Famed visionary architect, researcher and founder of The Mediated Matter Group at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), will kick-off the second annual BACTalks virtual conference series as its keynote speaker. The BACTalks will be streamed live globally around the world via Facebook, YouTube and the BAC website. They are free to attend. (register here)
This year’s theme for BACTalks is highly centered on transformational technologies impacting design disciplines in the AECOM (architecture, engineering, construction, operations and maintenance). Multiple sessions throughout the day will delve into some of the toughest issues confronting society and design education, practice and the sustainability of our environment. (see schedule below). The day’s events kick off at 9:00 am and run through to the final session at 8:00 pm, EDT.
Dr. Oxman’s keynote is a moderated conversation titled, “A Conversation with Dr. Neri Oxman, Moderated by President Mahesh Daas.” Anyone can submit a question for Dr. Neri Oxman by sending it to alumni@the-bac.edu to have it asked and answered during the session.
Dr. Neri Oxman
Dr. Daas, the Boston Architectural College’s eighth president in the college’s long history (founded in 1889) will engage in a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Oxman, who has been hailed as “Nature’s Architect” for her groundbreaking design approach and philosophy referred to as Material Ecology.
Dr. Neri Oxman (image by Noah Kalina).
At the Mediate Matter Group at MIT, Oxman fuses computational design with biology and cutting-edge material science, delivering creative outputs that align with principles of ecological sustainability. She has been a tenured professor at MIT since 2017.
Oxman, who was born in Israel, received her PhD in Design Computation at MIT in 2010. Prior to that she earned a diploma from the renowned school the Architectural Association (AA) in London, complementing studies at the Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning at the Technion Israel of Technology, and training at the Department of Medical Sciences at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. Along the way she was an architect and researcher at Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, London (2004 – 05), during which time she served as Visiting Associate and Evaluator for SmartGeometry Group.
Neri Oxman’s work in the permanent collections of MoMA, San Francisco of Modern Art, Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, among others. The recipient of multiple honors and awards, including the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and the London Design Innovation Medial, her latest honor is a 2019 Honorary Fellowship by the Royal Institute of British Architects.
She is the Founder and CEO of OXMAN.
2021 BACTalks Sessions
The BACTalks series are a day-long group of virtual sessions the globalize and democratize critical content discussed among industry leaders, academics, and BAC alumni. Here are this year’s sessions (topics). See this link for times.
- Welcome Session with President Mahesh Daas
- Social Justice and Equity in Technology and Architecture: Building Structures of Inclusion
- Building Documentation Technologies: The History, The Future and Beyond!
- KEYNOTE: A Conversation with Dr. Neri Oxman, Moderated by President Mahesh Daas
- Hygrothermal Modeling and Building Enclosure Design
- From BAC to CEO: Conversation with Anas Al Kassas (M.Arch ’17) Founder & CEO, INOVUES, Inc.
- Landscape Technology and Performance Modeling
- The Evolving Immersive Experience (VR/AR/XR)
- Fresh Ai-R: The Coming Revolution of AI in Robotics and Design
- Collective Authorship and Virtual Storytelling through Analog and Digital Computation
- The Emerging Work Place: Interior Architecture Technology
The complete description of sessions, speakers, moderators and times of day are listed here.