[Lecture Series]Towards a regenerative architecture through blockchain

Lecture Series FS22 ——"Towards a regenerative architecture through blockchain".
Co-organized by UZH Blockchain Center, Trust Square, Dezentrum.
Sponsor: #SBHACK22

Speaker: Dr. Theo Dounas (Scott Sutherland School of Architecture & Built Environment)
When: 26. April 2022 18:00
Where: Zoom

Abstract:
The AEC (architecture-engineering-construction) industry is one of the most fragmented and adversarial industries globally, while at the same time one of the most intense in carbon equivalent(s) and waste. While promises of digitisation of architecture in the past have focused on mainly on the form, this lecture will discuss how changing the organisation of architectural design to a more collective one, while operating on a decentralised digital infrastructure on blockchain technologies, can help turn architecture from resource extractive to a regenerative discipline. This lecture is interesting to professionals and students working/interested in AEC disciplines, in circular economies, and/or blockchain and decentralised ledger technologies.

Recommended reading:
[1] Autonomous Business Reality, 21 Nev. L.J. 437 (2021), available at https://law.unlv.edu/nevada-law-journal/vol21/autonomous-business-reality-1844

[2] Autonomous Corporate Personhood, forthcoming in the Washington Law Review, available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3776481

BIO:
Dr Theo Dounas is an architect and an academic expert in design computation for architecture. His research focuses on decentralised production via blockchain, generative and parametric systems with a tight orchestration between design and fabrication. He is currently directing www.archchain.cc, a project that seeks to establish a decentralised Building Information Modelling toolset and mechanisms for the AEC industry. He is registered and chartered in the UK and the EU, and currently the learning excellence leader at the Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and Built Environment at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, Scotland where he directs the MSc in Advanced Architectural Design and orchestrates the school’s efforts in digitisation. He was one of the founding members of the Xian Jiatong-Liverpool University Department of Architecture in Suzhou, China. He has practiced as an architect in Greece and China.

AGENDA:
18:00 - 18:05 Welcome
18:05 - 19:00 Lecture by Speaker
19:00 - 19:30 Q&A Session
19:30 - 20:00 e-Apéro