ASD Distinguished Lecture Series Spring 2015 by Professor Hanif Kara, Harvard

09 Apr 2015 6:00pm to 7.30pm LT4, SUTD, 8 Somapah Road, Singapore 487372

Synopsis

In architectural design, computation matters. In recent decades, digital design technologies have been adopted almost universally as the predominant means of production in architectural practice and have enabled new methods of design. This has generated a varied set of digital skills and a new type of architectural knowledge. But computation matters not only as enabler of design with technology but also as mediator of design through technology. The utilization of new technologies has facilitated the design and production of complexity. With this, computation relates also to the re-emergence of the physical in architectural discourse that is of architecture as formed matter and as physical artifact embedded within the material world. Computational Matters tries to connect this wide field of topics reaching from the conceptual to the physical, from urban scale to construction detail through a series of lectures. The Distinguished Lecture Series presents different positions by established and renowned speakers within this wide field of topics and is aiming at opening up the discourse at SUTD and the Singaporean design community. 

Speaker's Profile

Hanif Kara is a structural engineer and Professor in Practice of Architectural Technology at the Graduate School of Design Harvard. His work is recognised as being linked with the research and education areas of design. He co-tutored a Diploma Unit at the Architecture Association London and was visiting Professor of Architectural Technology at KTH Stockholm. As Design Director and co-founder of AKTII, his particular design-led approach and interest in innovative form, sustainable construction and complex analysis methods have allowed him to work on pioneering projects such as Phaeno Science Centre, Peckham Library and MIST at Masdar City.
The practice has won over 250 design awards including the RIBA Stirling award as well as the RIBA Lubetkin Prize. Hanif Kara’s career extends beyond the structural engineering disciplines and led to him receiving the UK ACE Engineering Ambassador Award and becoming the first Engineer to be a judge for the annual coveted RIBA Stirling Prize. He is on the board or trustees of the Architecture Foundation and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British
Architects. He served as a commissioner for CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment); the first engineer to hold this post for the government watchdog that monitored the quality of design throughout the United Kingdom. He also served as one of 15 members of the Design for London Advisory Group to the Mayor of London. In addition, Hanif Kara was on the Master Jury for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
Link: www.akt-uk.com