B-Pro Prospectives Lecture Series Summer 2024

The book Deep Green by Ecologic Studio invites us to think about Artificial Intelligence as a slime mould, a spider web, a microalgae colony or a mycelium network. Like these organisms, the architectures and the landscapes envisioned and built by ecoLogicStudio embody intelligence in their morphology, material behaviour and aesthetic appearance. Consequently, ecoLogicStudio proposes design innovations that do not seek to extract energy and raw resources from the planet. They grow and evolve through the re-metabolization of waste or the filtration of pollution, in what appears to be a constant regenerative process, a new kind of artificial circularity.

Claudia Pasquero is an architect, curator, author and educator; her work and research operates at the intersection of biology, computation and design. She is co-founder of ecoLogicStudio in London, Landscape Architecture Professor at Innsbruck University and Associated Professor at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Claudia has been Head Curator of the Tallinn Architectural Biennale 2017, which she titled Bio-Tallinn, and she has been nominated, in the WIRED smart list in the same year. Her latest book ‘Deep Green, bio-design in the age of artificial intelligence’ was published in 2022. 

Ludger Hovestadt wrote a treatise on digitial architecture in ten books, which strictly follows the model of the famous treatises by Vitruvius (De architectura) and Alberti (De re aedificatoria), based on the supposition that we find ourselves in a comparable situation today. Vitruvius and Alberti expressed the meaning of architecture in their eras: Roman antiquity and the Renaissance. Hovestadt has done the same for the present day, incorporating considerations of physics, mathematics, technology, literature, and philosophy. Hovestadt will present and discuss book one in detail: What is it, to be an architect today.

Ludger Hovestadt is Professor of Digital Architectonics at the Institute for Technology in Architecture, ETH Zurich.  Since 2018 he is a Visiting Professor at Southeast University in Nanjing, China. 

The book 3D Printing and Material Extrusion in Architecture co-authored by Kostas Grigoriadis and Guan Lee, (The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL) presents a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of how 3D printing technology is advancing architectural practice. It explores the variety of uses for 3D printing and material extrusion, and how they can improve sustainability in building design and construction. It features work from Grigoriadis’s PhD on multi-materials, Lee’s 3D printed clay projects at Grymsdyke farm, a speculative multi-material building project, and multi-metal 3D printing and optimisation research funded by UCL and The Bartlett. The case studies chapter consists of 3D printed building components, enclosures, and whole buildings by various designers, architects, and engineers.

Dr Kostas Grigoriadis is an architect and academic. His work explores the spatial and theoretical implications of the use of multi-materials in architecture, and the new paradigm of spatial and material continuity that they will enable. His design practice Continuum completed the construction of a tourist centre in Anhui, China in 2020 and won the international Spiretec competition for the design and construction of a 62,000 square metre mixed-used development in Delhi, India in 2010. He taught at the Architectural Association from 2010 to 2023 and held a Visiting Lectureship at the Royal College of Art from 2012 to 2015 where he also completed a PhD in Architecture by Project that focused on multi-material design methodologies. He edited the book Mixed Matters: A Multi-Material Design Compendium, published in June 2016 by Jovis Verlag and was awarded the Ivan Petrovic Prize in eCAADe 2014, and the Arup Prize for Emerging Talent in Architecture – Special Mention at the Royal Academy’s 2016 Summer Exhibition. In 2018 he won the RIBA President’s Award for Design and Technical Research and in 2019 he was awarded the Google R+D in the Built Environment Fellowship. He is currently an Associate Professor and Co-Director of the Architecture MArch (ARB/RIBA Part 2) programme at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.

Dr Guan Lee is Associate Professor in Architecture and co-founder of Material Architecture Lab at The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Lee’s research practice, Grymsdyke Farm, set in the Chilterns Buckinghamshire, UK, seeks to establish and explore the value of collective living/working that involves an intimate and contextually informed engagement with materials and processes of making. Over the past ten years, Grymsdyke Farm has engaged with many notable collaborative design projects, speculative research, material research, digital fabrication technologies and knowledge exchange activities across a diverse spectrum. Grymsdyke Farm is now firmly recognised as a pioneering facility for learning and teaching across multiple disciplines: architecture, design, and art; tackling issues of sustainability in materiality and craftmanship; and engaging local and international participants. Lee is also Co-Director of Material Architecture Lab at The Bartlett. The lab’s research concerns material ecology in architectural production. Through architectural competitions and projects, Lee was able to translate and scale up design research into architectural applications, such as the first robotically 3D printed tiles for the Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum. This permanent intervention at the V&A using 3D printed clay, had not been trialled at such a large scale before and featured ceramic fabrication innovation at an architectural scale.

The rapid evolution of the generative AI technologies has been significantly impacting various creative fields. The AI models, starting from GANs to the latest advancements in transformers and diffusion architecture, — include Large Language Models like GPTs and, most recently, text-to-image applications such as DALL.E and Midjourney. Trained on vast datasets, they are capable of producing highly detailed 2D images, motion, film, and - although not yet with comparable quality- 3D representations. But can the applications of these technologies extend beyond creating visually appealing images? If so, how might they influence the architectural design process and enhance critical thinking? Is it possible to establish a fruitful human-machine agency in the design field, where architects actively engage with AI to lead, analyse, and assess design outputs, thus maintaining human oversight at the core of the creative process? This discussion will present ongoing research explorations, particularly examining how these generative AI models are being tested as tools in the early stages of the design process.

Dr Angelica Ponzio is an Associate Professor at the School of Architecture, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, where she teaches architectural design and technology studios. Additionally, she is a member of the Research and Post-Graduate Program/PROPAR, delivering a seminar on Interiors Theory, Film, and AI. Dr. Ponzio obtained her architectural degree from UFRGS in 1989 and her MsCAAD from GSAPP, Columbia University, in 1991. She completed her Doctorate in Theory, History, and Criticism in Architecture at PROPAR/UFRGS in 2013, supported by a CAPES fellowship at the Politecnico di Milano. Dr. Ponzio leads the BIMCell/Antac project at UFRGS and serves on the SIGraDi Scientific Committee. She is a member of both the Portuguese and International committees of DigitalFutures and the Historic Interiors Group at the Society of Architectural Historians. Previously, she managed Ponzio Arquitetura until 2018, focusing on building, interior, and furniture design. Dr. Ponzio's current research explores creative design thinking and computational methodologies in architectural design. 

Prof. Ponzio is currently a Visiting Professor on the Architectural Computation MSc/MRes programme funded by a grant from the CAPES Brazilian government PRINT PVE.