Discipline - Architecture Lecture Series

Architect David Hertz is the founder and president of David Hertz FAIA Architects, Inc., and S.E.A., the Studio of Environmental Architecture, which he established in 1984. David graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) in 1983 and worked in the office of architect John Lautner for several years. After travel and study in Europe, David returned to serve his internship in the office of Frank Gehry before opening his own firm in 1984. In 2007, David was awarded the Distinguished Alumni award from SCI-Arc, and in 2008 he was elected to the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows. David Hertz’s award winning work has been widely published and exhibited internationally, including exhibitions in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and the National Building Museum, the Cooper Hewitt Museum, as well as inclusion the Venice and Istanbul Architectural biennales, having won the American Architecture Award in 2009 and 2012 respectively. David is a founding member of the AIA Committee on the Environment (COTE) as well as the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), and he was involved in the first LEED Platinum Commercial and Residential Projects in the U.S. Since 1990 David has been on the Academic Advisory Committee and the faculty of the UCLA Arc-ID Program teaching sustainable design courses. David has also taught at the USC School of Architecture, SCI-Arc, and Art Center College of Design.

Haig Beck and Jackie Cooper have collaborated as architectural editors, critics, writers and publishers, having first edited Architectural Design in 1976 in London, and later launching International Architect in 1979. In 1996 they launched UME (all issues of UME and International Architect are available free online www.umemagazine.com ). Haig Beck studied at the Architectural Association and has taught at The University of Melbourne Faculty of Architecture Building and Planning, where he was Professor of Architecture and Head of the Department of Architecture and Building, 1993-96, and subsequently has served as a Professorial Fellow in the Faculty. Jackie Cooper studied Communications at the University of Westminster, and worked for seven years in the Communications Unit of the Architectural Association. Jackie Cooper became an editor at Academy Editions, and assisted in the production of Architectural Design. The output of 30 years of writing includes books, chapters, articles and critical reviews. Most of these have been jointly written.

Sigrid Brell-Cokcan & Johannes Braumann are the founding directors of the Association for Robots in Architecture whose goal is to make industrial robots accessible for creative industry, artists, designers and architects by sharing ideas, research results and technological developments. Founded in December 2010, Robots in Architecture is an open platform engaged in applied research, software and hardware development, and “robot pedagogics” – and in the question: how soon will robots revolutionize architecture? In 2011, Robots in Architecture presented KUKA | prc (“parametric robot control”), a plugin for Grasshopper that enables robot control from within architectural software. Sigrid and Johannes pursue the association’s goals through workshops, lectures, and via the international conference Rob|Arch, which first ran in 2012. In addition to steering the Association for Robots in Architecture, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan is one of the founding partners of II Architects Istanbul/ Vienna. She has previously worked with Coop Himmelblau, Frank Gehry, Peter Cook and Bollinger & Grohmann on projects such as Kunsthaus Graz, MARTA Herford and BMW World Munich. Ms Brell-Cokcan has been teaching design, geometry and fabrication classes in the field of architecture and industrial design at the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the University of Technology Vienna. Her current research focuses on the design and computation of large scale freeform structures, computer aided manufacturing and design immanent robotic fabrication. Association for Robots in Architecture co-founder Johannes Braumann is the main developer of KUKA|prc (parametric robot control). His research on robotic fabrication has been presented at many international peer-reviewed conferences and published in research journals and books. Additionally, Braumann teaches both technical classes and design studios at TU Vienna. He is a graduate of Master Building Science and Technology, and a fellow of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.

Paul Emmons is an Associate Professor at the Washington-Alexandria Architecture Centre of Virginia Tech, where he coordinates the Ph.D. program in architecture. Dr. Emmons received a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 2003. His research in architecture focuses on the imaginative role of diagrams and technical drawing in architectural design. This work has been presented at numerous scholarly conferences, including Costoza (Italy), Savannah (Georgia), Pennsylvania State University, University of Newcastle upon Tyne (England), Harvard University, and the Architectural Association (London). His work has been presented before the Society of Architectural Historians, the College Art Association, and the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture. Some of this work has appeared in publications, recently including the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, the AA Files, and Body and Building (MIT Press). Dr. Emmons is a registered architect and maintains a small architectural practice following his earlier emphasis on practicing architecture after receiving a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Minnesota in 1986.

A sustained interest in experience, tradition, and the suburban field have characterised the first ten years of Brisbane-based practice, Owen and Vokes and Peters. Paul Owen and Aaron Peters’ presentation will illustrate strategies for critical practice and city-making by reviewing a select number of completed works. Founded in 2003, Owen and Vokes and Peters have spent a decade renovating the suburbs. Whilst primarily engaged in small scale projects in the inner suburbs of Brisbane, the practice has also undertaken projects in regional Queensland, Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. The practice was awarded the Robin Dods Award for Residential Architecture in 2005 for the Newmarket House, and again in 2012 for the Four Room Cottage. Paul Owen graduated from the Queensland University of Technology in 1994. He became an associate at BVN before founding Paul Owen Architect in 2001, and then a partnership with Stuart Vokes in 2003, establishing Owen and Vokes. Aaron Peters joined Owen and Vokes in 2003. He graduated from Queensland University of Technology in 2005 and was awarded the Board of Architect's of Queensland Prize along with the QIA Medallion. The following year he was awarded the AIA Glen Murcutt Student Prize for his graduate design work. In 2007 he travelled abroad, spending three years working for Allies and Morrison in London and Kerry Hill Architects in Singapore before returning to Brisbane in 2011.

Rory Hyde is a practicing architect working across design, research, broadcasting and building. He studied architecture at RMIT University in Melbourne, where he also completed a PhD on emerging models of practice enabled by new technologies. He is contributing editor of Architecture Australia, and co-host of The Architects, a weekly radio show on architecture, which presented in the Australian pavilion at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale. Based in Amsterdam since 2009, Rory has worked with Volume magazine, Al Manakh (Archis / AMO), MVRDV, the NAi, Viktor & Rolf and Mediamatic.

Christopher Hill is an architect, educator, and writer. He co-directs the London-based firm, Linedota Architects, and is presently a visiting professor at the Soheil Abedian School of Architecture. Christopher was educated at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Early in his career, Mr Hill was employed by Ian Ritchie Architects, where he worked on various arts, transport, and master planning projects, including Bermondsey Underground Station and the Crystal Palace Concert Platform. His work for the practice was exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts, and The Victoria and Albert Museum. He has previously taught at both the University of Greenwich and the University of Nottingham.In his spare time away from teaching and practising, Christopher has written for the international architecture magazine Detail for about ten years, and for almost two years, he has edited its English language blog, Detail Daily. The blog currently has over 50,000 followers.

Virginia San Fratello is an architect, artist and educator. Based in Oakland, California, she is a partner at Rael San Fratello Architects, and in their 3D printing research arm, Emerging Objects. San Fratello is also an Assistant Professor in Design at San Jose State University. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Design from North Carolina State University and a Master of Architecture from Columbia University. San Fratello’s research focuses on the convergence of digital, ecological, and creative material explorations. Her research is applied through the design and fabrication of innovative buildings and their components, furniture elements and site specific installations that often look at inherent material resources and have embedded political consequences. Rael San Fratello was the recipient of Metropolis Magazine’s Next Generation Design Award for their Hydro Wall concept, a finalist in the WPA 2.0 design competition and winner of the Van Alen Institute’s Life at the Speed of Rail competition. Rael San Fratello was voted one of "10 to watch" by California Home and Design Magazine. Their work has been published in Metropolis Magazine, L’Arca, DOMUS, the NY Times, Interior Design Magazine, the Praxis Journal of Writing and Building, Make Magazine and MARK Magazine.

Michael Holt and Marissa Looby present the work of several internationally acclaimed architects using discrete elements as a portal for examination. In effect, the portal creates a feedback loop between its typology within architecture to the point of origin: the singular element. The element – as a relatively small manifestation – can be the tool to devise solutions to the largest of problems: theoretical, architectural, or even metropolitan. MICHAEL HOLT is currently the editor for Architectural Review Asia Pacific, based in Sydney. Previously, he was a practising architect in New York, USA. He is a graduate of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. Alongside his editorship, Michael contributes to Editoriale Domus, Metropolis Magazine, Blueprint Magazine (UK), Columbia Univeristy’s C-Lab and BI Blog. MARISSA LOOBY is an architect and architectural writer. She is a graduate of the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Columbia University. She contributes to Editoriale Domus, Metropolis Magazine, Blueprint Magazine, Architecture Australia, and Architectural Review Asia Pacific.

Michael Banney is a founding partner of m3architecture, a nationally commended architecture practice based in Brisbane which was founded in 1997. With a significant focus on collaboration and the creative design process, m3architecture’s work seeks to develop the idiosyncratic conditions of each project - including site, client, budget and brief - towards the creation of unique and project specific outcomes, rather than uniform or formulaic buildings. The work of the practice has been recognised at both a national and international level, with numerous publications, awards and exhibitions, including representation in the Australian pavilion at the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennale.