Alejandro
Haiek Coll
PhD. Candidate at Universitá di Genova, MA Studio coordinator at Umeå School of Architecture and affiliate researcher at RISE – Research Institute of Sweden. Founder of Laboratory of Planetary Diplomacy, the Laboratory of Building Systems and Components and the Laboratory of experimental applied arts Lab-Pro-Fab.
His research and project-based practice focuses on social and environmental re-engineer investigating human geographies and self-governance as political forms of environmental diplomacy, and territorial justice. With projects that range from performances to large-scale public eco infrastructures, the laboratory work cooperative alongside an international and interdisciplinary research network, exploring infrastructural ecosystems and material excess. His interventions in the texture of the city are transformative both socially and politically, from micro to macro scale. The projects open feedback loops between the different levels of knowledge, from designer to builder.
The Laboratories reconciles the material excesses of industrial manufacturing – the waste produced by construction – with social and civic deficifts, including unrest, poverty and inequality. His area of expertise revolves around regenerative projects in fragile natural and social ecosystems. His work straddles art, architecture, design, geography, engineering, and performance.
Artist fellowship award at Elam School of Fine Arts, New Zealand, and WOJR/Civitella Ranieri Awarded Architecture Fellow. Invited artist at Tokyo University of the Arts, Monash University Australia, Liga Space for Architecture Mexico and at JACA Center of Technology, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Nominated at Royal Academy of London 2018-2020, the Oscar Niemeyer Award for Latin American Architecture 2016 and Emerging Architecture at the MCHAP Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize 2016 and 2018. Exhibited at the Architecture Venice Biennale, the Seoul Museum of Architecture and Urbanism, the New International Cultural Center in Ambers, the Countless Cities Biennial in Sicily and the Cervantes Institutes, among others.
alejandro.haiek@umu.se
Research
His research examines collective landscapes, post-industrial ecologies and network governability politics. His projects has been developed in an intersection between design, arts and engineering integrating scientific advances and local traditions as a sustainable approach to human, environmental and material resources.
Practice
Haiek’s innovative practice, based on social reengineering projects, have been awarded globally obtaining the International Award for Public Art 2013 in Shanghai, 1st Prize at the International Festival of Architecture of Barcelona EME3 2012, 1st Prize for three categories at Quito XX Pan-American Biennale: Architectural Design, Urban Design and Recycling & Rehabilitation, 2016, commended at the Architectural Review Housing Awards 2017 and, recently, the WOJR/Civitella Ranieri Architecture Prize for 2019.
Studio
His studio Lab.Pro.Fab (laboratory of applied science and experimental art) was also declared New Talent in Metropolis Magazine by MoMA curator Martino Stierli 2015 and nominated by the MCHAP for the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize 2016 and for Emerging Architecture in 2018. He was recently nominated for the Royal Academy Dorfman Award London 2018, the Oscar Niemeyer Award for Latin American Architecture and the Ibero-American Architecture and Urban Planning Biennale (BIAU).
Exhibitions
His work has been exhibited at the XV Venice Biennale of Architecture 2016, Santiago Biennale, Costa Rica Biennale, Buenos Aires Biennale, the New International Cultural Center in Antwerp, FreshLatino 02 at Cervantes Institutes and at The New Latin American Architecture at Pratt Institute NY.
Invited Artist
He exhibited as invited artist in Tokyo University of the Arts Japan and LIGA Space for Architecture supported by Graham Foundation, Mexico. He was selected Artist in residency at Elam Fine School of Arts Auckland University 2014, at Monash University in Melbourne 2016, and at JACA Art and Technology Center in Brazil.
Manifesto
His manifesto The Public Machinery Principles declares architecture as a logistic change of events that eventually would transform into a complex environmental apparatus. The statement also declares phrases like First of all we are citizens, Building relationships not just infrastructure, production for masses – not anymore mass productions or More programming less constructions, postulating a conscious and mindful return to industrialization, leading his ideas for a Fast assembling slow Architecture.
Rebecca Rudolph
Lab Coordinator
Masters Degree in Architecture and Urban Design from Umeå School of Architecture (UMA). Guest teacher in BA Studio 3: The City as a Laboratory at UMA. Project coordinator in Lab.Pro.Fab. Research assistant in the Laboratory of Planetary Diplomacy. Research field: the relation between Nomadic Cultures and Pneumatic Systems.
Irina
Urriola
Tomas Mena
Tomas Mena: Architect with Masters in Computational Design from TH OWL University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Detmold, Germany. Developing projects oriented towards computational and parametric research fools. Guest Teacher in MA studio 12 and Free-standing course mapping changing ecosystems at UMA. Research field: algorithmic workflows for automation and interoperability.
Luis Pimentel
Luis Pimentel: Architect and Researcher at Stefano Boeri Architetti, Guest Teacher in MA studio 12 and Free-standing course mapping changing ecosystems at UMA. Scientific Curator at Triennale Milano. Research Fellow and Guest Teacher at Politecnico di Milano. Research field: Environmental and Landscape Consulting.