Continuing the Experiment: Towards a Participatory Model for Architecture

As our world becomes ever more uncertain the role of how architecture can actively participate and respond within this environment is of consequence. Dominant discursive arguments of today fall back on historical crutches and habit. Architecture is primarily understood and discussed as buildings, geometry, typology and program. In contrast to this fixity of response we live in a technological sphere that is radically altering our communication, experience and understanding of the world.  AADRL Director Theodore Spyropoulos will discuss the role of experimentation today and how architecture can offer an adaptive framework that engages social and participatory models.

Theodore Spyropoulos is an architect and educator. He co-founded and directs the experimental art, architecture and design studio Minimaforms. He also is the Director of the Architectural Association’s Design Research Lab (AADRL) in London. He has been a visiting Research Fellow at M.I.T.’s Center for Advanced Visual Studies working with the Interrogative Design Group and co-founded the New Media and Information Research initiative at the Architectural Association. In 2013 the Association for Computer-Aided Design in Architecture awarded him The ACADIA award of excellence for his educational work directing the AADRL. Previously Theodore has worked as a project architect for the offices of Peter Eisenman and Zaha Hadid Architects.