Keynote Speakers

Albena Yaneva is Professor of Architectural Theory and director of the Manchester Architecture Research Group (MARG) at the Manchester Urban Institute.

She has held many prestigious appointments including a Visiting Professorship at Princeton School of Architecture, Parsons Schools of Design, the Lise Meitner Visiting Chair in Architecture at the University of Lund, among others.

Her research is intrinsically transdisciplinary and crosses the boundaries of science studies, cognitive anthropology, architectural theory and political philosophy. She is the author of several books: 'The Making of a Building' (2009), 'Made by the OMA' (2009), 'Mapping Controversies in Architecture' (2012), 'Five Ways to Make Architecture Political' (2017), 'Crafting History' (2020), 'The New Architecture of Science' (2020 with Sir Kostya S. Novoselov), 'Latour for Architects' (2022) and 'Architecture After Covid' (2023).

Her work has been translated into nine different languages. Yaneva is the recipient of the RIBA President’s award for outstanding university research. 

Stig L. Andersson founded SLA in 1994. Having studied nuclear physics, Japanese culture, and chemistry before becoming an architect, Andersson graduated from The Royal Danish School of Architecture in 1986. 

Stig L. Andersson is SLA’s founding partner. Beginning as a (purely) landscape architectural practice, SLA has developed into an international interdisciplinary nature-based design studio. Renowned for his sensuous and poetic work, Andersson combines unique designs founded on the aesthetics of nature with cutting-edge sustainable city solutions and ecosystem services. 

Stig L. Andersson is a professor in aesthetic design at the University of Copenhagen and at the Beijing Forestry University. Andersson is a much sought-after lecturer and teacher at universities and architecture schools in Europe, Asia, and the United States. 

Stig L. Andersson has received numerous awards for his work, including the RIBA Award, the World Landscape Architecture Award, and the C.F. Hansen Medal – the highest national honour given to a Danish architect awarded by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark.

Tim Anstey is a professor in architectural history, and since 2013 the director of AHO’s ph.d. Programme. Anstey studied architecture at the University of Bath in England, graduating with a ph.d. on the work of Leon Battista Alberti in 2000. 

At AHO he lead the research project Things that Move (Swedish Research Council, 2013–2016) and has contributed to the OCCAS projects 'The Printed and the Built' (Norwegian Research Council FRPRO 2014–2017) and 'PRIARC Printing the Past. Architecture, print culture and uses of the past in modern Europe' (EU Hera, 2016–2019). He now leads AHO’s activities in the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions project TACK. Communities of Tacit Knowledge in Architecture (EU Horizon International Training Network, 2019–2023).

Anstey’s research interests lie at the interface between architectural authorship and technological process, with a special interest in how mediations in architecture effect those relationships.

Dr. Saija Hollmén is a Professor of Practice in Humanitarian Architecture at Aalto School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She is a co-founder and leader of the interdisciplinary Aalto WiTLAB (Aalto World in Transition Research LAB), which focuses on global sustainability and humanitarian challenges through cross-disciplinary research and pedagogy. She is responsible of the 'Interplay of Cultures' program, based at the Department of Architecture, dealing with architectural design and planning in cultures outside Europe. Her research, informed by her architectural practice in the Global South, focuses on cultural locality and interdisciplinary pedagogies in architectural education. 

Hollmén is also a co-founder of the award-winning Hollmén Reuter Sandman Architects and Ukumbi NGO, which aim at providing architectural services for communities in need. Their work has been widely exhibited, e.g, in the Venice Biennale in 2002, 2004 and 2016. Ukumbi was also awarded the Finnish State Award for Art in 2009 for its work for culturally sensitive and respectful architecture.