019–2024), the Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), and Transductions: Artificial Intelligence in Architecture at Pratt Institute (2025).

His projects have also appeared in Constructing Futures AI (Detroit, 2024), the Theater of Digital Art Dubai (TODA), The PASEO Art Festival (Taos, NM, 2017), the Italian Cultural Institute (Washington, D.C., 2022), the Italian Consulate of New York (2021), and the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea a Cielo Aperto (MACCA) in Peccioli, Italy, where his permanent installation Crsp-Locus was unveiled in 2024.

White’s work has earned recognition from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Florida, AIA Fort Lauderdale, Surface Awards London, NYCxDESIGN, SXSW Eco, Friends of the High Line, and Mobile Detroit 2050.

His scholarly output includes peer-reviewed publications and book chapters on digital fabrication, AI in architecture, and sustainable material systems. Before joining FAU, he served as Director of Digital Technologies and Fabrication and Associate Undergraduate Chair at the New York Institute of Technology’s School of Architecture and Design. He previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of Digital Fabrication at Texas Tech University.

Takbir Fatima

Takbir Fatima is an architect, educator, and entrepreneur, and the founder of DesignAware, an interdisciplinary design and experimental architecture studio. She completed her MArch in Architecture + Urbanism at the Architectural Association, London (2011). She also founded Fractals Workshop (focused on generative design and computation) and BuildAware (a fabrication and construction initiative). She serves as Adjunct Faculty at the Boston Architectural College and CEPT University, focusing on digital fabrication, prototyping, and computational design.

She is also Senior Curator and Exhibition Designer at the Museum of Science Fiction and has been a Senior Fellow at T-Works. With over 14 years of experience, her work spans design, fabrication, construction, entrepreneurship, fundraising, and education. Takbir works at the intersection of design, technology, and community, applying emerging technologies to socially relevant and craft-based initiatives.

In 2023, she won the Regenerative Futures AI Design Competition (Symbiotic Futures category) for her project WombHome: Decolonizing Nature, exhibited at SPACE10 Copenhagen. She also delivered a keynote at the UIA World Congress of Architects 2023 on architecture and AI.

Her work has been exhibited internationally, including at Roca London Gallery, India Design ID, and Dubai Design Week. She was invited by India’s Ministry of Culture to present HeliX 2.0 at the 2023 India Art, Architecture & Design Biennale. She is featured in 100 Women: Architects in Practice (RIBA).

DesignAware, based in Hyderabad and Dubai, focuses on data-driven and socially relevant design and has received recognitions including Surfaces Salutes 2025, and nominations for the RA Dorfman Prize and Dezeen Awards.

Takbir is also a mentor, juror, and speaker across global institutions and initiatives, and has led fundraising efforts supporting education and displaced workers during COVID-19.

Jae K Kim
 

Jae K Kim is an architect, researcher, and educator, currently serving as an Associate Professor at Hanyang University and the director of JK-AR. His academic journey began with architectural engineering at Hanyang University, followed by a pursuit of architecture and urbanism at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where his master's thesis earned him the Imre Halasz Thesis Prize.

Jae‘s achievements extend beyond academia, evidenced by his numerous awards on both the global and domestic stage. In 2023, he garnered the Honor Award of the Wood Design & Building Awards from the Canadian Wood Council and ArchDaily's 2023 New Practices. Domestically, his achievements include two Grand Prizes from the Korean Wood Design Awards, the 2019 Koran Institute of Architects’ Special Prize, and the 2022 Good Place Award.

Tola Navarro

Tola is a visual artist based in Chile whose work develops through the observation of gesture, materiality, and the methodical construction of surface. His background in architecture plays a decisive role in his practice, giving it a precise, analytical approach focused on the study of light, form, and structure. During the 2020 pandemic, he returned consistently to graphic research and established his studio in Batuco, where he began a continuous production process that led to the creation of the Tola.art project.

Through this platform, the artist brings together his body of work, public presence, and a pedagogical practice dedicated to sharing techniques, processes, and methodologies with an international community of students and followers.

His practice centers on the use of spray paint, paper, fabric, ink, and dry pastel, which he approaches through a disciplined, accumulative method. Through repetition and variation, he develops compositions that combine technical rigor with material sensitivity. His work has evolved toward an abstract and geometric visual language.

Alex Josephson

Alex Josephson is a Toronto-born architect and co-founder of PARTISANS (2012). He studied architecture at the University of Waterloo and in Rome, and later attended the Architectural Association School of Architecture.

Josephson is the only Canadian recipient of the New York Prize Fellowship at the Van Alen Institute and was named Best Emerging Designer (2015) by Canada’s Design Exchange. He currently lectures at the University of Toronto Daniels Faculty of Architecture and is a registered architect in Ontario.