01  Generalized topology optimization for architectural design

Professor Yi Min 'Mike' Xie is the founding director of the Centre for Innovative Structures and Materials (CISM) at RMIT University. Currently he is an Australian Laureate Fellow and an RMIT Distinguished Professor. His team pioneered evolutionary structural optimisation (ESO) and bi-directional evolutionary structural optimisation (BESO) methods, which thousands of engineers and architects worldwide have used to design novel structures, including several landmark buildings. Professor Mike Xie is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering. His research impact in the field of structural optimisation has been recognised by the 2017 AGM Michell Medal and the 2017 Clunies Ross Innovation Award. In 2019, he was recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List and appointed a Member of the Order of Australia (AM), for “significant service to higher education and to civil engineering”. In 2020, he was awarded the Victoria Prize for Science and Innovation. In 2022, he received the Sir John Holland Civil Engineer of the Year Award. Professor Mike Xie has published two research monographs, over 500 journal articles, and conference papers. He is one of the most highly cited researchers in his field, with over 24,000 citations. Professor Xie has collaborated with a wide range of local and international companies, including Boeing, Arup, Aurecon and TYLin. Professor Mike Xie's team founded and developed Ameba, a topology optimisation software tool used widely in architecture, design and engineering, enabling users to enhance their creative designs and accelerate product development.

02  Architectural Informatics -

co-evolutions of the creation, construction, and experience of the environments in the digital society

After graduating from the Department of Architecture at the University of Tokyo, he studied under Fumihiko Maki before establish Ikeda Kokubu Design Studio in 1995 . As an architect, he has worked on a wide range of projects from residential to urban environmental design, while pursuing ideas about the transformation of architecture and cities through the development of information technology. He has been involved in research that contributes to a sustainable society through cutting-edge technologies such as computational design and digital construction, and has published a variety of results.

03  Patrik Schumacher

Patrik Schumacher is principal of Zaha Hadid Architects and was seminal in developing Zaha Hadid Architects to become a 500 strong global architecture and design brand. He won the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize for excellence and is an academician of the Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1996 he founded the Design Research Laboratory at the Architectural Association in London where he continues to teach. In 1999 he received his PhD from the Institute of Cultural Science, Klagenfurt University. Since 2007 he has published a series of manifestos promoting Parametricism as the new epochal style for the 21st century. In 2010/12 he published “The Autopoiesis of Architecture”, in two Volumes, theorizing architecture’s societal function and elaborating architecture’s historical tasks. His latest book, ‘Tectonism – Architecture for the 21st Century’, was released in 2023. His current research focuses on the metaverse as opportunity for architecture.

Patrik Schumacher is a High Mountain Professor and visiting International PhD Supervisor at Tongji University College of Architecture and Urban Planning.