Research Fields:

Digital Design, Digital Fabrication

Research Profile:

Philip F. YUAN is an academic researcher and architect, who focus on digital design and fabrication methodology. He received his PhD from Tongji University in 2003 and had been a visiting scholar in MIT during 2008~2009. In recent years, Yuan co-founded the Digital Architectural Design Association (DADA) of The Architectural Society of China (ASC), and has been working as the coordinator of Digital Design Research Center (DDRC) in the College of Architecture and Urban Planning(CAUP) at Tongji University. As the organizer of DigitalFUTURE Shanghai joint summer school program, Yuan has been strongly promoting digital design and fabrication since 2010. As a pioneer in architecture, his writings and works have appeared in a number of journals including AD, Arquitectura Viva, DETAIL and etc. Yuan is currently pursuing integration between architecture and crossing-discipline digital design methodology including architectural geometry, performance simulation and robotic fabrication. His essay “From Scripting the Future to Fabricating the Future”, published by T+A in 2012 showed his attitude towards the new trending of architectural design. His essay “Performative Tectonics” was published by Springer in the book “Robotic Fabrication in Architecture, Art and Design 2014”; his new project “City of Breeze” will be published in the upcoming issue of AD.

Grants and Awards:

His works have won many international awards, such as 2009 Excellent Education Architecture awarded by Ministry of Education in China, 2009 Excellent Architecture awarded by the Architectural Society of China, the 8th Far Eastern Design Award, 2014 Arcasia Award, 2014 Wienerberger Brick Award and 2015 WA Award. He was invited to give keynote speeches and attend many international and domestic academic conferences and exhibitions. He was the academic host of "Robotic Future" Exhibition in 10th Shanghai Biennale City Pavilion Section. The exhibition he has been invited to participate includes "From Research to Design-Tongji Architects" Exhibition at Milan Triennial 2012, "Solar Decathlon Europe 2012" in Madrid and won the third prizes of "Best Environment Performance" and "Best Function Layout". He was invited to giving a keynote speech about "Performative Geometry" at SmartGeometry 2013 Conference in Hong Kong University and also invited to give a speech about "Perormative Tectonics" at "Robotic Fabrication in Architecture，Art and Design 2014”Conference in University of Michigan. In July 2013, his solo exhibition " AUTONOMOUS TECTONICS - Research·Teaching·Practice" was hold in AU Space, it shows his exploration on digital design exhibition field.

Current Courses：

1. Advanced Debate on Digital Architectural Design Methodology in Diagram (seminar) 

2. DigitalFUTURE Shanghai Joint Summer School Program (workshop) 

3. Undergraduate Final Thesis Design (studio) 

4. The Museum of Future for Year 3 Undergraduate (studio) 

5. Theater Design for Year 4 Undergraduate (studio)

Publications：

1. A Tectonic Reality (China Architecture & Building Press, 2011)

2. Theater Design (Tongji University Press, 2012)

3. Fabricating the Future (Tongji University Press, 2012)

4. Scripting the Future (Tongji University Press, 2012)

5. Digital Workshop in China(Tongji University Press, 2013)

6. Robotic Futures (Tongji University Press, 2015, upcoming)