Chair: Univ.-Prof. Sam Jacob
Studio Jacob explores architecture as
representation. For architecture, representation is simultaneously a technical, cultural and political question. It raises
questions about: 1. Who is represented (publics, communities, civicness etc.) 2. What is represented (narratives, symbolism,
histories, content etc) and 3. How things are represented (techniques, material, construction methods etc).
We are interested
in the medium of architecture itself. We think making is a good way to think and use working through design processes
as ways of developing ideas and proposals. We understand ways of drawing, for example, are not only ways to depict the
world, but systems that themselves organise the world.
We like drawings and models, we like materials and different ways
of making, we like to organise space. We like combinations: History and speculation, the everyday and the fantastical, figures
and abstraction.
We are interested in the kind of architectural meanings these combinations and processes might
create. What kind of social proposals might they generate. What kinds of ecologies they might manifest. What kind of cultures
they might address.
Through this we explore how architecture can be relevant and imaginative, responsive to culture and
context, ideas that are also things (and vice versa).
Studio Jacob acts as a framework that supports ideas developing
into projects, finding ways to turn progressive architectural ideas into propositions.
Sam Jacob is
principal of Sam Jacob Studio for architecture and design, a practice whose work ranges from urban design through architecture,
design, art to curation.
Sam is interested in how architecture and design makes ideas real as socially, formally
and materially. From nightclubs to social housing, from community centres to exhibitions, his projects are striking yet also
are full of familiar references, creating places and spaces with character and surprising beauty. Inspired by context, his
projects try to embody stories, sensations and feelings in space, form and materials.
His work has been shown
at institutions including the Art Institute Chicago, the MAK, the V&A, and the Venice Biennale where he was co-curator
of the British Pavilion in 2016. He has worked with museums including Design Museum, the Science Museum, Tate and MK Gallery,
and has contributed to events including the London Design Festival, the Chicago Architecture Biennial and the Lisbon Triennale.
Sam was professor of architecture at UIC and also taught at the University of Hong Kong, Yale, Karlsruhe HfG,
ABK Stuttgart, TU VIenna and the AA. He was a columnist for the Architects Journal and Dezeen and resurrected Reyner Banham’s
Shape of Things column for Art Review.
Previously, Sam was a director of FAT Architecture.
