AA Rio de Janeiro Visiting School

2011 – 2014

2013 TUTORS


Ricardo de Ostos is a parnter of Naja & Ostos http://naja-deostos.com, a London based architectural studio exploring symbiotic relations between emerging cultural patterns and architectural narratives. With a strong research based design focus attitude Nannette Jackowski and Ricardo de Ostos seek to generate an adventurous (and sometimes excitingly dangerous) but beneficial built environment through critical and challenging speculation. Their work is largely engaged in ambiguous situations within urban and social dynamics for which the studio explores alternative narrative-like scripts. Projects addressing catastrophic scenarios, contaminated landscapes, corporate fields and newborn cities are among the architect’s diversified portfolio. Although different in scope and scale, all their projects intend to craft a sense of place. From human-size installations to building-size architectural propositions to large-scale infrastructural projects NaJa & deOstos seeks to create an interwoven ecology of technology and culturally modified nature.

Lawrence Friesen studied at Dalhousie University, Canada, and worked at a number of architectural practices before setting up the Design Geometry studio at Buro Happold Engineers. In the past nine years he has been involved in a number of complex projects whose innovative realisation entailed digital fabrication. Architectural forms are designed, engineered and realised through a digital design process to engage with simulation software. Forms are translated into a material design process that is true to the intent of the design but have a spatial and material awareness that enhances the design realisation. Formerly he was a studio tutor at the AA graduate masters program Design Research Lab (DRL) and tutor to AA intermediate Unit 10. Currently teaching at the AAvisiting schools in Rome, Italy, and Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, he is also a practice principle for GenGeo consulting for architects and designers and is a design lead for design projects.

Franklin Lee is co-director (with Anne Save de Beaurecueil) of SUBdV architecture (www.subdv.com) which uses computation to generate environmentally responsive geometries for architecture and urban design projects worldwide. Franklin and Anne have previously taught at the Pratt Institute in New York, and received Master’s Degrees from Columbia University. They have published, exhibited and lectured about their work worldwide, including the Beijing Biennale, the Rotterdam Biennale, the Athens Synthasoris Exhibition, the London Festival of Architecture, and the Festival of Electronic Language (FILE) in São Paulo. The work of their AA Diploma Unit 2 (2005-2010) has been featured in AD, ArchiCree, and the AA Agendas 7 Articulated Grounds: Mediating Environment and Culture publication.

Lívia Diniz is a member of the Samba School for Kids Pimpolhos da Grande Rio’s artistic team and works with Art Direction for films, theater and events. Lívia studied at the Fine Arts School at Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University and develops costume and scenography projects combining carnival esthetics with visual arts, reused materials, social approaches and technology.


Ernesto Bueno holds a diploma in Architecture and Urban Studies from UCV, Caracas and earned a M.Arch in Genetic Architectures from ESARQ – UIC, Barcelona. Formerly a Computational Design Architect at Atelier UM+D, Curitiba, he is currently a Researcher at SimmLab – UFRGS, Porto Alegre, where he is studying for a MSc in Design & Technology. He is dedicated to research, teaching and disseminating generative modeling and digital fabrication in architecture and design. He is the editor of Parametricismo.

Victor Sardenberg works at SUBdV architecture (www.subdv.com) and is currently a fifth year student at the Instituto Presbiteriano Mackenzie, is a member of the research group Teo.Pro (Theory and Project in Digital Era) and of the artistic ensemble EPICAC Tropical. He focuses research on architecture, arts, sound installations and computation.