Hanif Kara - Bartlett International Lecture Series

Image: 'Coca Cola Beatbox', Hufton and Crow

Disciplinary Appropriation

Lecturer's Abstract

The technological, cultural and social shifts borne out of age-old ecological and geopolitical challenges often produce naive, overenthusiastic and clichéd responses from practitioners of the built environment. Through a set of built examples and experiments, this presentation will try to show a ‘binding’ from the lens of a structural engineer who is unashamedly interested in interdisciplinary discourse through disciplinary appropriation across boundaries of technology, geographies and scales without becoming the other.

Hanif's argument will take a more comprehensive interpretation of design that is particular to AKT II, whilst demonstrating that technology has undoubtedly provided a freer movement between design and fabrication, education and practice.

Biography

Professor Hanif Kara is a design director and co-founder of London-based structural engineering firm AKT II. The practice has gained an international standing in the field of the built environment, winning over 350 design awards including the RIBA Stirling Prize in 2001, 2011 and 2018. Hanif's work intertwines with design research and education. He is currently Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at Harvard Graduate School of Design and has previously co-tutored a diploma unit at the Architectural Association and a Professorship at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.

Hanif has been responsible for a number of pioneering projects, but also for raising the profile of design, which has led to recognitions such as fellow member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, Institute of Civil Engineers, Institute of Structural Engineers and Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He was appointed commissioner at CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) in 2008, and in the global context he was the first structural engineer to be selected for the Master Jury of the 2004 Aga Khan Award for Architecture, where he currently serves on the steering committee.