Co-Chaired by Professors Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen and Phil Ayres of CITA, FABRICATE 2024 was set to build upon and extend its legacy as a prime place of exchange on the cutting edge of new forms of design and construction and material thinking in architecture, engineering and building.

As core members of the FABRICATE community, Mette and Phil have profiled deep-seated interests in the infrastructures of computational modelling producing novel methods of computing, fabricating and designing architecture for over two decades. With special focus on inter-sector dialogue and knowledge exchange, their aim for FABRICATE 2024 is to question what the future of computational design and fabrication can be. They ask how the pressures for a new sustainable design agenda will challenge the AEC industry. They ask how cutting-edge computational design can inform the emergence of a new sensitivity in which renewable, regenerative and restorative design logics are prioritised, and they aim for particular focus on questions of resource consciousness and bio-based design and fabrication strategies.

Anders Lendager is an architect, creative director and founder of Lendager. His company has established itself as a front runner and one of the most influential architecture studios and strategic consultancies working within sustainability and circular economy. Anders oversees various projects and ensures the implementation of cutting-edge approaches to change-making in the built environment within a wide range of typologies, scales and consultancy services. He aims to push the boundaries and scale sustainable transition throughout the value chain. 

Anders Lendager graduated as an architect from the Aarhus School of Architecture and has since been immersed in the development and promotion of sustainability in practice and as an external consultant, keynote speaker and international lecturer on resource efficiency, innovation and holistic sustainability. His pioneering spirit has positioned him as a recognised proponent of turning strategy into concrete actions. Further, Anders has been represented on the board of the Danish Association of Architectural Firms and committees such as UNDP SDG Accelerator. 

During the last decade, Anders has created and developed three companies working with architecture, circular consultancy and building component production, and has recently sold and spun-off a company dedicated to developing and selling upcycled building products to the wider market. Innovation, a keen eye for scalability and the ability to assist clients in translating long-term strategic goals into new business opportunities is one of his strong points. His visionary approach is anchored in his deep understanding of the potential for using architecture as a process to convey and create climate action. 

His pioneering spirit and willingness to go beyond common conceptions of the possible have already changed many people’s conception of what opportunities lie in creatively working with the most pressing issues of our time. 

Anna Dyson is the Hines Professor of Architecture at the Yale School of Architecture (YSoA) and Environment (YSE). She is the founding Director of the Yale Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (Yale CEA), a research initiative that integrates interdisciplinary labs across campus to collaborate on the research, development and deployment of novel architectural systems that are focused on the challenge of metabolizing energy, water and materials within architecture in radically new ways.

At the YSoA, Dyson has established a new model for PhD-level design research in Architectural Sciences which has received multiple honors for pedagogy, including the award for most innovative academic program from the Association for Computer Aided Design in Architecture (ACADIA) and an Award of Excellence from the United States Green Building Council (USGBC).

Dyson has been directing design research programs that have competitively won awards and contracts from multiple sponsors such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), the US Department of Energy (DOE), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), The New York City Dept of Design and Construction (NYC-DDC), NYSERDA, NYSTAR, NEXUS, and from private sponsors such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), the Baruch Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and others.

Recipient of the Innovator Award from Architectural Record, Dyson holds many international patents on building systems innovations for the collection and distribution of clean energy, water, air quality and material life cycle. Her work has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), The World Future Energy Summit (WFES), and The Center for Architecture. Designs for novel systems have won many awards, including a 1st prize from the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the Climate Camouflage and Integrated Concentrating Solar Façade systems, Architect R&D awards for the Solar Enclosure for Water Reuse (SEWR) and the Active Modular Phytoremediation System (AMPS).

In 2007, Dyson co-founded the ground-breaking Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE) with Skidmore Owings and Merrill (SOM LLP) and RPI. Multiple systems are being deployed within scaled up building test sites: with SOM, the AMPS system was installed into the Public Safety Answering Center (PSAC II) in Bronx, NY and was included in the Best Architecture of 2017 by the Wall St. Journal, as the first full-scale test of the production of fresh air from within a building through plant-based air handling systems. In 2019, Yale CEA’s Ecological Living Module, demonstrating a nexus for on-site energy, water and agricultural production, was named as the #1 World Changing Idea, by the UN News.

Indy Johar is focused on the strategic design of new super scale civic assets for transition – specifically at the intersection of financing, contracting and governance for deeply democratic futures.

Indy is co-founder of darkmatterlabs.org and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00 – https://www.architecture00.net, a founding director of open systems lab – https://www.opensystemslab.io (digitising planning), seeded WikiHouse (open source housing) – https://www.wikihouse.cc  and Open Desk (open source furniture company) https://www.opendesk.cc.

Indy is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub https://bloxhub.org (Denmark Copenhagen) – the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization and was 2016-17 Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University.  He was also Studio Master at the Architectural Association – 2019-2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member  2016-20 and RIBA Trustee 2017-20. He has taught & lectured at various institutions from the University of Bath, TU-Berlin; University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School. 

Most recently, he was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022.

Zhu Pei founded the Studio Zhu Pei in Beijing in 2005.

His works have been exhibited at world renowned museums and exhibitions including MoMA, the Venice Biennial, GA Gallery, Centre Pompidou, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. His works have been collected by MoMA, the Pompidou Art Center, the Victoria and Albert Museum and M+. In 2011, he was selected as an architecture jury member for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011.  

Marked by his American experience, which includes teaching visiting professorships and teaching assignments at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia as a visiting professor, he is the current at present Dean of the School of Architecture at Central Academy of Fine Arts in China. 

FABRICATE 2024 marks a watershed moment. Collectively, we stand at a juncture where conventional methods of resource acquisition and industrial production are recognised as primary contributors to ecological disruption. New research-led approaches for responsible fabrication and production are required to rethink how resource is deployed, its intensity, its socio-ecological origins and sensitivity to environment.

Interested in being a part of FABRICATE?

We are seeking sponsors and donors at all levels and welcome the chance to discuss your involvement. 

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