Generations – Perspectives in Computational Design

A symposium organized by the I oA, Institute of Architecture of Die Angewandte with the MAK - Museum of Applied Arts

Drawing from contributors to the MAK exhibition /imagine: A Journey into The New Virtual, and from research and teaching currently carried out at the Institute of Architecture of Die Angewandte, this symposium explores new ways of being digital outside of, or against, the legacy of the techno-social environment where digital technologies were first developed and deployed.

ESTONIAN ACADEMY OF ARCHITECTURE

Bika Rebek: Between Worlds

A public lecture on recent work and projects completed with Some Place Studio.

Speaker series invited by Johan Tali 

DEEP SPACE DISCUSSION GROUPS

Deep Space is a new approach to exploring and exchanging knowledge about architecture and all of its intersections. It provides a framework for experienced facilitators to host discussion groups over several weeks accompanied by curated reading lists to spark conversation. As such, Deep Space allows facilitators and group members alike to slow down and think deeply outside of traditional academic structures or the haste of social media.

The first discussion groups focussed on the interconnectedness of architecture, technology, nature and beyond. They were facilitated by Valeria Meiller on “Reforesting Ideas — An Introduction to Plant Thinking” as well as by Elena Seegers and Simon de Dreuille of Botanical Agency on “The plants in our lives: four chapters of a global epic“.

FUTURE ARCHITECT CONFERENCE 

Panel discussion with up-and-coming architects, in partnership with the Future Architecture platform

Einar Rodhe, co-founder of Norell/Rodhe studio, Flavio Martella, architect and founder of at m2ft architects, Bika Rebek, architect, educator and curator, partner at Some Place Studio

Moderator: Milan Dinevski, architect, curator, cultural producer, and Future Architecture platform manager

REPRODUCTION NOW 

Carlos Bayod and Bika Rebek 
Organized by the M.S. Advanced Architectural Design program as part its Techno-Critical Assemblies lecture series.

HYBRID PRACTICE 

While much of the architectural design process has shifted towards working with digital tools the practice of architecture has remained largely analogue - in-person, bound to physical offices, working locally. Many students graduating this year will enter a changed work environment and shape the way architectural practice is going to look moving forward.

The last lecture in the series looks at examples of experimental approaches towards working collaboratively online or through hybrid models. The lecture also addresses challenges of increasingly leaning on online tools, like data privacy, licensing and local laws. Students will be asked to think about and sketch out ways they can imagine a future hybrid practice.

HYBRID ACTIVISM

New ways of organizing have emerged over the past few months, taking advantage of networked models to decenter and dismantle traditional hierarchical structures. This lecture and workshop will discuss ways that community building, organizing and activism are becoming architectural skills, and the way architectural skills inform these. Many of the tools used in thes processes have been around for yeas, but the combination of social isolation with an increased awareness of the need to develop specifically anti-racist practice has borne these new formats. In this workshop students explore ways to disseminate and lobby for an idea and think about collective ways of production and action.

Guest: Lexi Tsien

HYBRID MODELING 

This workshop explores hybrid states and design flows, investigating ways in which we can use physical design processes to inform our virtual ones and vice-versa. The workshop will cover 2D , 3D and animation techniques that created blended modes of production and representation. The class speculates on ways of pushing the boundaries of representation through remixing, remeshing, reediting and hybridizing formats.

Guest: Leah Wulfman

HYBRID COMMUNITY

The watercooler effect is a popular explanation of scientific evidence showing that people in organizations are more productive the closer they are to each other physically and the more likely they are to run into each other. How can we recreate some of these serendipitous encounters or find new modes of engagement that have similarly beneficial effects online? The first lecture in the series takes us through a series of online space and strategies that enable communities to thrive online.

Guest: Matt Shaw 

3D SCANNING IN ARCHITECTURE

This lecture and workshop explores 3D scanning as a process and its potential to drive and change design methods. With an emphasis on Photogrammetry, it gives an introduction to practical scanning methods that can be applied in everyday practice, while speculating on the possibilities of 3D scanning for the discipline at large.

POSTING AND POSING

How is contemporary architectural practice shaped by social media and online formats, particularly in times of social distancing? How is it different to create media for print vs. to be used on the web? Starting from these questions, this workshop and discussion dives into questions of representation and engagement on the web, from self-promotion to political activism.

CRITICAL DISTANCE CONFERENCE

From the Press Release: we have invited four architects, practitioners, and thinkers (Lucia Tahan, FAKT OFFICE, Bika Rebek and Léopold Lambert) whose work goes beyond the built object spectrum and whom are working from different fields creating other narratives for the architectural practice, in order to build some necessary counter-imaginaries for the narrow agenda of the present, and use them to provoke different possible futures.

PUBLISHED WRITING 

Rebek, Bika. “ 3D Scanning and the Architectural Imagination: Exploring the Tactility, Materiality, and Collective Use of Virtual Models ”
The Expert, Madame Architect, 2021 

Rebek, Bika. “How hybrid teaching could help reinvent architectural education” 
Architect’s Newspaper, 2020

Rebek, Bika. “Tools for Show” in Positions - Unfolding Architectural Endeavor
Birkhaeuser. 2020

Rebek, Bika. “Authenticity - the reproduction of Plecnik’s parliament of freedom”
Mao Museum Architecture Design 2018

Rebek, Bika. “Playing the Grid” in The Venice Counter-Catalogue
Columbia Books on Architecture and the City, 2015

Rebek, Bika. “Crime and Redemption: Formal Experimentation in Vienna” in Lobby Magazine N.4, Bartlett School of Architecture, London 2015

Rebek, Bika. “Playing the Grid, a review of the Estonian contribution at the 2014 Venice Biennale”, in Estonian Architectural Review, MAJA, 2014


The Architects Newspaper 

Zaha Hadid’s retrospective in Venice: A kaleidoscopic tribute

Sou Fujimoto’s search for lightness at the Chicago Architectural Biennial

Kissing Constructs, Barbara Kasten’s surreal photography at the Chicago Architecture Biennial

Annals Of Computing: “Silicon City” exhibition at the New York Historical Society questions origins of the digital era


CCCP Thesis, advised by Laura Kurgan

Tools for Things: An illustrated study of software