BK Talks: Data, data, data

Georg Vrachliotis
Head of the Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture Group, BK TU Delft

Georg is a Full Professor for Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture at the Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment, TU Delft. The Chair for Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture critically explores the technological conditions under which architecture in the age of global digital infrastructures emerges, from small to large scale and from everyday practice to the very big picture. What does it mean to design in a society that seeks its balance between Artificial intelligence and the datafication of all areas of life, increasingly rapid global migration, and urgent environmental issues?

Previously, he was dean of the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT) Faculty of Architecture and Chair for Architecture Theory (2014-2020). He studied architecture at the Berlin University of the Arts and did his PhD at the ETH Zürich. Georg has also been a visiting researcher at the UC Berkeley Department of Architecture in California, and in Vienna. Geogr has also curated a number of exhibitions, the most recent of which was “Models, Media and Methods. Frei Otto’s Architectural Research” at the School of Architecture at Yale University (2020).

Henriette Bier
Associate Professor and Leader of Robotic Building (RB), BK TU Delft

After graduating in architecture (1998) from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany, Henriette Bier has worked with Morphosis (1999-2001) on internationally relevant projects in the US and Europe. She has taught digitally-driven architectural design (2002-2003) at universities in Austria, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands and since 2004 she mainly teaches and researches at Technical University Delft (TUD) with focus on Robotic Building. She initiated and coordinated (2005-06) the workshop and lecture series on Digital Design and Fabrication with invited guests from MIT and ETHZ and finalized (2008) her PhD on System-embedded Intelligence in Architecture. She coordinated EU projects E-Archidoct and F2F Continuum (2007-10) and led 4TU projects RDCB and Adaptive Joints (2015-18). 2017-19, she has been appointed professor at Dessau Institute of Architecture. Since 2020-21, she has been visiting professor at the Vietnamese German University in Hanoi and 2021 visiting researchers at PoliMi. Results of her research are internationally published in books, journals and conference proceedings and she regularly lectures and leads workshops internationally.

Seyran Khademi
Assistant Professor at the chair of Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture, BK TU Delft

Since April 2021, Seyran Khademi is an Assistant Professor at the chair of Theory of Architecture and Digital Culture and the co-director of AiDAPT lab at BK (AI for Design, Analysis, and Optimization in Architecture and the Built Environment). In 2017 she was appointed as an interdisciplinary postdoctoral researcher between BK and Computer Vision lab at EWI (Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science) faculty, focusing on the automatic detection of buildings and architectural elements for archival data and street-view imagery. Seyran received her Ph.D. in 2016 from EWI at TU Delft and a Master’s degree from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.

Mathilde Marengo
Head of Studies at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC)

Mathilde Marengo is an Australian – French – Italian PhD Architect whose research focuses on the Contemporary Urban Phenomenon, its integration with technology, and its implications for the future of our planet. Within today’s critical environmental, social and economic framework, she investigates the responsibility of designers in responding to these challenges through circular and metabolic design.

She is Head of Studies, Faculty and PhD Supervisor at the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia’s Advanced Architecture Group, an interdisciplinary research group investigating emerging technologies of information, interaction and manufacturing for the design and transformation of the cities, buildings and public spaces.

Jeroen van der Most
AI-based artist and researcher

Dutch artist Jeroen van der Most, or shorthand Most, has created art with data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence for over 10 years. His current focus is on using AI to deepen the relationships with our natural surroundings. To benefit the ecosystems of tomorrow.

Van der Most’s art was covered by media like TheNextWeb, Artnet, VPRO Tegenlicht, The Art Newspaper, El Pais and NRC. He creates artworks autonomously, but also developed pieces for organizations like NVIDIA, Sogeti, Amnesty International, NH hotels and housing-website Funda.

His art to date was obtained by worldwide collectors and New Zealand’s national museum Te Papa. It has been exhibited at locations as ZKM museum Karlsruhe, Dutch Design Week, Museum De Lakenhal, Amsterdam KunstRai, and AAF Hong Kong. 

Leo Stuckardt
Architect at MVRDV

Leo Stuckardt (DE) is an architect and researcher with a focus on emerging technologies, computational tools and speculative design. Since 2015 he works as an architect at MVRDV where he was predominantly involved in architecture and urban design projects in Europe, India and South-Asia before co-founding the in-house computational research & development unit MVRDV NEXT in 2017. Within the research program of The New Normal at Strelka Institute, he developed atoll.city, a platform for urban design and governance based on deep learning. He has taught design studios and workshops internationally and is currently a PhD candidate at TU Berlin.