CONFERENCE CHAIRS
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SITE CHAIR
ASSIA CRAWFORD
Assistant Professor in Technology, Department of Architecture, University of Colorado Denver
Assia Crawford’s creative practice research focuses on the development of biological material alternatives and digital fabrication practices for a post-Anthropocene era. Her work sits on the intersection of architecture, science, and critical theory, and employs experimental and speculative design to address ecological challenges faced by communities at a time of environmental uncertainty.
Assia is an ARB registered architect and has previously held positions as the architect for the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE) and artist-in-residence at the Wellcome Centre for Mitochondrial Research. Assia is an editor of Biotechnology Design Journal, and runs Wild Futures Lab, a research and teaching bio design fabrication wet lab. Her current projects include an upcoming monograph entitled Designer’s Guide to Lab Practice (Routledge, 2023) and an interdisciplinary research project that is entitled Bio-remediator Myco-Fabrics for the Built Environment and Beyond.
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WORKSHOPS CHAIR
THORA ARNARDOTTIR
Research Associate in Living Construction, (HBBE), Newcastle University
Associate Lecturer at MA Biodesign,Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Thora Arnardottir is a Research Associate at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment (HBBE), where she manages the Macro Bio-Design Lab, and conducts research centred on the Living Construction theme. She is also an Associate Lecturer at Central Saint Martins on the MA Biodesign program. Thora is a biodesigner and researcher with a background in architecture and a passion for pursuing analogy with nature by integrating living processes into our fabrication practices.
She did her PhD "Bacterial Sculpting" at Newcastle University where her research focused on fabrication techniques with bacterial biomineralization and the integration of biological systems in the built environment. She combines biotic agency with innovative crafting techniques to explore the possibilities of living materials and bio-fabrication. As a co-founder of the experimental research group BioBabes and a founder and director of Unruly Matters Ltd, Thora engages in interdisciplinary investigations at the intersection of design, science, and biology. Her key interests include biomaterials, design-led investigations, and the transformative potential of integrating biology and architecture.
—SITE CHAIR
MARC SWACKHAMER
Professor and Chair, Department of Architecture, University of Colorado Denver
Marc Swackhamer’s research practice, HouMinn, is a partnership with Blair Satterfield from the University of British Columbia. Their work challenges broadly accepted approaches to design agency through focus on interdisciplinary partnerships, unconventional making, material misuse, and the role of decay in architecture. HouMinn has won national design awards from Architect Magazine, ID Magazine, and Core77. Marc’s interdisciplinary design collaborative, MinnLab, won the Minneapolis “Creative City Challenge” and a Minnesota American Society of Landscape Architects Deign Award. With Blaine Brownell, from the University of North Carolina Charlotte, he co-authored the book Hypernatural: Architecture’s New Relationship with Nature. Marc recently launched a post-disciplinary design research laboratory at the University of Colorado Denver called LoDo Lab. He is Chair of the Architecture Department and Professor. He studied at the University of Cincinnati and Rice University.
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EXHIBITION CHAIR
LEYUAN LI
Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, University of Colorado Denver
Leyuan Li is a Chinese architect, educator, and researcher whose professional and academic work focuses on interior and urban realms in the articulation of underrepresented identities, situations, and societies. He has practiced architecture internationally at OMA, SOM, and Affordable Housing Lab.
Li is the founder of Office for Roundtable, a collaborative practice that explores architectural and interior types in relation to environmental and social issues. Recent built works seek to interrogate the rapidly changing urban environment in China through the exploration of interior forms, and have been featured in Art and Design Magazine (China), Architecture and Urbanism (China), and Frame Magazine, among others.
Li is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture with an Emphasis on Issues of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Colorado Denver. He has taught at Rice University’s School of Architecture and the University of Houston, and has been invited to lectures and reviews at Nanjing University, Syracuse University, and Rhode Island School of Design.
Li’s work has been published in journals and books, including PLAT, New York Review of Architecture, and Drawing Codes (AR+D, 2023), and has been exhibited at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, OCAT Museum in Shanghai, Citygroup Gallery in New York City, and the 9th Bi-City Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism in Shenzhen.
—TECHNICAL AND FABRICATION CHAIR
RICHARD BECKETT
The Bartlett School of Architecture,
University College London
Richard Beckett is an Architect and Associate Professor in Architecture at the Bartlett, UCL where he is Director of RC7 on the BPro Architectural Design master’s programme and leads Studio 3 on the Landscape Architecture course. His research is focused on design operating at the intersection of computation, biofabrication, and microbial ecologies in buildings and cities. His research on Probiotic Design won the RIBA Presidents Research Award in 2021. He has built numerous projects and has been exhibited internationally including Archilab – Naturalising Architecture, The Pompidou Centre and Nature – Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum. He is currently PI on a 3 year EPSRC funded research project; ‘Probiotic interventions to reduce the emergence and persistence of pathogens in built environments’.
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TECHNICAL CHAIR
NANCY DINIZ
Course Leader MA in Biodesign
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Nancy Diniz is a registered architect and educator. Her practice lies in the intersection of computational design and biological systems. She is co-founder of bioMATTERS, @biomatters.llc a design studio focusing on 3D printed and robotically manufactured biomaterials . Nancy is Course Leader of the Masters in Biodesign at Central Saint Martins UAL @mabiodesign in London. She has exhibited, published and curated symposia and exhibitions widely on the topics of ‘living and grown design’, bio and digital fabrication, data driven design, interactive and sensing design and VR/AR. Her work has been exhibited at Material Matters, Dutch Design Week, NY Design Week, ‘Biodesign Here Now’ London Design Festival, MAAT Museum, GAA Foundation, London Design Biennale, Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Istanbul Design Biennial, SYGGRAPH and ISEA upon others. She is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships namely NEW INC, NYSCA /Storefront, MacDowell Colony, EYEBEAM, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon, Korea and FCT Portugal. Nancy is co-editor of the book ‘Data, Matter, Design: Strategies in Computational Design’ (Routledge 2020). She is chief editor and co-chair of the upcoming symposium ‘Bio-Calibrated: Tools and Techniques of Biodesign Practices’ Nov 30-1 Dec 2023 hosted by Central Saint Martins UAL.
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COMPUTATION CHAIR
ANDREW ADAMATZKY
Professor of Unconventional Computing, University of the West of England Bristol
Andrew Adamatzky is Professor of Unconventional Computing and head of the Unconventional Computing Group at UWE, Bristol, UK. His research interests include non-standard and nature inspired computation, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence and crowd dynamics, mathematical biology and psychology, non-linear sciences. His recent work has included development of logical and arithmetical circuits in excitable chemical media, slime mould, and liquid crystal figures; and also, development of intelligent massively parallel actuator arrays, formal languages and complexity of cellular automata models, novel types of information processing in memristive devices, design of parallel hybrid computers from living slime mould P. polycephalum and from living Fungi.
He authored seven research monographs (published in Springer, Elsevier, World Scientific): "Identification of Cellular Automata", "Computing in Nonlinear media and Automata Collectives", "Reaction-Diffusion Computers", "Dynamics of Crowd Minds", "Physarum Machines". "Reaction-Diffusion Automata", "Bioevaluation of World Transport Networks", edited 14 monographs (published in the MIT Press, Elsevier, Springer, World Scientific), authored over 300 papers in peer reviewed international journals, founded the Unconventional Computing Lab at UWE, Bristol, founded two international journals: Int J Cellular Automata and Int J Unconventional Computing and one book series "Emergency, Complexity, Computation." News stories about Adamatzky research are published in New Scientist, Scientific American, Wired, Technology Reviews, The Guardian, New York Times, etc. He was amongst key figure in the documentary movies `The Creeping Garden’ (2014, UK) and `The Blob’ (2019, France).
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TECHNICAL CHAIR
JAMIE VANUCCHI
Director of Undergraduate Studies, Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Jamie Vanucchi is an assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies. Jamie’s teaching and research test the capacity of design and design research to address our most pressing 21st-century problems. She is interested in “strong sites”, landscapes driven by change in the form of powerful constructive and destructive processes, and design that intentionally intersects with those processes and unfolds in time. Current projects include the study of floodplains as unique, disturbance-driven landscapes and potential community assets, the restoration of floodplain buyouts, designed forests for climate mitigation, and framing design research as a distinct mode of knowledge production that is complementary to science and especially needed now due to the novelty and uncertainty of climate-changed futures. Her research is funded by NIFA, Cornell’s Atkinson’s Center for Sustainability, The Landscape Architecture Foundation, and Cornell Council of the Arts. Jamie has a small design-build practice and she is a partner with the Great Lakes Design Labs and LoDo Lab at CU Denver.
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FACILITIES CHAIR
CYNTHIA FISHMAN
Assistant Professor of Practice, Department of Architecture,
University of Colorado Denver
Cynthia Fishman, AIA | BSpec | NCARB | LEED AP | ACUE | Fitwel Ambassador (she/her) has an extensive background of 15-years in sustainability and the practice of architecture as a licensed architect. She is the Director and founder of the Biomimicry Design Alliance, a research and consulting firm in Denver, CO that makes biomimicry accessible to the design community.
She received her Bachelor of Architecture from Rice University in Houston, TX as well as an Ecological Design Certificate from the Ecosa Institute in Prescott, AZ. Cynthia was part of the first matriculating class at Arizona State University to earn a Master of Science in Biomimicry degree, which is the first in the world to offer an accredited program. Cynthia is one of the recipients of the 2019 National AIA Young Architect Award, the 2018 Engineering News Record (Mountain States Region) Top Young Professionals Award, and AIA Colorado’s Leadership Award in 2015 for her outstanding contributions to the architectural profession.
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THEORY CHAIR
JOERN LANGHORST
Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture, University of Colorado Denver
Joern Langhorst, Associate Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Colorado Denver, was educated in Landscape Architecture, Architecture and Urban Planning in Germany and the UK, and has taught in Landscape Architecture, Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning and Urban Design in the US and abroad. His practice has focused on projects in highly contested situations, such as redevelopment and remediation in post-industrial cities, brownfield sites, and post-disaster recovery, and is consulting on these issues nationally and internationally.
His research and teaching are exploring the processes and actors that make and unmake place, space and landscape, focusing on places of incisive and radical change, such as post-colonial, post-industrial and post-disaster cities. His approaches involve multiple perspectives and disciplines and establish a methodology he calls “landscape forensics”. He examines how concepts such as social and environmental justice, resilience, and sustainability are conceived and implemented, arguing for a “right to landscape”. Langhorst scrutinizes the role of emergent technologies, alternative processes and the relationships between traditional and new actors and agents, and foregrounds contestation and conflict as unavoidable processes central to landscape and place change.
