TEACHING TEAM 2014/2015

Architects SAR/MSA Ori Merom and Charlie Gullström are University Lecturers at KTH School of Architecture. Both have extensive experience from teaching and architectural practice. When he doesn’t teach, Ori Merom works as an architect at www.meromarchitects.com. He is an expert advisor on design management strategies and currently the project leader for an urban development project, involving 3400 new residences south of Stockholm. Charlie Gullström, PhD, combines teaching with design-led research in architecture and interactive media. Her research group KTH Smart Spaces is currently involved in a EU-funded project relating to presence design and the future of connected media (www.kth.se/profile/charlieg/, www.compeit.eu). Between 1990-2006 Charlie led an architectural practice in Stockholm, specialising in office buildings and workplace design.

Our guest teacher Farvash Razavi has a background in chemistry and interior architecture from Konstfack. Together with Nandi Nobell she heads the design studio Very Very Gold and both will contribute expertise in new material development.

 For us, the studio is a platform for architectural investigations closely connected to research. We choose design themes that relate to current research and invite the students to discuss how architecture, both as a profession and a discipline, is affected by recent developments in, for example, communication technology. Besides the KTH Smart Spaces research group, we have invited KTH Space Centre (www.kth.se/sci/centra/rymdcenter), through astronaut Christer Fuglesang (KTH/ESA) and Dr Gunnar Tibert to inform us on space technology, new materials and light-weight constructions. Designer Cecilia Hertz will share her experiences from work with NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) on design for the space industry (www.umbilicaldesign.se). We will visit the KTH VIC-lab (KTH Visualization Centre) and take part of various applications for space and interaction technologies. We will also have contributions on transformative materials and communicating elements from TU Delft, School of Architecture (www.whyfactory.com) through architects Ulf Hackauf and Adrien Ravon. Since previous years we have an ongoing exchange with a master studio in Chicago, led by Professor John Stallmeyer at the School of Architecture, University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign (UIUC). We have a long-standing exchange with the Kibbutz Neot Samadar, a new urban community which has transformed a desert in southern Israel to an eco-designed oasis (www.neotsamadar.com). With its location in an extreme climate, expertise in prefabricated concrete and clay construction; and a production centre in arts and crafts; it connects closely to our chosen theme.