SOM Foundation Announces Speakers for the Third William F. Baker International Research and Design Forum in Madrid

Speakers

Masoud Akbarzadeh is a designer and researcher whose work bridges architectural design, computation, and structural engineering. He is a tenured Associate Professor of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Polyhedral Structures Laboratory (PSL) and focuses on structures and advanced technologies. He holds a D.Sc. from ETH Zurich’s Institute of Technology in Architecture, where he worked with the Block Research Group, as well as two degrees from MIT—a Master of Science in Architecture Studies (Computation) and a Master of Architecture, for which he received the SOM Foundation’s 2011 Traveling Fellowship for Architecture, Design, and Urban Design. He also holds degrees in Earthquake Engineering and Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Iran University of Science and Technology. His research centers on Three-Dimensional (Polyhedral) Graphic Statics, a novel geometric method for structural design. In 2020, he received the NSF CAREER Award to advance this method for the design and optimization of high-performance structures. He is also Co-PI on a $4.6M NSF grant on self-morphing building systems and PI of a $2.4M ARPA-E project on carbon-negative concrete. Akbarzadeh has earned multiple international awards and published extensively; his work has appeared on the covers of Advanced Science and Advanced Functional Materials. He is the author of Polyhedral Graphic Statics (Cambridge University Press) and Architected Structures (DETAIL).

Wesam Al Asali is an architect, designer, and researcher specializing in heritage knowledge and situated environmental design. His work focuses on integrating fabrication technologies with local building crafts and natural materials. Al Asali is the recipient of the 2021 RIBA President’s Award for Research in History and Theory and the 2024 DigitalFUTURES International Award. He is coeditor of Arab Modern: Architecture and the Project of Independence (gta Verlag, 2025). His work has been exhibited across Europe and the Middle East, including at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. Al Asali holds an MPhil and PhD in Architecture from the University of Cambridge and was the 2021–2022 Global Fung Fellow at Princeton University. In 2022, he joined the IE School of Architecture and Design in Segovia, Spain, where he serves as Director and Coordinator of Materials and Methods across the architecture, design, and fashion programs. In practice, Al Asali is cofounder and codirector of IWLab (with Iyas Shahin). Founded in 2010, the lab received the 2024 UNESCO Global Award for Sustainable Architecture. In addition to IWLab, he leads several initiatives and programs in Spain and Syria. In 2020, he cofounded CERCAA, a social enterprise based in Valencia focused on teaching construction and structural crafts to architects and builders.

Martin Bechthold is the Kumagai Professor of Architectural Technology at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD), and an Affiliate in Materials Science & Mechanical Engineering at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He currently serves as the GSD’s Academic Dean. Bechthold is the founding director of the Materials Processes and Systems (MaP+S) Group as well as the Laboratory for Design Technologies at Harvard. Bechthold’s highly interdisciplinary research convenes designers and scientists to work primarily in two areas related to his core interest of materials: first, the development of new material solutions for newly performative, low to negative carbon buildings. This effort includes work on biomaterials, structural innovation, as well as work on architectural ceramics. Second, the study of how materials affect our perception of and behavior in the built environment. This effort integrates scientific work in the area of environmental psychology as well as creative work that manifests itself in exhibitions such as this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale.

Alessandro Beghini is a Senior Associate Principal at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM). His project portfolio encompasses a wide range of award-winning projects, from some of the world’s tallest buildings to sculptures and specialty structures. Trained as a structural engineer, Alessandro has established an expertise in delivering structural solutions that are efficient and elegant, working alongside the architectural and building services team. He was part of the team leading the structural design for the Tianjin CTF Finance Center in China, the world’s eighth-tallest building at a height of 530 meters. Other significant collaborations include working with Atelier Peter Zumthor for the structural design of the LACMA museum in Los Angeles, and collaborating with world-renowned artist Janet Echelman on a series of fiber net sculptures. In addition to his professional practice, Beghini served as Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and has given lectures and hosted design studios and workshops in several universities over the years. He has co-authored technical publications on structural engineering topics ranging from topology optimization to behavior of fiber composites and fiber-reinforced concrete.

Catherine De Wolf is a professor and director of the Chair of Circular Engineering for Architecture (CEA) at ETH Zurich. Her research leverages technologies including reality capture, extended reality, digital fabrication, and AI to upscale circularity in the built environment. With a civil engineering and architecture background from Brussels, she earned her PhD at MIT. She collaborates globally with academia (e.g., Design++, CFC, DFAB), industry (e.g., Arup, Ney & Partners), and government (e.g., European Commission), working on projects such as the Centre Pompidou in France or the Kunsthalle Zürich in Switzerland. She has co-founded several companies and initiatives advancing circularity. Her work has been supported by global and Swiss excellence, national science, and innovation awards.

Mae-ling Lokko is an Assistant Professor at Yale University’s School of Architecture, Assistant Director at Yale's Center for Ecosystems in Architecture (Yale CEA) and the founder of Willow Technologies Ltd, in Accra, Ghana. Her research focuses on the whole life cycle development, distributed infrastructure design, and policy around non-toxic, low-carbon materials. Lokko previously taught at Cooper Union and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where she served as the Director of the Building Sciences Program as well as Assistant Professor at the School of Architecture and Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (CASE). Her work has been exhibited globally, including at the 19th Architecture Venice Biennale; Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Berlin; Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Nobel Prize Museum, Stockholm; and at the Museum of the Future, Dubai. Her research has been funded by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the SOM Foundation, ReArc Institute, the British Council, MIT’s GAHTC, Luma Foundation and NYSERDA’s NEXUS Clean Energy Accelerator Program. Lokko holds a Ph.D. and Master of Science from the Center for Architecture, Science and Ecology (SOM + Rensselaer) and a B.A. from Tufts University. She currently serves on the Board for the International Living Future Institute and the Architectural League of New York.

Faidra Oikonomopoulou and Telesilla Bristogianni are both Assistant Professors at the Architectural Engineering + Technology Department, at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment. They have conjointly initiated and developed the research on structural cast glass at TU Delft, with particular focus on innovative structural and architectural applications of cast glass components, on glass recycling and on defining the strength of cast glass. Their deep expertise in the field of cast glass has cemented the research group’s position as the world leader in this field. Bristogianni and Oikonomopoulou have been involved in the R&D of several realized cast glass structures, namely the Crystal Houses, Glass Vault, Qaammat Pavilion, and Mirage, and have received multiple awards including the Innovation Award by the Society of Façade Engineers (2016), the Glass Innovation Award (2017), the Talent met Toekomst Bouwprijs (2017), and the CircuClarity Glass Recycling Award (2024). Prototypes of their research work on structural cast glass have been exhibited in several prestigious international fairs and exhibitions, including the Dutch Design Week (2018), Salone del Mobile (2019), and the media station of the Parlamentarium. For their research, they have received several prestigious grants and industrial collaborations, and have given multiple invited talks in universities, companies and institutions around the world.

Stefana Parascho is a researcher, architect, and educator whose work lies at the intersection of architecture, robotics, and computational design. She is currently an Assistant Professor at EPFL where she founded the Lab for Creative Computation (CRCL). Through her research, she has explored multi-agent design and fabrication methods, and their potential for architecture. Her current work focuses on human-robot collaborative processes and the relationship between digital tools and the built environment. The work proposes adaptive construction processes in which humans and machines communicate, interact, and jointly build full-scale structures, while addressing the current prevailing challenges of the construction field. Applications include scaffold-free construction of spanning structures, reconfiguration of existing buildings and autonomous robotic construction with found materials. Her goal is to strengthen the interdisciplinary nature of the field by increasing accessibility of digital tools and connecting robotics research with societal aspects. Before joining EPFL, Parascho was an Assistant Professor at Princeton University, where she led the CREATE Lab Princeton. She completed her doctorate in 2019 at ETH Zurich and received her Diploma in Architectural Engineering from the University of Stuttgart.

Christopher Robeller is a Professor for Digital Design and Production at the Augsburg Technical University of Applied Sciences (THA) in Augsburg, Germany, leading the Digital Timber Construction (DTC) working group. Their aim is to make constructions more sustainable through digital methods and technology. Important topics are material-saving lightweight constructions, rapid assembly wood-wood connections, sustainable types of wood and materials, and the reuse and recycling of components. Previously, Robeller has worked as a Junior Professor at the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University (RPTU), and as a Postdoc at the Swiss National Centre of Competence for Digital Fabrication (NCCR dfab) at ETH Zurich. He received a Doctor of Sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) and a Professional Diploma in Architecture with Distinction from London Metropolitan University. Robeller has received prizes such as the IASS Tsuboi Award and the Advances in Architectural Geometry Best Paper Award. Built structures include the Park Arena Furth (2025), the Castanea Sative Hypar in Friedberg (2025), Annen factory hall in Manternach (2020), Recycleshell Diemerstein (2019), and Lausanne Vidy Theater (2017).

Maria Yablonina is a researcher, designer, and artist working in the fields of computational design and digital fabrication. Their work focuses on the relationship between digital tools for computation and the analog material worlds that these tools interact with and operate within. Yablonina’s work aims to move beyond the narrative of absolute precision and computability towards the development of adaptive tools that can “deal” with the incomputable inaccuracies of complex material systems. Through this work, Yablonina argues for a design practice that moves beyond the design of objects towards the design of technologies and processes that enable new ways of both creating and interacting with spaces, technologies, and materials. Their work explores a broad range of technical and artistic methods, from code to ceramics, to machine design, to poetry. Yablonina is a cofounder of MAYB studio—an artist practice in collaboration with Mitchell Akiyama—an Assistant Professor at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design at the University of Toronto, and a faculty member of the Robotics Institute at the University of Toronto. Yablonina holds a PhD in Engineering and a Master of Science in Architecture from the University of Stuttgart.