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Theodora Vardouli is an architect and scholar of design in its entwining with digital technologies and computation. She holds a PhD in Design and Computation from the MIT Department of Architecture and is an Assistant Professor at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University where she directs the Computational Design Exploratory (CoDEx). She is an External Examiner for two graduate programs at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London and a member of the editorial board for the journal Technology, Architecture + Design (TAD). Vardouli’s research has received support from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture. She is also an Onassis, A.G. Leventis, and Fulbright Foundation scholar.
Vardouli’s research examines histories, cultural meanings, and operational implications of algorithmic techniques for architectural design through a combination of historical inquiry and critical design and making. She is co-editor, with Olga Touloumi, of Computer Architectures: Constructing the Common Ground (Routledge, 2020) and, with Daniel Cardoso Llach, of Designing the Computational Image (Applied Research and Design Publishing, forthcoming 2022) – a book based on the eponymous exhibition curated by Cardoso Llach (Pittsburgh 2017) and expanded in collaboration with Vardouli for Canada (Montreal 2021). Along with Cardoso Llach, Vardouli co-founded Lattice Space, a platform for critical and creative research at the nexus of design and computation. Vardouli is currently working on a monograph (under contract with the MIT Press), which examines postwar architecture’s relationship with mathematics with focus on the material and symbolic prevalence of graphs.
For a full list of publications, see here.
Background
PhD in Architecture: Design and Computation minor in Science and Technology Studies Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dissertation: Graphing Theory: New Mathematics, Design and the Participatory Turn (Advisor: George Stiny)
SMArchS in Design and Computation Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Thesis: Design for Empowerment for Design: Computational Structures for Design Democratization (Advisor: George Stiny).
Postgraduate Diploma in Design-Space-Culture National Technical University of Athens
Thesis: Designing (for) the Unpredictable: From Megastructure to Biostructure (Advisor: Dimitris Papalexopoulos)
Diploma in Architectural Engineering National Technical University of Athens