Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen, Paul Philippe Cret Visiting Professor in the Department of Architecture at Weitzman and Professor and Head of CITA Centre for IT and Architecture will present her lecture, New Visions: Conceiving Time in a Bio-based Architecture.

In this talk, Mette will discuss a bio-based material paradigm for architecture. With examples from CITA's research portfolio, Mette will outline a new position for architecture seeded in idea of fragility, instability and the temporalized. With reference to the extensive work in advanced computational design and the extended digital chain, she asks how new departures of ethical resource thinking, material cascading and ideas of continual construction can act as models for a larger reconsideration of architecture's foundations.

Mette Ramsgaard Thomsen examines the intersections between architecture and advanced computational design processes examining the profound changes that digital technologies instigate in the way architecture is thought, designed and built. In 2005 she founded the Centre for IT and Architecture research group (CITA) at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, School of Architecture, Design and Conservation where she has piloted a special research focus on the new digital-material relations that digital technologies bring forth. CITA has been central in the forming an international research field examining the changes to material practice in architecture. This has been led by a series of research investigations, developing concepts and technologies as well as strategic projects such as the international Marie Curie ITN network Innochain and the ERC project "Eco-Metabolistic Modelling for Architectural Design" that fosters interdisciplinary sharing and dissemination of expertise and supports new collaborations in the fields of architecture, engineering and fabrication. She is currently General Reporter and Head of Science Track for the UIA2023CPH world congress "Sustainable Futures - Leave No One Behind", asking how architecture can contribute to the UN SDGs. In 2022, she was appointed Cret Chair at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania.

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