AIA Baltimore/Baltimore Architecture Foundation

Materials & Methods: Bio_Lent Machines with Daniela Atencio & Claudio Rossi
2026-04-01 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, 10 E Mt Vernon Pl, Baltimore, MD, United States
ABOUT THIS LECTURE
The presentation examines the contemporary Latin American landscape as a complex, time-based assemblage of economic, social, cultural, and ecological systems, shaped by multiple forms of violence ranging from urbanization, extraction, and inequality to planetary processes such as climate change. Rather than treating these conditions as static problems, the lecture frames the collision between architecture, infrastructure, and landscape as a productive field for restitution and repair. Through the concept of Bio_lent Machines, the work proposes restorative architectural devices and pedagogical methodologies that integrate time, technology, and nature as mediators. Emphasis is placed on the use of robotic arms as both tools and conceptual mediums within design processes to explore mechanisms capable of reverting, recomposing, and redefining relationships within damaged territories. The lecture unfolds an open, transdisciplinary discussion of design strategies, technological workflows, and representational practices across scales, addressing architecture and landscape as active agents in reorienting violent processes toward regenerative futures.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Daniela Atencio is an architect and Master of Design Research in Emerging Systems, Technologies, and Media from SCI-Arc. She is an Associate Professor and Researcher at the Universidad de Los Andes and Visiting Faculty at Florida International University (2025). Her work focuses on advanced technologies in architecture and design, including representation, computational design, and computer-controlled robotics as creative and critical design instruments. Her research and practice have been widely published and exhibited internationally at venues and platforms such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, ROB | ARCH (International Association for Robots in Architecture), ACADIA, Parametric Architecture (PA), DigitalFUTURES, SIGraDi, AD Journal, Routledge, and Miami Art Week, among others. She is the author of Robotic Translations: Design Processes—Latin America, to be published by ACTAR, and is an active member of theWomen in Robotics Association and related international research networks.
Claudio Rossi, PhD, is an architect, researcher, and tenured professor with more than 25 years of international academic and professional experience. His work investigates the integration of emerging technologies—particularly robotics and artificial intelligence—within landscape-oriented, socially embedded, and territorially grounded architectural practices. Rossi’s research and practice address computational representation, environmental infrastructures, and territorial design, with a sustained focus on post-colonial Latin American contexts and the redefinition of architectural agency in ecologically vulnerable regions. His scholarly and creative work has been widely exhibited, published, and presented across the Americas, Europe, and Australia, contributing to transdisciplinary debates at the intersection of design, technology, and territory. He has received multiple awards and has been invited as a lecturer and visiting professor at institutions including PennDesign, MIT, Politecnico di Torino, and the University of Melbourne.
REGISTER HERE
AIA 1.0 LU HSW and 1.0 LA CES HSW approved
AIA, ASLA and NOMA members may register at a discounted rate.
*We are offering school students free admission! Please bring your school ID to show upon arrival
Please note that the venue for this event is not ADA accessible.

Materials & Methods: Materialism with Daniel Sundlin
2026-03-26 18:00 - 19:30 | MICA Brown Center, 1301 W Mt Royal Ave, Baltimore, MD, 21217, United States
ABOUT THIS LECTURE
We seek to reclaim the term materialism—not as a symbol of empty consumerism, but as a meaningful practice: shaping our future through form and matter. For most of our history, life adapted to the material world around us. That changed the moment we discovered tools, technology, and architecture. With them, we gained the power to shape the material world in service of the life we wanted to lead. Human history can be read as a story told through materials—each breakthrough marking a new chapter in our evolution. We named entire eras after the substances we learned to master: the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, the Silicon Age. Our ability to manipulate matter has been one of the most powerful forces driving civilization forward. In this spirit, we invite you on an odyssey through the material world, as seen through the works of BIG—from the permanence of solid rock to the invisible flow of electrons.
ABOUT DANIEL SUNDLIN, BIG
Daniel Sundlin’s approach to design is anchored in holistic thinking, focusing on the synergies between community, economy, ecology, and sustainability. His design expertise spans various scales, from product design, interiors, and architecture to master planning. Daniel joined BIG Copenhagen in 2008, and in 2010, he opened BIG’s first office outside Denmark by establishing BIG New York. As a Partner at BIG, he has worked on The Height Public School in Arlington, Virginia; VIA 57 West in Manhattan; Wildflower Film Studios in New York City; and the sustainable Google Bay View campus in California. His work also extends to the urban scale, including the East Side Coastal Resiliency project (BIG U), a master plan to protect 10 miles of Manhattan’s coastline. His urban design projects span the globe, including Penang South Islands in Malaysia and OCEANIX Busan, a sustainable floating city prototype in collaboration with the United Nations. In addition to his professional work, Daniel is involved in academia as a guest critic at various universities and as an instructor at the New York Institute of Technology.
REGISTER HERE!
AIA, ASLA and NOMA members may register at a discounted rate.
*We are offering school students free admission! Please bring your school ID to show upon arrival
Please note that the venue for this event is not ADA accessible.
