Instructor Bio – D&A Lab

1. Manuel Jimenez García
    Programme Director Architectural Computation
    University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, UK
Manuel Jimenez García is the co-founder and principal of madMdesign, a computational design practice based in London. His work has been exhibited worldwide in venues such as Centre Pompidou (Paris), Canada´s Design Museum (Toronto), Royal Academy of Arts (London), Zaha Hadid Design Gallery (London), Clerkenwell Design Week (London) and X Spanish Architectural Biennale (Madrid). Alongside his practice, Manuel has lectured, taught and attended juries internationally. He is currently a lecturer in Architecture at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL (London), where he directs Research Cluster 4 at the MArch Architectural Design (AD) and MArch Unit 19; in addition, he curates Plexus, a multidisciplinary lecture series based on computational design; he is also the director of the AA Visiting School Madrid. His academic research has been widely featured in publications and international conferences such us Fabricate, Ecaade, Aae and Acadia. He has recently been awarded with the Best Emerging Research Award at Acadia 2016 Posthuman Frontiers.

2. Gilles Retsin
    Programme Director Architectural Design
    University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, UK
Gilles Retsin is the founder of Gilles Retsin Architecture, a young award-winningLondon based architecture and design practice. The practice has developed numerous provocative proposals for international competitions, qualifying most recently as one of the finalists for the international competition for the New National Gallery in Budapest. Gilles graduated from the Architectural Association in London. Prior to founding his own practice, he worked in Switzerland as a project architect with Christian Kerez, and in London with Kokkugia. Alongside his practice, Gilles directs a research cluster at UCL/ the Bartlett school of Architecture, and he is also a senior lecturer at the University of East-London. He has been invited professor at the Texas A&M University, and has lectured and acted as guest critic in numerous universities internationally, most notably ETH Zurich and KTH Stockholm. His work has been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris. He has exhibited internationally in museums such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York and has been been awarded with the Best Emerging Research Award at Acadia 2016 Posthuman Frontiers.

3. Ping-Hsiang Chen
    Open Course – Grasshopper Tutor
Ping-Hsiang Chen (AA dip.) is an architectural and computational designer, specializing in parametric design, multi-media communication and digital fabrication. He is the founder and director of [IN] Morph Lab and co-founder of DEZACT. Ping Hsiang Chen completed his RIBA Part 1 and Part 2 at AA School of Architecture and a master degree in Architecture and Digital Media at the University of Westminster. He has been working as architectural designer on a wide range of projects in KPF, ShaGa studio and A+T Partners in London. He has contributed to journals including Smart Geometry (2013) and has given several talks on the topic of advanced computation in architecture and digital fabrication. He has taught at Shih Chien University (Taiwan), the AA Visiting School in Israel and with the Digital Prototyping Lab at the AA. His architecture and art works have been exhibited at various locations such as UCI Gallery (USA); Light in Alingsås (Sweden); Cheers Exhibition / P3 exhibition / SG2013 (UK ). He currently work as computational designer at Mamou-Mani Architects and as 3D printing specialist at Fab Pub.

4. Shi-Yen Wu
Assistant Professor, D&A Lab Leader
    National United University, TW
Shi-Yen Wu is a professional artist and assistant professor at the National United University. He gained his Master of Fine Art from the Taipei National University of the Arts. Shi-Yen has taught architecture design and international design competition, drawing and digital fabrication at many leading academic institutions such as National Taiwan University of Science and Technology and National Taipei University of Technology, department of architecture. He recently established the digital fabrication lab in the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology with a focus on collaborating with international academia and organizations such as AA, UCL and DEZACT (UK) to develop a new educational model in architectural construction. He has served as a visiting scholar in the UK and previously worked as a confidential secretary of the ministry of culture in the past. He is also a curator of the Tibetan film festival in Taiwan.

5. Stratis Georgia
    Open Classes – Grasshopper and robotics Tutor
    University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, UK
Stratis Georgiou is an Architect from Greece. After graduating with a Masters in Architecture from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece), he pursued a Master’s Degree from The Bartlett School of Architecture in Architectural Design (B-Pro programme), focusing on digital design and robotic fabrication. Stratis had been teaching Grasshopper for fabrication with the team Faberarium and Rhinoceros at the first year students of the Bartlett School of Architecture. Currently, he is directing the Digital Manufacturing Lab of University of East London (UEL) – involving robotics, 3d printing and laser cutting – and teaching Grasshopper and robotics at both UEL and UCL on Open Classes.

6. Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez
    B-made, Digital Manufacturing department
    University College London, Bartlett School of Architecture, UK

Alvaro Lopez Rodriguez is a Spanish architect, holding an M.Arch from the European University of Madrid and a B.ProM.Arch in Architectural Design (M.Arch AD) from the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Prior to moving to London, Alvaro has worked with R&A and ALF Arquitectos in Madrid. He has a wide experience in digital manufacturing, working for the B-made at the Bartlett School of Architecture in the Digital Manufacturing department and with some collaboration with different projects like the Swiss pavilion for the Venice Biennale 2016, or the Digital Grotesque. Currently is combining the digital fabrication lab at the Architectural Association, with open classes in robotics at the Bartlett School.