Our vision for FABRICATE 2027 is to rethink extractive models of architectural production, to listen to and learn from local contexts and to empower broader communities of designers, makers and builders around the world.
Statement by co-Chairs of FABRICATE 2027
Since 2011 FABRICATE has grown into a vibrant platform for rethinking how we design and build, pushing boundaries of fabrication, experimental design, material innovation and technology in architecture and the built environment.
We are excited to share that FABRICATE 2027 will carry this legacy forward by inviting fundamental questions of strategy and intention. How do we make design and manufacturing tools open and accessible to all? Whose knowledge do we center? How can more communities benefit from innovation in design and fabrication? Is fabrication’s future only digital, or is it time to revalue the embodied, tacit knowledge of craft for a post-digital age?
Our vision for FABRICATE 2027 is to rethink extractive models of architectural production, to listen to and learn from local contexts and to empower broader communities of designers, makers and builders around the world. This means bringing together diverse minds, skills and cultures to showcase transformative design and making projects that generate radical impact across industries, geographies and lives.
As technological shifts accelerate, so does our responsibility to ensure that experimentation and tools support communities and the planet, not just progress for its own sake. Advancing fabrication, in our view, is not limited to perfecting digital workflows or developing evermore complex technical specialisms in high-tech labs; it can also be revolutionised through shared, hands-on processes shaped by diverse social, political, technological, and ecological realities—creating tangible, collective change and new economies of making.
Fabrication, in this sense, becomes an elevated form of collective innovation—one that can meaningfully improve the quality of all lives and the environments they co-inhabit.
We are delighted to be co-chairing FABRICATE 2027, hosted in Barcelona by IAAC, and to help shape collectively where fabrication goes next.
Areti & Xavier
IAAC
The Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia is a center of education, research, and innovation that envisions, designs, and prototypes the future—from Barcelona to the world. It bridges education and research to bring radical experiments into real-world applications, transforming ideas into material systems, building products, and urban technologies. Guided by a vision of a built environment in harmony with nature, IAAC’s initiatives contribute to a growing ecosystem of innovation, spanning advanced prototyping, product development, executive training, and sponsored research.
Areti Markopoulou
Dr Areti Markopoulou is a Greek architect, researcher and urban technologist working at the intersection of architecture and digital technologies. She is the Academic Director at Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia in Barcelona, where she also leads the Advanced Architecture Group – a multidisciplinary research lab exploring how design and science can positively impact the built environment. Her work focuses on redefining cities through an ecological and technological spectrum, merging design with biotechnologies, decarbonising materials, digital fabrication and big data.
Areti is also the co-founder of StudioP52, an art/tech community-driven gallery activating abandoned industrial warehouses in Barcelona, and she has served as co-editor of the digital platform Urban Next. She has consulted on and developed projects on topics including urban regeneration through data science, material innovation for circular construction and multidisciplinary educational models for the digital age. She is co-founder and Chair of the Responsive Cities International Symposium, academic advisor for the UIA World Congress of Architects 2026 Barcelona Open Call and, alongside Lydia Kallipoliti, has served as Head co-Curator of the 2022 Tallinn Architecture Biennale. Markopoulou is the co-author and editor of Learning Cities: Collective Intelligence Urban Design (Actar, 2022), Edible; Or, the Architecture of Metabolism (TAB, 2022), Black Ecologies (Actar, 2019) and co-author of Building Metabolism (Actar, 2025), supported by the Graham Foundation Grant for Individuals.
Xavier De Kestelier
Xavier De Kestelier is an architect and design innovator, currently Head of Design at international design practice Hassell. With a career spanning over two decades, he has been at the forefront of computational design, digital fabrication and additive manufacturing, leading transformative projects across architecture and extreme environments. A pioneer in space architecture, Xavier has collaborated with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) on visionary concepts for extraterrestrial habitats, pushing the boundaries of sustainable design beyond Earth. His expertise in parametric design and digital construction has positioned him as a leader in the industry, shaping the future of architecture through cutting-edge research and real-world applications.
Beyond his work at Hassell, Xavier was a Director of Smartgeometry, a non-profit international educational organisation dedicated to computational design and digital fabrication that ran conferences between 2003-2018. He has played a pivotal role in fostering a global network of specialists in these fields. His passion for education and knowledge-sharing is reflected in his academic roles at Syracuse University, University of Ghent, IAAC and The Bartlett, where he has mentored the next generation of architects and innovators. Notably, he has also led work on the Bidi Bidi Performing Arts Centre, the first cultural building in Bidi Bidi, one of the world’s largest refugee settlements, demonstrating his commitment to socially impactful architecture. Xavier continues to drive innovation and push the limits of architectural design, merging technology, sustainability and human-centred solutions for both Earth and beyond.
ABOUT
Held for the fifth time in 2024, FABRICATE is an international peer-reviewed conference with supporting publication on the theme of constructing architecture. Discussing the progressive integration of digital design with manufacturing processes, and its impact on constructed environments in the 21st century, FABRICATE brings together pioneers in design and making within architecture, engineering, manufacturing, material science, and computation.
Founded in 2011, the triennial event has explored themes that include: how digital fabrication technologies are enabling new creative and construction opportunities from component to building scales, the difficult gap that exists between digital modelling and its realisation, material performance and manipulation, off-site and on-site construction, interdisciplinary education, economic and sustainable contexts, circularity and repurposing.
Our domain FABRICATE.org is growing as the industry landmark resource for innovations in large scale digital fabrication. A place where makers showcase their work through stunning stories, presented in-depth, focusing both on process and results. Using new formats, seamlessly blending video, text, high resolution imagery and interactive infographics, the stories will present an ongoing visual overview of the status of the works, the achievements, lessons learnt, next steps and more.
FABRICATE’s relationship with practice and academia is fundamental. The platform offers ongoing exposure and publicity, while encouraging new authors to submit work for each subsequent conference whilst building long lasting partnerships with sponsors and patrons. Our next venture will be announced in due course, meanwhile please delve into the 160 projects captured so far through our five books that are free to download, and do get in touch with us if you are interested in becoming a part of this space.
PUBLICATIONS
346000
DOWNLOADS TO DATE
5
PUBLICATIONS
160
FEATURED PROJECTS IN TOTAL
20
INTERVIEWS WITH INDUSTRY EXPERTS
The stunning hardcover book comprises 32 illustrated articles on built projects and works-in-progress received from both academia and practice via a Call for Work. Punctuating these articles are a series of conversations between the conference Keynotes and world-leading experts. A complimentary copy is given to all conference attendees as part of their conference packs. Both English editions and the Chinese version of the 2011 book were sold out. All five editions (2011, 2014, 2017, 2020 and 2024) have been released as e-books with over 346,000 downloads to date from 186 countries (April 2025).
Contributions include work from leading practices such as Foster + Partners, Zaha Hadid Architects, AKT, Jean Nouvel Architects, Arup, BuroHappold, Amanda Levete Architects, Bollinger+Grohmann, DShape, Ron Arad and Autodesk and world-renowned institutions including ICD Stuttgart, The Bartlett UCL, Delft, Harvard, Yale, University of Michigan, MIT, CITA, IaaC, UCL, ETH, University Innsbruck, Princeton University and the Architectural Association. UCL Press presents the FABRICATE 2024 publication in cooperation with Riverside Architectural Press.
WHO WE ARE
Bob Sheil
FABRICATE co-Founder | Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture
Marilena Skavara
FABRICATE co-Founder | Director at Codica Ltd.
Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen
FABRICATE 2024 co-Chair | Director at Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen
Phil Ayres
FABRICATE 2024 co-Chair | Professor at Royal Danish Academy, Copenhagen
Ruairi Glynn
FABRICATE co-Founder | Course Director M.Arch Design for Performance & Interaction @bartlettUCL | Director @ialab
Jenny Sabin
FABRICATE 2020 co-Chair | Director of Graduate Studies, Department of Architecture, College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at Cornell University
Jane Burry
FABRICATE 2020 co-Chair | Dean in the School of Design, Swinburne University, Melbourne
Achim Menges
FABRICATE 2017 co-Chair | Director of the Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart
Matthias Kohler
FABRICATE 2014 co-Chair | Gramazio & Kohler Research, ETH Zurich
Fabio Gramazio
FABRICATE 2014 co-Chair | Gramazio & Kohler Research, ETH Zurich