From Matter to Territory

This talk will present design research as a practice and the methods that Velikov and Thün have developed. It will showcase a series of projects undertaken by RVTR that include climate adaptive material systems and buildings, speculative regional designs for decarbonization and climate resilient futures, and design of social infrastructures toward spatial justice, focusing on some of the more recent work.

Kathy Velikov and Geoffrey Thün are Professors of Architecture at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan where Kathy serves as Associate Dean for Research and Creative Practice, and Geoff serves as Associate Vice President for Research: Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts. They are founding partners in the research-based practice RVTR. Their design-based research operates across scales from the material to the urban, advancing environmentally, technologically, and socially focused built environments through analysis, prototyping, and visualization for architectural material assemblies and urban infrastructures. Projects engage in a systems-based approach and foreground experience and interaction alongside climate adaptation and resilience. RVTR's projects have been exhibited nationally and internationally and have received multiple awards. Velikov and Thün have published two books (Infra Eco Logi Urbanism, Ambiguous Territory: Architecture, Landscape and the Postnatural), and multiple book chapters and journal articles.