John Frazer

John Hamilton Frazer (b. 1945) is an influential architect, writer, and educator. He has written on architecture and intelligent computer-aided design (CAD) systems, and has been a computer technology pioneer in design research, architecture, and urbanism. John Frazer is widely recognized as the father of architectural computation.

Educated at Stowe School, the Architectural Association, and the University of Cambridge, he trained as an architect and then taught and researched at the Architectural Association and the University of Ulster where he was the Head of the School of Art and Design Research. While there, he also founded the Ulster Center for Computer Aided Design and was awarded a Personal Chair at the University of Ulster in 1984. He then became Swire Chair Professor and Head of the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, going on to become Professor of Design Science and Head of the School of Design at Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He received an award for teaching excellence from the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) in 2011.

John Frazer is the originator of the Evolutionary Digital Design Process and a leader in the field of generative design. He proposed and designed the interactive systems for the first intelligent buildings, created the field of tangible interfaces, and filed the first patents in this area. He also developed and marketed the world’s first microprocessor based CAD programs. His book An Evolutionary Architecture (1995) is considered the seminal work in the field of generative design.

Eyal Weizman

Eyal Weizman is the founding director of Forensic Architecture and Professor of Spatial and Visual Cultures at Goldsmiths, University of London where he is also Research Director at the Center for Research Architecture.The author of over 15 books, he has held positions in many universities worldwide including Princeton, ETH Zurich and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He is a member of the Technology Advisory Board of the International Criminal Court and the Centre for Investigative Journalism.
In 2019 he was elected life fellow of the British Academy and appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2020 New Year Honours for services to architecture. In 2020 he was elected the Richard von Weizsäcker fellow at the Bosch Academy. Eyal studied architecture at the Architectural Association, graduating in 1998. He received his PhD in 2006 from the London Consortium at Birkbeck, University of London.

Nerea Calvillo

Andrea Macruz

Andrea Macruz is a Brazilian designer who holds a Master’s in Bio-Digital Architecture, Interior Design, and Contemporary Furniture Design from institutes in Barcelona, São Paulo and Milan, respectively. Currently, she is finishing a Ph.D. in the DigitalFUTURES program at Tongji University in Shanghai. In 2010, Andrea founded a design studio that explores the intersection of Nature and technology. Her work has garnered international recognition and has been published in magazines such as Architectural Digest, Domus, Wallpaper, and Vogue. Andrea has showcased her work at venues such as Salone Satellite and Fuorisalone at the Milan Furniture Fair, the Piasa Auction in Paris, the Architecture Beijing Biennale, and the Guiltless Plastic exhibits organized by Rossana Orlandi in Milan, Hong Kong and Doha. She has also been featured at the London, Barcelona and Berlin Design Weeks. In addition to her design work, Andrea has taught at various universities and institutes, including the Istituto Europeo di Design, Centro Universitário Belas Artes and the Dubai Institute of Design and Innovation. Her research interests include new technologies, bio-informed design approaches and neuroscience.

Wesam Al Asali

Wesam Al Asali is an esteemed architect, educator, and researcher . Enthusiast for combining digital and manual fabrication technologies with local building crafts and natural materials. His research received the RIBA President’s Awards for Research in Architecture (2021) and the Salje Medal for Best Doctoral Research in Arts and Humanities at Clare Hall, Cambridge University (2022). He co-founded IWLab in 2009 alongside Dr. Iyas Shahin which is a multidisciplinary research laboratory dedicated to exploring, educating, and practicing cultural and architectural design, focusing on integrating local building crafts and natural materials with modern digital and manual fabrication technologies, aiming to revitalize architectural practices in Syria and the Arab region by modernizing traditional techniques and addressing the socio-economic contexts of urban areas​. He Co founded Cercaa recently IW educational lab received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2024: Architecture is Education. Wesam’s research has earned prestigious accolades, including the RIBA President’s Awards for Research in Architecture (2021) and the Salje Medal at Clare Hall, Cambridge University (2022). His IW educational lab recently received the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture 2024.

Mona Ghandi

Mona Ghandi is an architect, researcher, and educator who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. She is an assistant professor of architecture and the director of Morphogenesis Lab at Washington State University. Her research is an interdisciplinary, linking architecture, computer science, neuroscience, psychology, and material science. It focuses on the Emotive and Performative Intelligent Architecture which examines the role of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, robotics, sensory environments, and adaptive architecture to enhance social, environmental, and personal well-being. Her work has been recognized with several national and international prestigious awards such as the World Architecture Award, Architizer A+Awrad in Architecture+ New Technology, LAKA competition, prestigious Vilcek Award for creative promise in Architecture.Her work was exhibited in different national and international exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Bellevue Arts Museum, Melbourne Design, Latrobe Regional Gallery Hub, AIA Spokane Award Gala, and Lewis-Clark State College Center for Arts & History.

Ersin Han Ersin

Ersin Han Ersin is an artist, director and creative director of the London-based experiential studio Marshmallow Laser Feast. Ersin’s art practice combines a wide range of disciplines including sculpture, installation, live performance, and mixed reality.
His work illuminates the hidden natural forces that surround us, inviting participants to navigate with a sensory perception beyond their daily experience. In these spaces, the known physical world is removed to reveal networks, processes and systems that are at once sublime, underpinned by research, and fundamental to life on Earth.
He has designed and directed for the likes of the critically acclaimed Saatchi Gallery debut; We Live in an Ocean of Air, In The Eyes Of The Animal’, which won the Wired Innovation Award. Most recently, he and the team at MLF won the Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes Award for Innovation in Storytelling and Best VR Film at VR Arles Festival for ‘TreeHugger, Wawona’.
Ersin’s work has been exhibited around the World including Lisbon Triennial, Barbican Centre, Sundance Film Festival New Frontier, Tribeca Film Festival Storyscapes, Istanbul Design Biennial, the Barbican Centre- London, Phi Centre – Montreal.

Yasaman Esmaili

Educated as an architect at the University of Tehran, Yasaman Esmaili has pursued her architectural career at the University of Arizona, the University of Washington, and now works as an architect and educator based in Tehran and Boston. In 2018, Yasaman founded Studio Chahar, a nomadic research-based design studio focused on equity, cultural expression, and innovation in the built environment. The Studio Chahar team explores the intersection of traditional methods and innovative technologies for contemporary adaptation, prioritizing the user, the community, and environmental stewardship.

Yasaman’s recent projects have been recognized with several awards, including the LafargeHolcim 2018 Global Silver and 2017 Regional Gold Awards, a 2018 American Institute of Architecture National Award of Honor, and a 2022 shortlist for the Aga Khan Award. Yasaman is the recipient of the 2020 Tamayouz Women in Architecture Award in the Rising Star category and the University of Washington 2023 Graduate of the Last Decade Award. She is currently a visiting professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology. Yasaman has also taught architecture at Keene State College, Roger Williams University, and the University of Washington. Her work has been exhibited worldwide, including in Munich, Tehran, Shiraz, the 2023 Chicago Architecture Biennial, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle.