AIA Baltimore 2026 Lecture Series: Bio_lent Machines

AIA Baltimore Lecture Series: Bio_Lent Machines

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.

Learning Objectives: (HSW Pending) 

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.