SCEM Seminar on Architecture (Urban Transformation)

Abstract: Recent decades have seen tremendous acceleration of urbanisation and densification of the contemporary city. Coupled with advances in information proliferation, manufacturing, digital technology, and also environmental change, the disciplines engaged with enhancing the built environment have a range of new opportunities to incorporate into their collective 'toolkit'. This talk will explore emerging themes and conditions of rapid urbanisation, and the new technologies which architects and allied disciplines are developing in research, pedagogy, and practice to confront the challenges of the future.

Biography: Chris Knapp is an Assistant Professor of Architecture at the Abedian School of Architecture, Bond University which he led throughout 2014. Additionally, he is a co-director of the architecture and fabrication practice, Studio Workshop, and serves as Treasurer of the Association of Architecture Schools of Australasia (AASA). Chris has presented his digital fabrication research internationally at the ACADIA, CAADRIA, ACE, and AASA conferences, and contributes regularly to industry publications including Architectural Review Asia Pacific and the Architecture Australia. Having obtained a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from the University of Michigan and a Master of Architecture from Princeton University, he is currently completing a practice-based PhD at RMIT's School of Architecture & Design. He formerly lectured at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan before migrating to Australia in 2005.