Cecil Balmond, Executive Director
www.arup.com

Cecil Balmond is an internationally renowned designer, structural engineer, author and Deputy Chairman of the international, multi-disciplinary engineering firm Arup. He is also currently the Paul Philippe Cret Practice Professor of Architecture at PennDesign, Department of Architecture.

He has held several distinguished visiting professorships at leading universities in the United States and Britain: Saarinen Professor at Yale University, Kenzo Tange Visiting Critic at Harvard’s School of Design, visiting professor at the London School of Economics, and most recently the Graham Professor at the University of Pennsylvania. He received the Gengo Matsui Prize in 2002, which is the highest recognition for structural engineering given in Japan, and the Charles Jencks Award for Theory in Practice of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 2003. This spring he gave the Felix Candela lectures at the Museum of Modern Art and had an exhibition of his work at the arc en rêve centre d’architecture in Bordeaux, France. He is the author of Informal (Prestel, 2002), Number 9 (Prestel, 1998) and co-authored Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2002 with Toyo Ito (Telescoweb.com, Japan), and Unfolding with Daniel Liebeskind (NAI, 1997).

Through his provocative designs in collaboration with leading architects and artists and eloquent writings, including Informal (2002) and Number Nine: The Search for the Sigma Code (1998) Balmond has put forward a dynamic and organizational approach to structure that is informed by the sciences of complexity, non-linear organization and emergence. Recognizing that the universe is a constantly changing array of patterns (both random and regular), he also draws on ancient wisdom and non-western mathematical archetypes. Taking structure to be as much a verb as a noun – as structuring, organizing and patterning – Balmond redefines the relationship between structural engineering and architecture beyond the ethos of rationalism, efficiency and optimization, which has characterized not only high-tech design but modern architecture in general. His experimental, constructive and algorithmic methods open a rich territory for design at different scales and in different media and regimes of matter, extending the horizons of both reason and beauty. To test their capabilities he is currently designing an urban master plan for a redevelopment site in London, while at the same time experimenting with rhythmic lighting effects and the generation of music.

David Ruy, Director of Research
www.ruyklein.com

David Ruy is the director of Ruy Klein, a design office in New York City. Previously at Columbia University GSAPP and The Princeton University School of Architecture, he currently teaches at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, where he is also the director of research of the Non-Linear Systems Organization (NSO). His research examines design topics at the intersection of architecture, nature, and technology. Awards received include the PA Architecture Design Award, the Lowenfish Award for Design Excellence, and a special citation from the Van Alen Institute for Architecture and Technology.

The work of Ruy Klein has been recently exhibited at The Museum of Modern Art, The Rhode Island School of Design, Project 4 Gallery, and later this year at Artist Space and the Miami Art Museum. The work of the office has been published widely in journals and books including Archiwold, AD, A+U, and Architecture and Science.