Sigrid Adriaenssens’ research interests lie in the mechanics of large-span structural surfaces under construction and extreme loading. From storm surge membrane barriers to macroscale adaptive shading shell devices, she has innovated a range of structural and architectural systems. The framework she is developing combines advanced analytical formulations, numerical form-finding and optimization approaches, fluid-structure interaction, and machine learning models to accelerate discoveries and automate optimal designs.

In her cross-disciplinary work, Sigrid has initiate and nurtured collaborations with researchers from diverse fields, including computer and material science, biology, robotics, architecture, philosophy, art history, visual arts, graphic design and choreography.

She is the co-editor of the International Journal of Space Structures, a fellow of the Structural Engineering Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and vice-president of the International Association of Shell and Spatial Structures. A 2023 Myron Goldsmith Fellow at the Illinois Institute of Technology, Sigrid has also received the DigitalFUTURES Matthias Rippmann Award from Tongji University, Shanghai, and the Pioneers Award from the Spatial Structures Research Centre of the University of Surrey, U.K.

As a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University, Sigrid directs the Form Finding Lab, teaching courses on the (non-)linear mechanics of solids and slender structures, structural design, and the integration of engineering and the arts.

http://formfindinglab.princeton.edu

Wolf Mangelsdorf is a partner and Global Head of Design, Technology and Innovation, at Buro Happold in London.
Trained as an architect and civil engineer, Wolf has worked with leading architects on numerous high-profile projects, worldwide.
He is leading the development and application of computational design at Buro Happold.
He is Professor of Structural Design at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

Abstract

There is increasing demand for building performance to be more predictable beyond programmatic and aesthetic considerations. Bringing together multidisciplinary analytical modelling and simultaneously testing for several, often conflicting parameters, allows us to feed the consideration of performative aspects into the design process from the outset and make informed design choices based on integrated engineering analytics. We call this digital rapid prototyping.

https://www.burohappold.com/people/wolf-mangelsdorf/

Janet Echelman sculpts at the scale of buildings and city blocks. Echelman’s work defies categorization, as it intersects Sculpture, Architecture, Urban Design, Material Science, Structural & Aeronautical Engineering, and Computer Science. Echelman’s art transforms with wind and light, and shifts from being “an object you look at, into an experience you can get lost in.”

Using unlikely materials from atomized water particles to engineered fiber fifteen times stronger than steel, Echelman combines ancient craft with computational design software to create artworks that have become focal points for urban life on five continents, from Singapore, Sydney, Shanghai, and Santiago, to Beijing, Boston, New York and London.  Permanent works in Porto (Portugal), Gwanggyo (South Korea), Vancouver, San Francisco, West Hollywood, Phoenix, Eugene, Greensboro, Philadelphia, Seattle, and St. Petersburg (FL) transform daily with colored light.

Curiosity defines Janet Echelman’s nonlinear educational path. After graduating from Harvard College, she lived in a Balinese village for 5 years, then completed separate graduate programs in Painting and in Psychology. A recipient of an honorary Doctorate from Tufts University, Echelman has taught at MIT, Harvard and Princeton Universities.

Her TED talk „Taking Imagination Seriously“ has been translated into 35 languages with more than two million views. Recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Sr. Lectureship, Echelman received the Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award in Visual Arts, honoring “the greatest innovators in America today.” In popular culture, Oprah ranked Echelman’s work #1 on her List of 50 Things That Make You Say Wow!, and Echelman was named an Architectural Digest Innovator for „changing the very essence of urban spaces.“

Dr. Molly Wright Steenson is a designer, author, professor, and international speaker. She is the president and CEO of the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis, starting in July 2023.

Molly’s research focuses on the intersection of design, architecture, AI, and ethics. At Carnegie Mellon University, where she has been on faculty since 2015, she is Vice Provost for Faculty, the K&L Gates Associate Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies and an associate professor in the School of Design (courtesy appointment, School of Architecture). From 2018–21, she was Senior Associate Dean for Research for the College of Fine Arts.

She is the author of Architectural Intelligence: How Designers and Architects Created the Digital Landscape (MIT Press, 2017), which tells the radical history of AI’s impact on design and architecture, and Bauhaus Futures (MIT Press, 2019), co-edited with Laura Forlano & Mike Ananny. A web pioneer since 1994, she’s worked at groundbreaking design studios, consultancies, and Fortune 500 companies.  She holds a PhD in Architecture from Princeton University, a Master’s in Environmental Design (architectural history) from Yale School of Architecture, and a BA in German from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with honors and distinction.

From 2013–15, Molly was an assistant professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she taught digital studies, data visualization, and large lecture courses, and led Mellon-funded research projects in the digital humanities. She was a professor at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea in Ivrea, Italy in 2003–04, where she led the Connected Communities research group, and an adjunct professor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena in the Media Design Practices Program from 2010–12.

https://design.cmu.edu/people/faculty/molly-steenson

Michael Wimmer is currently a Professor at the Institute of Visual Computing and Human-Centered Technology at TU Wien, where he heads the Rendering and Modeling Group. His academic career started with his M.Sc. in 1997 at TU Wien, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in 2001.

His research interests are real-time rendering, computer games, real-time visualization of urban environments, point-based rendering, reconstruction of urban models, procedural modeling, shape modeling and computational design.

He has coauthored over 145 papers in these fields. He also coauthored the book Real-Time Shadows. He regularly serves on program committees of the important conferences in the field, including ACM SIGGRAPH and SIGGRAPH Asia, Eurographics, IEEE VR, Eurographics Symposium on Rendering, ACM I3D, SGP, SMI, HPG, etc. He is currently associate editor of IEEE TVCG, CGF, and Computers & Graphics. He was papers co-chair of EGSR 2008, Pacific Graphics 2012, Eurographics 2015, Eurographics GCH 2018, and VMV 2019.

He is also the director of the Center for Geometry and Computational Design (GCD, gcd.tuwien.ac.at)

Born in Ibaraki Japan, Kazuyo Sejima received a degree in architecture from the Japan Women’s University in 1981. In 1987 she opened her own studio in Tokyo and then in 1995, together with Ryue Nishizawa, she founded SANAA. Her own works include House in Plum Grove, Inujima Art House project, and Japan Women’s University Mejiro Campus. SANAA’s main works include the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the Rolex Learning Center (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne), Louvre-Lens, Grace Farms, and La Samaritaine. In 2010 Kazuyo Sejima was appointed director of the 12th International Architecture Exhibition of Venice Biennale. Her honors include the Japan Architecture Award, Venice Biennale Golden Lion Award, Rolf Schock Prize in Category of Visual Arts, Pritzker Architecture Prize, Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Letters, Prix de l’Équerre d’Argent, the Medal with Purple Ribbon, Thomas Jefferson Medal in Architecture, and Praemium Imperiale. She is currently a professor at the Polytechnic University of Milan, and teaching at Japan Women’s University and Osaka University of Arts as a visiting professor.

sanaa.co.jp