Gil Akos / Ronnie Parsons
Studio Mode

Studio Mode/modeLab is a Brooklyn-based design studio and research collective founded by Ronnie Parsons and Gil Akos. As a studio committed to design as a form of applied research, Mode engages in practices that have a requisite and deep connection to material and the processes by which it is formed and informed.

Studio Mode has completed and collaborated on a number of projects, varying in scale and complexity from interactive installations to stadia design. Mode has exhibited throughout North America and Europe in shows that most recently include System:System by Random Number and Spontaneous Schooling at the Nous Gallery. Ronnie and Gil currently teach at Pratt Institute and have previously taught studios, seminars, and workshops at institutions such as California College of the Arts, University of Minnesota, University of Toronto, and University of Kentucky as well as Yale, Princeton, and Columbia Universities.

Chris Lasch
ARANDA\LASCH

Established in 2003 by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, Aranda\Lasch is a New York-based studio engaged in both experimental research and innovative building. Winners of the Young Architects Award from the Architecture League and United States Artists Fellowship in 2007, their design work from buildings to installations to objects has garnered international recognition. Their early architectural projects were the subject of the critically acclaimed book, Tooling, published by Princeton Architectural Press. Aranda/Lasch has exhibited their work internationally in galleries and institutions dealing with design and architecture. In 2008 they were commissioned by the MoMA in New York to produce a large-scale installation in the museum. They also collaborated with artist Matthew Ritchie on a pavilion sized work, “The Morning Line,” initially installed at the 2008 Venice Biennial and then fully realized at the Seville Biennial in October. In addition to commercial and residential projects in New York, Aranda\Lasch recently completed a 42,000 square foot temporary structure for Design Miami in December. Objects and furniture designed by Aranda\Lasch are represented by Johnson Trading Gallery in New York.

The next series of Workshops will further engage the Professional and Academic community in Houston and beyond
with parametric strategies expanding from the Rhinoceros 3D modeling platform. A diverse array of internationally
recognized and locally engaged instructors will open this specific kind of digital media to novices up to advanced users.
The common goal of each session will be to equip Architects and other designers with new tools to transform their
working process from a static understanding of spatial information to a dynamic interface where real-time
transformation, innovation and direct communication with the machines of digital fabrication is made attainable.

CHRIS LASCH
ARANDA\LASCH

Established in 2003 by Benjamin Aranda and Chris Lasch, Aranda\Lasch is a New York-based studio engaged in both experimental research and innovative building. Winners of the Young Architects Award from the Architecture League and United States Artists Fellowship in 2007, their design work from buildings to installations to objects has garnered international recognition. Their early architectural projects were the subject of the critically acclaimed book, Tooling, published by Princeton Architectural Press. Aranda/Lasch has exhibited their work internationally in galleries and institutions dealing with design and architecture. In 2008 they were commissioned by the MoMA in New York to produce a large-scale installation in the museum. They also collaborated with artist Matthew Ritchie on a pavilion sized work, “The Morning Line,” initially installed at the 2008 Venice Biennial and then fully realized at the Seville Biennial in October. In addition to commercial and residential projects in New York, Aranda\Lasch recently completed a 42,000 square foot temporary structure for Design Miami in December. Objects and furniture designed by Aranda\Lasch are represented by Johnson Trading Gallery in New York.

BLAIR SATTERFIELD
HOUMINN

Blair Satterfield and Marc Swackhamer began their collaboration in Houston, in 1998. HouMinn (pronounced “human”) Practice, their present-day moniker, is both an acronym of two geographical locations that influence their work and a homophone to describe their research-based practice, which seeks collaboration with experts outside architecture. HouMinn projects have been featured in numerous publications, including Dwell and Fast Company, and have garnered prestigious honors such as the 2008 R&D Award from Architect magazine and the Best in Environments award from ID Magazine. In addition to HouMinn, Satterfield has worked for Atilier Fei Chang, Michael Bell Architecture (now Visible Weather), Oliver + Ray Architects, and Bricker + Cannady Architects, where he served as Director of Design for several years. He is a co-founding member of the web based modern home-plan company Hometta. Blair received his MARCH from Rice University and his BSAS from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Satterfield has taught at Rice, the University of Houston, and the University of Minnesota. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia.

MARC FORNES
THEVERYMANY

MARC FORNES (registered Architect DPLG) is the founder and principal of THEVERYMANY™ – www.theverymany.net – a design studio and collaborative research forum engaging the field of architecture via what he qualifies as “Explicit and Encoded protocols”.

In 2004 he graduated with a Master of Architecture and Urbanism from the Design Research Lab of the Architectural Association in London after having previously studied in France and Sweden (KTH). Marc’s professional work experience in La Reunion, France, UK and the US includes SOM, Ross Lovegrove and Zaha Hadid Architects. Marc – together with Francois Roche (R&Sie(n)) – has been co-teaching “(n)Certainties” – a graduate studio hosted three times at Columbia University (NYC), once at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles) and once at Die Angewandte (Vienna) as its Cross Over studio. Marc also taught studio at University of Michigan (Spring 09) and at Harvard/GSD (Spring 10). He has previously led many workshops and appeared as a guest critic at the Architectural Association, The Royal College of Art, Columbia University, Pratt Institute, the University of Pennsylvania, Ball State University, in Chile, etc… In 2007 he produced & curated Scriptedbypurpose.

LISA IWAMOTO
IWAMOTOSCOTT

Lisa Iwamoto is partner of IwamotoScott Architecture, a practice formed in partnership with Craig Scott. Committed to pursuing architecture as a form of applied design research, it engages in projects at multiple scales and in a variety of contexts consisting of full-scale fabrications, museum installations and exhibitions, theoretical proposals, competitions and commissioned design projects. IwamotoScott’s work has been published widely nationally and internationally. Recent projects include: Obscura Digital Headquarters, PS House, Voussoir Cloud, ORDOS100; Hydronet City of the Future: San Francisco 2108. Iwamoto is Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture at The University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on digital fabrication and material technologies for architecture.. Her book, Digital Fabrications: Architectural and Material Techniques published by Princeton Architectural Press as part of their series Architecture Briefs.