After graduating in architecture (1998) from the Technical University Karlsruhe, Henriette Bier has worked with Morphosis (1999-2001) on internationally relevant projects in the US and Europe.

She has taught digitally-driven design (2002-2003) at universities in EU and since 2004 she mainly teaches and researches at the Technical University Delft (TUD) with focus on computational design and robotics in architecture. She is initiator and leader of the Robotic Building group and cofounding member of Delft Robotics Institute.

Urs Hirschberg is professor for the representation of architecture and new media at Graz University of Technology and the founding director of TU Graz’ institute of architecture and media (IAM). Having served as dean of the TU Graz faculty of architecture from 2004 to 2013, he is currently director of the TU Graz field of expertise ‘Sustainable Systems’, one of the five fields of cross-disciplinary research that define the university’s research profile.

Urs Hirschberg received his diploma in architecture and his doctoral degree from ETH Zurich. After holding positions as research assistant and lecturer at ETH Zurich and as assistant professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design he became a full professor at the faculty of architecture of Graz University of Technology in 2002.

In his research he explores ways in which creative collaboration and the use of new media can enhance architectural design and production and augment our built environment. One main focus of his team at IAM is architectural geometry and digital fabrication. IAM master level design studios have a tradition of designing and building digitally fabricated 1:1 projects. Recent research projects include “Nonstandard Architecture” and “Augmented Parametrics”, both funded by FWF, the Austrian Science Foundation.

An active contributor to the field of Computer Aided Architectural Design in research, Urs Hirschberg has published in Journals and edited resp. contributed to several books. He is a founding editor of GAM, the Graz Architecture Magazine, an internationally distributed peer-reviewed bilingual magazine about architectural research. From 2009 until 2013 he served on the council of EAAE, the European Association for Architectural Education, of which he was president from 2012-13. He is a founding member of ARENA the Architectural Research European Network Association and a founding editor of AJAR, the ARENA Journal of Architectural Research.

Manuel Jimenez García is the co-founder and principal of MADM design, a computational design practice based in London, and co-founder of the robotic manufacturing startup Nagami, based in Avila, Spain. His work is part of the permanent collection of the Centre Pompidou (Paris), and has been exhibited internationally in venues such as Vitra Design Museum (Weil-am-Rhein), Canada’s Design Museum (Toronto), Royal Academy of Arts (London), Kursaal Museum (San Sebastian), Zaha Hadid Design Gallery (London) and Clerkenwell Design Week (London).

Alongside his practice, Manuel is a lecturer at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL (London). He is programme director of MSc/MRes Architectural Computation (AC), co-founder Design Computation Lab and curator of Plexus, a multidisciplinary lecture series based on computational design. He studied Architecture in Madrid and graduated from DRL at the Architectural Association.

Gilles Retsin is an award winning London based architect, designer and educator. His work is interested in the impact of emerging technologies on the core principles of architecture. His practice has developed numerous provocative proposals for international competitions and commissions – such as the recently completed pavilion for the Tallinn Architecture Biennale in Estonia.

His work has been acquired by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and he has exhibited internationally in museums such as the Museum of Art and Design in New York, the Vitra Design Museum in Weil-am-Rhein and the Zaha Hadid Gallery in London. He is Program Director of the B.Pro Architectural Design (AD), and co-founder of the Design Computation Lab at UCL the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. Gilles Retsin studied architecture in Belgium, Chile and the UK, where he obtained a masters from the Architectural Association (AA) in London.