UCL, Design for Performance & Interaction M.Arch (Founder and Director 2017-2024)

I founded the Design for Performance and Interaction (DfPI) Masters programme at University College London in 2017 building upon a decade of teaching at The Bartlett School of Architecture UCL, and various other posts including University of Arts London and ETH Zurich. The preparation of the programme’s documentation for approval at UCL was produced in collaboration with Emeritus Professor Stephen Gage. The DNA of the course can be traced back to Unit 14 at the Bartlett in the 1990’s-2000’s and before that back to the cybernetic research that took place at The Architectural Association through figures like Gordon Pask and Ranulph Glanville.

A highlight of my time leading Design for Performance and Interaction was our Tate Late takeover in 2019.

Designing futures of performance and interaction (2020), TECHNE Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment

This paper shares my transdisciplinary pedagogy developed through founding the Design for Performance and Interaction M.Arch programme, which seeks to detect and nurture emerging fields of creative production, and to stage architectural education as a holistic environment for initiating new forms of practice. Its experimental approach combines physical and virtual prototyping to critically examine future applications and socio-spatial implications of emerging technologies. The article contextualises the programme’s development in relation to the field of media art and presents both the structure of this transdisciplinary course and preliminary reflections from its first three years.

Many wonderful projects have come out of the programme such as Kachi Chan’s robotic art work Sisyphus that received a prestigious Honorary Mention at Ars Electronica Festival.

​Design for Performance and Interaction Masters was designed as a 15 month programme, with a 3 month overlap between cohorts. A simple but radical pedagogic that fostered entanglements between progressive years that were highly productive. Regrettably recent decisions made by UCL management have reduced the course to 12 months to fall in line with university wide standards. After 7 years as Programme Director, I have moved on to focusing on doctoral supervision and research.

To explore the full archive of student projects from DfPI and my previous teaching visit www.interactivearchitecture.org.