Design-Tech Talk 9.0

Mathilde Marengo is an Australian – French – Italian PhD Architect. Specialised in Research and Academia, her work focuses on enabling spatial justice in cities by leveraging advanced technologies to bridge data gaps and support practitioners to make more informed decisions. She has specifically focused on the development of computer-aided methodologies for the practical implementation of ecological justice and mobility justice in urban design. 

This includes integrating the needs of more than humans and environmental systems, as well as investigating drivers of urban vulnerability from an intersectional perspective through dynamic and evidence-based design processes. 

She is Head of Studio Operations at External Reference, an award-winning multidisciplinary design and architecture studio based in Barcelona, Spain. The firm creates immersive and experiential spaces by blending architecture, visual arts, and digital tools, using a combination of traditional craftsmanship and advanced digital technologies like 3D printing to achieve unique and custom designs.

She was previously at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia for over a decade, serving as Head of Studies and Director of the Urban Sciences Lab, and where she continues to teach today. Her investigation is conducted through her role in several National and EU-funded research projects, as well as being published and exhibited internationally.

Masaaki Miki is an Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, the University of Tokyo. After receiving his Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Igarashi User Interface Group. During this period, he made short-term research visits to the University of Bath and ETH Zurich, where he initiated his work on Airy’s stress function–based form-finding of shells.

This research led to his first SIGGRAPH publication in 2015. After gaining experience in architectural practice at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in Chicago (2015–2020), he returned to academia in Japan. Since then, he has published three additional SIGGRAPH papers on grid shell form-finding, now implemented as Rhinoceros and Grasshopper plugins. Bridging architecture, engineering, and geometry, he currently teaches Visual Structural Design and Architectural Geometry at the University of Tokyo.

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. 

Volkan Alkanoglu works at the intersection of art and design. Born in Turkey and raised in Germany, Alkanoglu attended the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and Hochschule der Künste in Berlin before receiving a Master of Architectural Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London.

His creative focus lies in the exploration of futuristic designs through spatial, material, and technological innovations.

Notable projects of his recent work have been installed in various metropolitan areas in the United States, including Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Baltimore, Miami, Tampa, Atlanta, Denver, Dallas, and Washington D.C.

Within his academic background, Volkan Alkanoglu has served as the Director for Graduate Studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, and has been part of the design faculty at the Southern California Institute of Architecture, SCI-Arc in Los Angeles, CA, and Harvard University, Graduate School of Design in Cambridge, MA. He holds the designation of LEED Accredited Professional in the USA.

Volkan Alkanoglu is actively engaged in commissioned projects across diverse locations, spanning California, Oregon, Colorado, Maryland, Florida, and Taiwan.