Programme Director & Faculty
Kais Al-Rawi
directs and teaches the AA Visiting School in Jordan. He is a registered architect (JEA). Born in Amman, Jordan. He holds a Masters Degree in Emergent Technologies & Design from the Architectural Association in London, and is a graduate of Ryerson University in Toronto.
He is based in Los Angeles, an Associate at the Los Angeles office of Walter P Moore & Associates. He works at the intersection of Architecture and Engineering on projects primarily within the Aviation, Sports and Tall Buildings sectors.
Distinguished Programme Guests
Akram Abu Hamdan Ross Lovegrove Ben Aranda Mark Foster Gage
Julia Koerner
is lecturer at UCLA’s SUPRASTUDIO, led by Greg Lynn. Born in Salzburg, Austria, she holds a Master of Architecture with distinction from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna. Further, holds a Master of Science from the Architectural Association, London. Julia worked with international offices in both New York and London, including Ross Lovegrove Studio, and Gage & Clemencea Architects. Her most recent collaborations for Additively Manufactured fashion pieces involved Haute Couture fashion designer Iris Van Herpen, and 3D printing company Materialise. She won several awards including the MAK Schindler Architect in Residence scholarship in Los Angeles for 2010.
Filippo Nassetti (Faculty in 2014,2015 & 2016)
Filippo Nassetti is a Designer at Zaha Hadid Architects. He has a background in Architecture. He grew between Bologna, London and Wien, achieving a Master's Degree in Architecture and Building Engineering at University of Bologna, working in international environments at Plasma Studio Architects and SPAN Architecture&Design.
His research as design tutor ad University of Bologna in Generative Design and 3d printing led him to expand his focus to Product Design, working on a wide spectrum of projects from small scale Architecture to Fashion Design, to the creation of innovative concepts for the medical industry.
Marie Boltenstern (Faculty in 2014,2015 & 2016)
is a Berlin-based Architect. For the last year she has been working with Bollinger & Grohmann Engineering in Paris, within the 3D development department. Born in Vienna, Austria, she is a graduate of University of Technology in Vienna; and the Emergent Technologies programme at Architectural Association in London. Marie is specialized in parametric design processes and is particularly interested in the convergence of architecture and structural engineering through complex structures.
Vincenzo Reale
is an Italian architect and structural engineer. He holds a Master with distinction in Structural Engineering and Architecture from the Bologna University and a Master of Science from the Architectural Association in London. Having worked with several contemporary architectural and design practices, including Zaha Hadid Architects, Anthony Gormley Studio and Tom Wiscombe’ Emergent Architecture, he currently holds the position of structural engineer at Arup Building Engineering in London.
He is also teaching assistant at Landscape and Urbanism master programme at the Architectural Association, unit master at AA visiting school Jordan and teacher at the Arup University. In 2014 his works have been exhibited at the Venice Biennale of Architecture and at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Rana Zureikat
Rana Zureikat is an architect, musician and academic researcher. She currently lectures at the German Jordanian University in Amman; were she coordinates and teaches the basics of computational architectural thinking, and digital fabrication. Alongside being an academic Rana collaborates with the Amman-based TURATH office, Architecture and Urban Design consultants. She has received her Masters in Architecture and Urbanism from the Architectural Association in London, and her Bachelors in Architecture from The University of Jordan in 2008. Her main research interests include digital morphogenesis and the generative processes of vertical structures and distributions.
Mohamed Makkouk
Mohamed Makkouk is an architect based in Beirut, Lebanon where he is part of the design unit at Laceco International. Has has earned his Masters of Architecture with Distinction from the Architectural Association in London. Prior to that, Mohamed completed his Bachelor’s degree at the American University of Beirut.
Mohamed has practiced architecture for several years at practices including Foster + Partners in London, and Laceco International in Beirut. Throughout his career, he has been involved in key-regional projects within the Middle East. His main interests lie within the urban scale, and the potential of developing urban tissues through computational methodologies.
Learn more about the VS in:
Jan Dierckx
is an associate at Foster + Partners and is part of the Specialist Modelling Group where he advises on complex geometry and design to manufacturing. He consults on projects worldwide including the Bloomberg and Apple Headquarters. Jan combines this role with several research initiatives in the practice and with collaborators, which range from a speculative design for a Martian habitat to software and workflow development for large-scale 3D printing. He also manages the robotics innovation initiatives in the practice after setting up their first compliant robotic arm. He studied in Belgium, Germany, and at the Bartlett School of Architecture (UCL), and is still involved with academia worldwide through lectures and workshops. He recently headed a cluster at Smartgeometry building little Mars Robots and regularly talks about his work at universities and conferences.
Conor Black
Conor is an experienced designer used to working on complex geometrical projects and currently performs as a specialist Facade Engineer and Computational Designer at Arup, whilst teaching parametric engineering at Imperial College London. Conor utilises the latest 3D modelling and creative computational techniques to help interoperability and coordination between the various disciplines and teams. He has experience working with leading architectural practices on cultural, commercial and infrastructure buildings. Conor has recently worked on projects such as Foster + Partner’s Mexico Airport, Wilkinson Eyre’s Prussian Blue tower and closely with a number of projects with Zaha Hadid Architects.
