Matias del Campo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Matias del Campo | |
|---|---|
 Matias del Campo in 2024 | |
| Born | Matias del Campo Chile |
| Education | The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology |
| Alma mater | University of Applied Arts Vienna |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Practice | SPAN |
| Website | https://span-arch.org/ |
Matias del Campo is a Chilean-born Austrian architect, designer, and theorist, and the co-founder of the architectural practice SPAN. He is at the forefront of integrating architecture with artificial intelligence, and his research and publications have paved the way for this emerging field.
Matias del Campo graduated from the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 2003, earning a Master of Architecture with distinction.[1] In 2018, he received his Ph.D. from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
His design philosophy reflects his exploration of contemporary tendencies, representing a synthesis of “materialization protocols in nature, cutting-edge technologies and philosophical inquiry which together form a comprehensive design ecology”.[1]
During his tenure at the Hans Hollein studio at the University of Applied Arts Vienna, he was first introduced to Computational Design, being one of the students chosen by Hollein to learn programming in UNIX and to test 3D modeling packages.[1]
SPAN
In 2003, alongside architect Sandra Manninger, he founded the architectural practice SPAN, a firm with offices in Vienna and Shanghai, and one of the first offices in Vienna to focus on computational design.
Initially, the practice gained recognition in Vienna for its radically advanced projects, receiving support from the Architecture Centre Vienna, which showcased their work and commissioned the firm for exhibition designs and for the remodeling of the center's headquarters, and awarded them an Austrian Experimental Architecture Award. The studio views architecture as a process.[2]
SPAN began gaining international recognition in 2010, when the architects won the competition for the Austrian Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo, as well as for the new Brancusi Museum in Paris, France.[3] In 2011, Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna invited SPAN to hold a solo exhibition in its gallery.[4] Other architectural practices invited to the exhibition series include Greg Lynn, Asymptote, FOA, and Lebbeus Woods.[4]
Now an internationally recognized practice, SPAN's work has been featured at the 2012 Venice Architecture Biennale, ArchiLab 2013 at the FRAC Centre, Orléans, France,[5] the 2008 and 2010 Architecture Biennales in Beijing, and in the 2011 solo exhibition ‘Formations’ at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna.[6] In 2017, SPAN's work was highlighted in a solo exhibition at the Fab Union Gallery in Shanghai, China.
Most recently, SPAN's work was featured in /imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual, an exhibition at the MAK Museum of Applied Arts. Their installation The Doghouse, is a large scale model created from 2D images generated with Midjourney. Within the model, Sony AIBO7 robots interact with the space, while simultaneously using computer vision to livestream the experience beyond the museum.[7][8]
The practice is known for actively engaging in building design while simultaneously developing the theoretical and discursive foundations for innovatice approaches. All projects are conceptualized as vehicles for exploration.
Teaching and Academic Roles
Matias del Campo currently teaches as an associate professor of Architecture[9] at the New York Institute of Technology.
Until 2024, he was an associate professor of architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan,[10] where he also served as Affiliated Faculty with Michigan Robotics.
He has also lectured at the University of Pennsylvania, Penn Design Philadelphia, and served as a guest professor at the Dessau Institute of Architecture in Germany.
At ACADIA he served as Development Office within the Board of Directors (2019–2023)[11] and as Conference Chair (2016 and 2020).[11]
He has lectured worldwide, at institutions such as IAAC,[12] in January 2017, RMIT Australia in 2015, The University of Tokyo in July 2015, La Sapienza in Rome in February 2015, University of Applied Arts Vienna, UCLA,[13] University Innsbruck in 2012 and Hyperbody Studio TU Delft in the Netherlands in 2008.
