SPEAKERS>>> Patrik Schumacher… Vít Jedlička… Shajay Bhooshan… Twobadour… Sara Schnadt… Sofiane Delloue… Philippe Morel… Martin E. Rosenberg… Alicia Nahmad Vazquez… Vera Kichanova… Robert R.Neumayr… Scott Beyer
AGENDA>>>The ArchAgenda Debates aim to spark lively and candid exchange on 21st century societal paradigm shifts fueled by globally distributed cloud communities, emerging economies, new governance models, novel design agendas, and innovative technologies that transform social synergies, entrepreneurial opportunities, and the process of building cities.
The 2021 edition of ArchAgenda Debates will focus on Cyber-Urban Incubators in the Blockchain Metaverse. Metaverses are gamified virtual-reality worlds in which users interact with 3D computer-generated environments and other users, in real time. The theme of this event responds to the following Chicago Architecture Biennial challenge: “The Available City directly confronts the often opaque process of how cities are designed and developed by proposing an inclusive and transparent design process.”
The fluidity, mobility and dynamism of 21st century network society is transforming the way we design cities. Current societal paradigm shifts are marked by an intensification in systems of communication, complexity, co- evolution, responsiveness, and freedom. Urban design innovation is accelerated by convergence of natural and artificial intelligence, the emergence of distributed peer-to-peer computational networks (blockchain), advancements in telecommunications, the explosion of real-time decision systems using big data with Ai, and the movement towards knowledge economies anchored in research and development. In this context, the world is a laboratory, and entrepreneurship in an open market is the best avenue for creating wealth and improving quality of life for the greatest number of people.
The emerging Spatial Web (Web3), which revives the pioneering visions of the 1990s internet, is a disruptive innovation converging many disparate design professions that are already engaging in UX systems thinking, including architecture, filmmaking, urban design, fashion design, product design, and of course, communication and web design. The Spatial Web is a disruptive innovation in UX/UI that brings the internet to the brink of a paradigm shift. Cyberspace is becoming the realm of 3D VR Metaverses that are a radical departure from familiar 2D internet interfaces. The most popular examples are massive multiplayer games like Fortnite, and Metaverses like Second Earth, VRChat and Second Life, to name just a few in an ever growing spatial web ecosystem.
Architecture is UX for the built environment, a complex field that is deeply engaged in systems thinking, and has many commonalities with communication design. The most innovative 21st century architecture is designed in the context of computationally empowered paradigms using algorithmic design, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and robotics. Architects are digital natives, and we focus much energy on creating physical environments for social interaction and productivity, but we are now entering the realm of UX design for complex real-time multi- user interactions in Virtual Reality.
Simultaneously, we are seeing a boom in the creative economy powered by blockchain, most recently in the realm of virtual land development and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). A good example of a massive blockchain- powered, user-owned and user-designed Metaverse is Decentraland.
In the mainstream, Blockchain is frequently mistaken as a synonym for cryptocurrency. However, blockchain is a profound technological paradigm shift. Its distributed, transparent peer-to-peer computational networks enable trustless, secure global transactions between parties, without intervening middlemen. As Melanie Swan wrote, “We should think about the blockchain as another class of thing like the internet – a comprehensive information technology with tiered technical levels and multiple classes of applications for any form of asset registry, inventory, and exchange, including every area of finance, economics and money, hard assets (physical property), and intangible assets (votes, ideas, reputation, intention, health data, information, etc).” To these categories we can add urban planning, architecture and design. Blockchain can be theorized as the eighth mass media after Print (1450), Recordings (1877), Cinema (1900), Radio (1910), Television (1925), Internet (1990) and Mobile phones (2000), with the crucial distinction that it is a decentralized mass media, and this attribute of decentralization is itself a transformative concept for urban design and development.
Consider the following questions: How can 21st century cities shed the current urban planning dogmas, such as rigid zoning and outdated design restrictions? Does centrally controlled planning really work? What can we learn from the visionary experimental innovations of startup societies, startup cities and pop-up developments? Can entrepreneurial developers, politicians, economists, and architects devise transparent, participatory urban planning processes using the technologies of the Spatial Web, Blockchain, Computational Design, High Fidelity Game Engines, Artificial Intelligence, and Robotic Fabrication? Can we press the reset button on our thinking about opportunities in governance, market economy and architecture to tackle the complex, risky and open- ended nature of urban design? How are VR Metaverses and cyber-physical AR event scenarios transforming the way designers approach the complex problems of urban user experience (UX) and user interface (UI)?
—Daniela Ghertovici - Curator & Author of ArchAgenda Debates
Curated by ArchAgenda, a Chicago Architecture Biennial Program Partner
Patrik Schumacher is an architect and architectural theorist. He is the Principal of Zaha Hadid Architects, one of the most innovative architecture practices in the world. He joined Zaha Hadid in 1988. In 1996 he founded the London-based Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab (AA DRL) with Brett Steele, and continues to serve as one of its co-directors. Patrik studied philosophy and architecture in Bonn, London and Stuttgart, where he received his Diploma in architecture. He completed his PhD at the Institute for Cultural Science, Klagenfurt University. He has been teaching at various architectural schools in Britain, Continental Europe and the USA since 1992. In 2011, Patrik published the first volume of his magnum opus, The Autopoiesis of Architecture, followed by the second volume in 2012.
Vít Jedlička is a Czech libertarian politician, publicist and activist, currently serving as the President of the Free Republic of Liberland. He was the chairman of the Party of Free Citizens in the Hradec Králové Region, and he is the founder and chairman of a Czech voluntary association Reformy.cz. “Liberland aims to become the model of statehood for the 21st century. We are a global nation with well over half a million people who intends to build our own state with the highest respect for personal and economic freedom for its citizens. We are implementing the latest blockchain technologies to ensure that high standards of transparency and decentralization are met. Becoming the first decentralized autonomous government is the very core of Liberland’s vision, mission and existence.” -Vít Jedlička
Shajay Bhooshan is a Senior Associate at Zaha Hadid Architects where he co-founded and heads the Computation and Design research group (ZHACODE). He is an alumnus and a studio-master at the post-graduate course of Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association (AADRL). There he explores participatory systems of development of the built environment as enabled by advances in digital technologies of design and manufacturing. Shajay pursues his interests in manufacturing and structurally informed design technologies as a PhD candidate at the Block Research Group (BRG) at the ETH, Zurich and previously as a M.Phil graduate from University of Bath, UK.
Twobadour went from working as a journalist and GTM strategist in financial technology to virtual shopping with artists as the Steward of Metapurse, the world’s largest NFT fund. The portfolio not only aims to collect meaningful stories, but also catalyze financial and cultural inclusion. The fund is estimated to be worth $189 million and owns the $69 million Beeple piece titled Everydays: the First 5000 Days.
Sara Schnadt is an artist, UX designer and software systems architect. She has been working since 2004 overseeing and designing large-scale civic data projects alongside her installation art practice. At NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory she is Senior Lead Designer for the Mars 2020 mission, responsible for software design for the ground system. She has designed and implemented an architecture to capture science intent in science planning tools, and designed and overseen development of a series of cross-cutting operations tools for the mission. She has also developed machine learning system architecture for science planning for the Europa Clipper mission. Sara’s installation art has been exhibited nationally and internationally at venues such as MCA Chicago, Perform Chinatown, LA, MOCAD Detroit, Free Manifesta, and the Busan Biennial.
Sofiane Delloue is the CEO of Newlife.ai, an Operating System for creativity. With 20 years of experience in the creator economy, Sofiane has participated in countless startups involving technology and creativity: As head of growth for a mobile content distribution network, working with the music industry; as co-founder of a digital media group specialised in luxury and fashion; as CMO contractor for multiple startups acquired for a total with 9 digits. The idea of merging the creative economy with the Internet of Value has then become an obsession and he has been envisioning the Newlife concept since 2016. It is the mission of Newlife to meaningfully organise this nascent ecosystem through its protocol. Part of the NVIDIA Inception program and Farfetch Dream Assembly laureate, Newlife.ai connects blockchain AI governance, deep learning, sustainable development and financial inclusion.
Philippe Morel is an architect and theorist, co-founder of EZCT Architecture & Design Research (2000) and initiator and founding CEO of the large-scale 3D-printing corporation XtreeE (2015). He is currently a Visiting Professor at UCL Bartlett and an Associate Professor at the École nationale supérieure d'architecture Paris-Malaquais, where he co-founded the Digital Knowledge department. He was previously an invited Research Cluster and MArch Diploma Unit Master at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), a Visiting Professor at the Berlage Institute in the Netherlands (seminar and studio), and a History & Theory lecturer and a studio tutor (AADRL) at the Architectural Association. His long-lasting interest in the elaboration of a theory of computational architecture is well expressed in his numerous essays, projects and lectures.
Martin E. Rosenberg is currently affiliated as a researcher with the New Centre for Research and Practice and the Center for Discursive Inquiry, School of Criticism, California Institute of the Arts. He has published on “emergence”, Deleuze and complex systems theory with reference to Freud, Ezra Pound, Duchamp and Thomas Pynchon, Samuel Beckett, John Cage, Kiki Smith, as well as on embodied cognitive science and the avant-garde architects Arakawa and Gins. He also published on complex, emergent behaviors that are visible in music notation in jazz improvisation and composition, and, more recently, on the cognitive neuroscience of improvisation, and its philosophical implications. Martin has programmed instructional software, theorized about hypermedia and interaction-design, and contributed articles on the role of metaphor in trans-disciplinary inquiry. He co-directed the first completely digital global academic conference.
Vera Kichanova is a professional Researcher at Zaha Hadid Architects, and PhD candidate at King’s College London. Vera’s dissertation is dedicated to private cities. At the age of 20, she was elected to the Municipal Council in Moscow thus becoming the first libertarian ever elected to public office in Russia. Her comments on local government and urban policy were published by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Telegraph. Vera holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Oxford and a BA in Journalism from Moscow State University. Her research interests include public administration, development economics, institutional analysis, land use and management, international development, and regulatory analysis. Vera was a Mercatus Center Frédéric Bastiat Fellow during the 2017-2018 academic year.
Robert R. Neumayr is an architect, researcher, educator and writer. Robert studied architecture in Vienna and Paris and received a M.Sc. in architecture from the Technical University Vienna before completing his M.Arch. II with distinction at London’s AA Graduate School Design Research Lab (AADRL). Since 2000 Robert has been researching on responsive architecture, parametric urbanism, algorithmic design, and contemporary digital design practice. His research and projects have been published and exhibited internationally, most notably at Latent Utopias and the Beijing Biennale, and been awarded numerous prizes, among them the Bronze Medal at the Miami Biennale.
Scott Beyer is an urban affairs analyst based in New York City. He is founder and owner of Market Urbanism Report, a media organization that promotes free-market urban policy. MUR publishes a weekly article, a monthly podcast, and has active social media accounts with a combined following of over 50,000. Beyer is also a journalist who recently completed a 3-year, 30-city cross-country tour to study urban American issues. He now writes as a columnist for Governing Magazine, HousingOnline.com, and the Independent Institute. He launched a consultancy called Beyer Policy in 2020, to build political support around his ideas. BP works with public and private institutions to spearhead pro-market, pro-growth policy in cities across America.
Alicia Nahmad Vazquez is the founder of Architecture Extrapolated (R-Ex) and works as assistant professor of robotics and AI in architecture at the University of Calgary. She is also co-director of the Laboratory for Integrative Design. For the last 5 years, Alicia worked as studio master co-leading the Nahmad-Bhooshan studio at the Architectural Association DRL master’s program. As a research-based practising architect, Alicia explores materials and digital design and fabrication technologies along with the digitization of building trades and the wisdom of traditional building cultures. She holds a PhD in human-robot collaborative (HRC) design from Cardiff University and a MArch from the AADRL. Alicia previously worked developing design tools for practices like Populous and Zaha Hadid architects.
Daniela Ghertovici is an Architectural professional, Researcher, Educator, and Scholar, with over 25 years of international experience as an architectural designer and technologist on complex mixed-use urban developments, such as Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Shanghai North Bund White Magnolia Plaza. She has been teaching for over fifteen years, most recently as full-time graduate faculty and thesis chair at Harrington College of Design. She is the curator and author of ArchAgenda Debates at the Chicago Architecture Biennial, the lead strategist and curator of Liberland Design Competitions 2015 and 2020, co-curator of Parametricism.com with Patrik Schumacher and Lars van Vianen, and co-curator of the Free Private Cities Architecture Symposium. Daniela holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and is currently a PhD candidate in computational and architectural design theory at the European Graduate School in Switzerland.
ArchAgenda's mission is to advance 21st century global architecture discourse and design through a unified, fluid and systematic approach; to generate and instrumentalize experimental design research agendas and computationally advanced design processes with potential to accelerate architecture’s fertile co-evolution with today’s complex emergent socialities; to participate in entrepreneurial design innovation; and to amplify through publication and media communications the movement towards a new framework and agenda for architecture. ArchAgenda LLC is the organizer of Archagenda Debates.
ArchAgenda.com
Lars van Vianen is a meta-designer and founding director of Scape Agency. Proceeding from a background in interactive art, experience design and parametric architecture, Lars explores the convergence of synthetic biology, materials science, artificial intelligence and robotic construction, and exerts computation to concurrently operate across scales and mediate between natural and artificial actors. Lars launched Scape Agency in 2020. Scape Agency is a spatial innovation collective that dreams, discovers and designs the everyday of tomorrow. Its mission is to naturalise the artificial in liveable and sustainable –scapes that spark the imagination and inspire future generations. Scape Agency operates in unison through a meta-disciplinary network of artists, designers, engineers and scientists, and blends creative thinking and emerging technologies in spatial interventions that create a brighter perspective for people and planet.
ArchAgenda is a Chicago Architecture Biennial Program Partner since 2015
