Architect-educator-author-researcher Marjan Colletti, co-founder of marcosandmarjan design limited
in London, is currently University Professor and Head of the Institute
for Experimental Architecture at the University of Innsbruck Austria;
while also acting as Senior Lecturer, Unit 20 Master and Director of
Computing at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. His personal
work, the work of his students and of his studio marcosandmarjan have been widely published and exhibited world-wide.
Most recently he is the author of Digital Poetics. An Open Theory of Design-Research in Architecture, a monograph wherein he presents “an unconventional and original ‘humanistic’ theory of CAD”, further suggesting
“that beyond the generation of innovative engineering forms, digital
design has the potential to affect the wider complex cultural landscape
of today in profound ways”. In parallel with his rigorous
intellectual pursuit of Digital Poetics, his design and research
projects continuously push the boundaries of digitality as it relates to
architectural design and discourse; including projects as diverse as
proposing a self-sufficient city (AgroPolis) along the Delta in Khataba,
to a wall comprised of intricately milled cellular components
(Algae-Cellunoi) which host 3d-printed vessels designed to cultivate a
garden of liquid algae strains.
The interviewer, Zack Saunders (founder of ARCH[or]studio in the US and Arch2O contributing editor)
takes this opportunity to speak with Marjan Colletti on teaching, the
current/ future state of Architecture, digitality and sterility, his
design methodologies, and his latest book. What follows is an interview,
though the attempt is to do so with the etymological meaning of the
word ‘interview’ in mind: ‘to glimpse’.
