07.15.2020 - 07.24.2020

Hosted Virtually, Available Globally. Application Deadline 07.14.2020.
Our cities have undergone shifts due to the COVID-19 pandemic that months ago seemed unthinkable. It has demonstrated how quickly social behaviors and patterns of life can change in response to an external factor and has offered a unique opportunity to explore the design of future urban systems in new ways. Designers have always faced challenges planning for the dynamic and rapidly changing aspects of society and its environment; however, this current situation demands an unprecedented need to rethink our everyday lives and experiences. These transformations will have great impacts on the nature of how we experience our city’s public spaces, its enclosed environments, and the daily commutes to a plethora of activities throughout its boroughs. As a response, this programme will explore the future of cities in a virtual realm through experimentation with augmented reality and the alteration of physical spaces through digital means. Participants will study the infrastructural typologies and dynamic urban morphologies that make up New York, and digitally reconfigure and explore how these spaces can be experienced in the future both physically and digitally. Through the use of computational and visualization techniques to reconfigure the urban environment this programme not only hopes to reveal glimpses of what the city can be, but also to initiate discourse that can destabilize dominant thinking and offer future urban solutions to the changing physical and digital landscapes of our metropolises around the world.

Digital Platforms

The programme will focus on digital and scripted design methodologies, realised through digital representation and fabrication techniques. Focused on the utilization of Rhinoceros, Grasshopper, Python, and Maya, each invited tutor will be introducing their own advanced methods of working within these platforms for a diversity of design outcomes and an exposure for participants in each group to differentiated design methodologies.

Studio Workshop

Each group of students will produce a proposal driven by new, advanced computational techniques that will postulate their versions of a future urban outcome driven by technological innovations and urban changes in response to Covid-19. These proposals will be expressed through renders, animations, and diagrammatic representations.

Lecture Series

Throughout the programme a series of morning presentations and evening public lectures will be presented to the participants on topics relevant to the workshop agenda, offering exposure to a wide range of methodologies and applications used by instructors and guest speakers in their practices. A list of local and international keynote lecturers will present for several evenings on specialised subjects to provide a rich platform for discussions and exchange of ideas.

All Digital

AAVS New York will for the first time be an online only programme. All workshops, lectures, crits and collaborations will take place through virtual conferencing, maintaining the same level of exposure to tutors and team members as a typical in-person Visiting School. Each studio will explore new and innovative ways of virtual learning and collaborating for a successful and meaningful project outcome.

Closing Presentations

To conclude the programme, a virtual public event will be hosted online to present final group projects and lead into a discussion session covering the programme topics of future urban health and growth within New York in response to the pandemic, and the use of computational methodologies to address the issues impacting contemporary urban systems post-Covid-19.

Programme Leaders

Local, Regional, and International Contributors to AAVS New York
Ali Farzaneh

Ali Farzaneh

Director

Ali Farzaneh is a designer and architect based in the USA. He attained his PhD in Architectural Design at the Architectural Association (AA) in London with a focus on complex systems in design and their application in generating novel spatial and morphological formations. He has worked at Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) in Washington DC. He co-directed the AA Aarhus Visiting School in Denmark researching the implications of digital fabrication tools and robotic manufacturing in design and their use in rationalising complex geometries.
Andrew Haas

Andrew Haas

Director

Andrew Haas is a New York based designer focused on biologically inspired, computationally driven approaches to design. He received his Master’s in Emerging Technologies & Design at the Architectural Association (AA) in London and his Bachelors of Science at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities. He has professional experience at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA); Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM); and is currently with Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF) as a Computational Designer in New York. He has taught internationally, including at the Architectural Association, Hong Kong University, and Tsinghua University, among others. He is a Fellow at the Urban Design Forum, an Emerging Leader for the Regional Plan Association, an Executive Steering Committee member of Emerging New York Architects, and Founder of the New York Digital Design Community, a forum dedicated to advancements in design through technology.

Jan Klaška

Jan Klaška

Studio Instructor

Jan Klaška is a New York based licensed Architect from the Czech Republic and holds a Master of Architecture and Urban Design Degree from the Technical University in Prague. His focus lays in advanced computation design and methods, specifically in the advanced development of form and rationalisation of complex geometry. Jan has worked internationally for several high-profile firms, in Prague, Vienna and most recently in London for Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA). Since joining ZHA in 2013, Jan has collaborated on variety of commissions and competitions, ranging from interior urban design, sport venues, cultural projects, and residential and office buildings. He is currently working on international bridge design, which he has been involved with from its design inception to final design stages.
Angela Huang

Angela Huang

Studio Instructor

Angela Huang is a New York based Architectural Designer. She received her Master’s Degree in Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania where she was the recipient of the Arthur Spayd Brooke Memorial Prize for exceptional work in Architecture Education as well as the prestigious Studio Prize by Architect Magazine in 2017. She has had the opportunity to work at globally recognized design offices such as UNStudio in Amsterdam, Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in London, and currently with Skidmore Owings and Merrill in New York, where she has worked on multiple high profile international tower projects. She is co-teaching at the University of Pennsylvania in the Advance Architectural Design program and the Master of Architecture program, in the third year Design Research Studio. Her work focusses on aesthetics in Architecture and advanced digital design techniques. She has undertaken numerous architectural competitions, including the Lixil International competition, in which she was a finalist. Additionally, in 2018 her work was exhibited at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Ramon Weber

Ramon Weber

Studio Instructor

Ramon Weber is a PhD Student in Building Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Working with experimental fabrication platforms and digital simulation technologies he is investigating how computational design and robotics can impact future architecture. He graduated with a Master of Science in Media Arts and Science from the MIT Media Lab where he was part of the Mediated Matter Group. He received his master’s degree in Integrative Technologies and Architectural Design Research with distinction from the University of Stuttgart and holds a bachelor’s in architecture from ETH Zurich, where he conducted research at the Block Research Group, the Institute for Computational Design and Construction (ICD), the Institute of Building Structures and Structural Design (ITKE) and was a designer at the lightweight composite construction company FibR. He previously worked for Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) in London, where he was involved in projects across all scales and design research in the in-house ZHA|CODE research group. His work has been published and presented internationally in both scientific and design venues such as the Journal ‘Building and Environment’, ACADIA, Ars Electronica and the Experimental Architecture Biennial in Prague.

Paul Clemens Bart

Paul Clemens Bart

Studio Instructor

Paul Clemens Bart is a German architect, designer and educator, currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Paul holds a M.Sc (Dipl. Ing. eqv) from Technical University Munich and a M.Arch from the Design Research Lab at the Architectural Association in London. His ongoing research and design ambitions are focused on emergent technologies and digital methodologies and their application in performance-orientated, mobile and ecological building systems. He has been a frequently invited speaker and teaching instructor at UCL Bartlett London, Universidad International SEK Quito and TU Munich and international institutions like DETAIL Magazine and Ars Electronica Linz. His work has been widely published, patented and exhibited, including the IAA Frankfurt Motor Show, the 13th Architectural Biennale in Venice and the Nesta Future Fest London. It has been featured by major architectural media, such as WIRED, Financial Times, ArchDaily and Autodesk Redshift. Paul is co-founder of the design and research collaborative BART//BRATKE working at the intersection between new mobility and urban futures. Previously he has been holding leading industry and academic positions at Zaha Hadid Architects in London, L.A.V.A. Asia-Pacific and Berlin, and the German Institute for Science and Technology in Singapore.

Presenters + Discussion Panelists

Throughout the programme a series of morning and evening lectures will be presented to the participants on topics relevant to the workshop agenda, offering exposure to a wide range of methodologies and applications used by tutors and guest speakers in their practices, and providing a rich platform for discussions and exchange of ideas. Speakers soon to be listed.

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