Keynote speakers

Univ.-Prof. Dr.-techn. Sigrid Brell-Cokcan is the founder and head of the new Chair of Individualized Production (IP) at RWTH Aachen University and currently President of the Association for Robots in Architecture (RiA) and was on the board of euRobotics until 2021.
In recent years, she has pioneered the simple application of industrial robots for the creative industries and participated in numerous international research and industrial projects. The Association for Robots in Architecture is a development partner of KUKA and Autodesk and a validated EU research institution within the FP7 program.
In 2016, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan founded the new Topic Group for Construction Robotics within euRobotics to contribute to the Multi Annual Roadmap (MAR) for Horizon Europe. In addition, as editor-in-chief, she has launched the new scientific Springer Journal Construction Robotics since 2017. Since 2022, she has been part of the writing team of the living Springer Encyclopedia of Robotics | SpringerLink to the topic Robotics in Construction | SpringerLink.
At RWTH Aachen, her professorship for Individualized Construction Production deals with the use of innovative machines in material and construction production. In order to enable efficient, individualized production from batch size one for the construction industry, new and user-friendly methods of human-machine interaction are being developed.
The IP chair employs researchers from various areas of robotics and building production to streamline the necessary digital workflow from initial planning to the production process and to redesign the construction site of the future via intuitive, easy-to-use interfaces. Results on innovative developments in “haptic programming” and “cloud remote control” were presented to the public as finalists in the KUKA Innovation Award 2016 and KUKA Innovation Award on Artificial Intelligence 2021 at the Hannover Messe. This year, she has been nominated for the BAUMA Innovation Award 2022 of Research with the ROBETON project for the robot-supported controlled dismantling of concrete components.
The cross-faculty Center for Construction Robotics (CCR) on RWTH Aachen Campus was co-founded by Sigrid Brell-Cokcan in 2018 to focus on automation in construction with key industry leaders along the construction industry value chain. In 2020, Sigrid Brell-Cokcan initiated the new international consecutive Master’s program “Construction & Robotics” for the Bachelor of Architecture, Computer Science, Civil Engineering and Mechanical Engineering in order to train future engineers in the digital environment across academia for the construction industry.

Mario Carpo graduated from the University of Florence in 1983 with a degree in architectural history. From 1984 to 1987 he was a researcher at the European University Institute, where he received a doctoral degree in modern history; he was then an Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva (1987-1993). In 1993 received tenure in France, where he was first assigned to the École d’Architecture de Saint-Etienne, then to the École d’Architecture de Paris-La Villette and more more recently to the École d’Architecture de Paris-Malaquais. He was the Vincent Scully Visiting Professor of Architectural History at Yale University from 2010 to 2014 and in 2017. In 2014 he was appointed Reyner Banham Professor of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL London and in 2020 Professor of Architectural Theory at the Institute of Architecture of the School of Applied Arts (Die Angewandte) of the University of Vienna (emeritus since November 2023). He was appointed Gao Feng Professor (part-time) at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University, Shanghai, in March 2024. Dr Carpo was also a visiting professor in several universities in Europe and in the United States, including the University of Geneva, the University of Florence, the University of Copenhagen, Cornell University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Williams College. He was a scholar in residence at the Getty Research Institute in 2000-2001, a resident at the American Academy in Rome in 2004, a scholar in residence at tne National Gallery of Art (Washington) in 2014 and Guggenheim Fellow in 2022-23. He was the head of the Study Centre at the Centre Canadien d’Architecture in Montréal between 2002 and 2006.
Mario Carpo’s research and publications focus on the relationship between architectural theory, cultural history, and the history of media and information technology. His publications include The Second Digital Turn: Design Beyond Intelligence (MIT Press, 2017); The Digital Turn in Architecture, 1992-2012, an AD Reader (Wiley, 2012); The Alphabet and the Algorithm (MIT Press, 2011; also translated into other languages); a monograph on the work of Swiss architect Valerio Olgiati (2008, co-authored); Architecture in the Age of Printing (MIT Press, 2001; also translated into other languages), a commentary on Leon Battista Alberti’s Descriptio Urbis Romae (2000 and 2007, co-authored, also translated into other languages); La maschera e il modello (1993); and Metodo e ordini nella teoria architettonica dei primi moderni (1993). He co-edited a volume of essays on the technologies of architectural representations (Perspective, Projections and Design, 2007). His recent essays and articles are published in the Log, The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Grey Room, L’Architecture d’aujourd’hui, Arquitectura Viva, AD/Architectural Design, Perspecta, Harvard Design Magazine, Cornell Journal of Architecture, Abitare, Lotus International, Domus, Arforum, Casabella, and Arch+. His last monograph, Beyond Digital. Design and Automation at the End of Modernity was published by the MIT Press in the spring of 2023.

Martha Tsigkari is a Senior Partner and Head of the Applied R+D (ARD) group at Foster + Partners. Her background spans architecture, engineering, and computer science. She has two decades of experience working in projects of all scales and uses. She is a specialist in a wide range of areas including computational design, performance-driven design, optimisation, machine learning, interfaces & interaction, design-to-production and fast feedback & integration. Her work incorporates the development of ML, optimisation and simulation tools, the introduction of integrated processes and the creation of physical interfaces. She has a particular interest in machine learning and has lead R&D related to the use of deep neural networks in the design process, to solve problems spanning from micromaterials to performance driven architectural layouts. She has also been investigating the use of Genetic Algorithms in the design pipeline, using them to develop solutions spaces that fit multi-objective criteria.

Martha joined F+P in 2006, and she has since provided solutions for hundreds of diverse projects such as the new airport for Mexico City, Queen Alia Airport, Sheikh Zayed Museum, UAE’s 2015 Expo Pavilion, Lusail Iconic Stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and YachtPlus. She is a member of RIBA, ARB and the Technical Chamber of Greece. In parallel she is an Associate Professor at the Bartlett, UCL, where she has been teaching at the MSc Architectural Computation since 2009. She has been a juror and presenter at various schools worldwide, including MIT, the Architectural Association, UPenn, ETHZ and Chalmers. She has taught, lectured and published on the subject of computational design internationally.